State of Product Launches: 2026 So Far
What 1,220 product launches on aat.ee in the first half of 2026 reveal — monthly cadence, the categories founders are building in, and where AI sits.
In the first half of 2026, 1,220 products launched on aat.ee, across a catalog of 1,445 live products. Here's what that data says about how much founders are shipping, when, and in which categories — and where AI actually sits in the mix.
Figures cover launches dated January 1 – June 2026 on aat.ee, as of publication. June is partial. Methodology is at the end.
Launch cadence
Launch volume stayed remarkably steady through the half — roughly 200 launches a month, with a dip in April and a strong late-spring rebound:
| Month | Launches |
|---|---|
| January | 200 |
| February | 232 |
| March | 193 |
| April | 116 |
| May | 240 |
| June (partial) | 239 |
The April dip and the May–June surge are the standout movements; otherwise founders shipped at a consistent ~200/month clip.
What founders are building
Launches by category (a product can span more than one category, so these overlap):
| Category | Launches (H1 2026) |
|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence | 543 |
| Productivity | 327 |
| Developer Tools | 226 |
| SaaS | 217 |
| Marketing Tools | 159 |
| Design Tools | 91 |
| Open Source | 63 |
| APIs & Integrations | 51 |
The takeaways
- AI is nearly half of everything. At 543 launches, Artificial Intelligence touches about 45% of H1 launches — comfortably the largest category and the throughline across most others.
- Builders are building for builders. Developer Tools (226), SaaS (217), and APIs & Integrations (51) show how much of the activity is infrastructure and tooling, not just end-user apps.
- Productivity stays evergreen. At 327, productivity remains the second-largest category — a reminder that "help people get more done" never goes out of style.
- Steady beats spiky. A consistent ~200 launches/month suggests a healthy, continuous pipeline rather than a few viral moments.
For founders, the signal is twofold: the categories above are crowded, so distribution and discoverability matter as much as the product — and with AI saturating the field, being the tool an assistant names is a real edge (see our GEO/AIEO guide).
Methodology
Counts are drawn from aat.ee's own launch records: products with a launched status and a scheduled launch date between 2026-01-01 and the end of June 2026. June is partial (through publication). Category totals count a product once per category it belongs to, so they sum to more than the total launch count. "Live products" counts everything currently launched or ongoing.
Building in one of these categories? List your product on aat.ee — and see the directory & GEO networks that help it get found.