The best trend-discovery tools in 2026

Short answer

For spotting rising topics and categories, Exploding Topics and Glimpse lead on curated trend signals, and Google Trends is the free baseline for search interest. AI Trends is the option focused specifically on product discovery through AI search — what ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity are pointing shoppers toward.

Trend-discovery tools help you catch a wave early. Some track search interest, some curate rising topics from many signals, and some — like AI Trends — focus on where discovery is moving next: shoppers asking AI assistants what to buy.

This is an honest roundup: each tool is described by what it publicly does, and AI Trends (that's us) is included as the AI-search-native option.

How we think about this list

What it tracks — search interest, curated topic signals, or AI-search discovery.
How early and how specific its signal is (macro topic vs specific product).
Transparency about data sourcing.

Exploding Topics

curated trend discovery

Rising topics and categories surfaced before they go mainstream.

Now part of Semrush; strong editorial trend lists.

Glimpse

trend data & forecasting

Quantifying and forecasting trends, with a Google Trends enhancer.

Google Trends

search-interest data

A free, reliable baseline for relative search interest over time.

AI Trends

That’s us

AI-search product discovery

Sellers who want to see which products are getting traffic from AI search — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot — rather than from social ads alone.

Free catalog browsing; you only pay for metered live searches. US & UK, refreshed monthly with clearly-labelled estimates.

This is our own roundup, and AI Trends is one of the tools on it. Every tool is described at the level of its publicly stated positioning — no scores, no ratings, no paid placement. Details can change, so check each tool's current site before deciding.

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