Google Analytics 4 has added a native way to identify traffic from recognized AI assistants. From May 13, 2026, GA4's Default Channel Group includes an AI Assistant channel, giving qualifying visits a dedicated medium, channel grouping and campaign value. The change makes it easier for marketers to see traffic from tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Deepseek, Copilot and Grok in standard acquisition reporting, rather than relying solely on custom rules.
The new classification is important because AI assistants can increasingly influence how people discover websites. Until now, teams that wanted to isolate this traffic often had to build and maintain regex-based custom channel definitions. GA4's native grouping reduces that work for recognized sources, but it is not a complete solution to every AI-related attribution problem.
What GA4's AI Assistant measurement changes
Google documents the new channel in its GA4 Default Channel Group definitions. For visits GA4 recognizes as coming from an AI assistant, the platform applies three specific traffic-dimension values:
Traffic dimension
