New data is reinforcing a structural shift in how AI systems access publisher content: AI models are increasingly scraping publisher content, regardless of bot-blocking measures or content licensing deals meant to control usage, improve attribution or drive referral traffic.
New research from analytics firms and bot-tracking companies shows AI tools are increasingly crawling publisher sites as inputs for AI-generated summaries and training, while sending back only limited referral traffic.
The result is a traffic imbalance, but also a redefinition of how publishers’ content is used — less as destinations for readers, and more as infrastructure for AI products they can’t control.
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