People are increasingly turning away from traditional search engines, such as Google, in favor of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT. This monumental shift is giving rise to a new breed of bots that are now prevalent on the web. These AI-powered bots are designed to provide users with concise summaries, steering away from the conventional list of search results that typically appears on Google. Companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are spearheading this change, deploying bots that can gather and condense content in real time by scraping web pages and absorbing a tremendous amount of information—far beyond what a human could process in a similar timeframe.
Recent data shared exclusively with The Washington Post indicates that traffic generated from retrieval bots surged by 49% in the first quarter of 2025, compared to the last quarter of 2024. This data comes from TollBit, a New York-based start-up that specializes in helping news publishers monitor AI usage of their content. TollBit’s findings, based on an analysis of 266 websites, half of which represent national and local news organizations, reveal an exponential growth trend in the use of bots that fetch information in response to AI prompts.
Toshit Panigrahi, CEO and co-founder of TollBit, emphasizes the far-reaching implications of this trend. It’s clear that while initial impacts may be seen primarily by publishers, the ramifications extend to virtually every online entity. Panigrahi notes that while bots are facilitating a boom in content access, they are simultaneously detracting from the traffic that human users would ordinarily contribute to news sites and other platforms. He points out that even though human visitations to websites have declined, the total amount of content being accessed is on an upward trajectory.
A spokesperson for OpenAI has indicated that while the quantity of referral traffic from ChatGPT searches may not be as high, it often reflects a stronger user intent compared to more casual web browsing behaviors. As the landscape shifts, Panigrahi asserts that websites will need to adapt their strategies to cater to AI visitors rather than focusing solely on human users. However, monetizing content amid rising AI usage is fraught with challenges. Compensating publishers for their content becomes complex, particularly as prominent players in the field argue that scraping online data constitutes fair use.
The crux of the debate revolves around the extensive amounts of text necessary to train AI models that support tools like ChatGPT. To gather this data, tech companies deploy bots to scrape publicly available online content. This practice has led to numerous lawsuits alleging copyright infringement from authors and media corporations, including a notable case initiated by The New York Times against OpenAI. Conversely, some publishers, such as The Washington Post, have sought to establish licensing agreements to mitigate potential disputes.
Over the last eight months, the evolution of chatbots has introduced capabilities like web search and complex reasoning, which have dramatically increased bot traffic. According to TollBit’s report, retrieval bot traffic has grown at a rate 2.5 times greater than that of bots designed for training data scraping. Nevertheless, Panigrahi suggests that the data from TollBit may still fall short of capturing the full extent of this change, as it does not account for bots sent out by AI companies acting on behalf of users to perform tasks such as online orders.
As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, the structure of the modern internet, currently optimized for Google search results and social media algorithms, may need to undergo a transformation. The need for a more AI-friendly web could mean that publishers significantly alter their approach to content creation and distribution.
With more than 2,000 clients relying on its analytics platform, TollBit offers a critical service to news publishers navigating these tectonic shifts. Although sites can implement measures to block certain AI bots from scraping, TollBit found that over 26 million AI scrapes circumvented these protections within just one month. Some AI companies contend that their bots, which function on behalf of users, do not need to adhere to typical bot protocols.
Mark Howard, the COO of Time and a client of TollBit, shared that the analytics provided by the start-up have also been pivotal in negotiations concerning content licensing deals with AI firms, including OpenAI. However, he emphasized the ongoing challenges in establishing a fair compensation framework for publishers. He states that the reality is quite stark: “The vast majority of AI bots out there absolutely are not sourcing the content through any kind of paid mechanism. There is a very, very long way to go.”
In conclusion, the ascendancy of AI bots and their impact on web traffic presents both challenges and opportunities for content creators and publishers. The rise of these tools signals a shift in user behavior, evolving expectations, and the very fabric of online content consumption. As the landscape reshapes, it’s imperative for publishers to innovate and rethink their strategies to not only adapt to AI visitors but to also carve out a fair path for monetization in this brave new world. With the rapidly changing dynamics of web traffic and user intent, the future of online content remains uncertain, but the possibilities for evolution and growth are vast.
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