AI search is creating a new incentive system for media

Lakes of digital ink have been spilled on the topic of AI killing traffic to media sites. I’ve certainly poured my share. The basic fear: If your business depends on attracting as many eyeballs as possible to content on a website, AI will detour that gaze and point it toward its own summary of that content, resulting in far fewer people looking your way. There’s still a lot to be resolved with respect to the economics of AI scraping and how publishers will be compensated for that act. But however that plays out, it’s becoming clearer by the day that the battle for attention is slowly shifting to whose information is cited most prominently in an AI summary. AI presence isn’t a substitute for website traffic, but it’s the new proxy for relevance and authority. In my first column for Fast Company, I argued that the incentive system this creates is superior to the media environment of a decade ago, when search and social media were the dominant avenues of digital distribution. For more than a decade, media and marketing learned to chase engagement, which led to a fire hose of listicles, outrage bait, and formulaic informational pieces (“What time is the Super Bowl?” et al.). But if AI systems are the arena—and if they really do reward well-sourced, domain-specific content more than social heat—that could lead to a resurgence of good journalism, at least directionally. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/media-copilot.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/fe289316-bc4f-44ef-96bf-148b3d8578c1_1440x1440.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to \u003Cem\u003EThe Media Copilot\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for \u003Cem\u003EThe Media Copilot\u003C\/em\u003E. To learn