In early 2023, Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, began receiving urgent calls from media executives. His company protects about one-fifth of global internet traffic, so he was no stranger to critical incidents. "I asked, ‘Is it North Korea again?’" he recalls. "And they said, ‘No. It’s AI.’"
What initially seemed like an isolated anomaly soon became the new normal. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how people interact with the internet. Users increasingly get answers directly from chatbots instead of clicking through search results. For content owners, this means one thing: a steep drop in website traffic.
The New User Isn’t Human
OpenAI reports that ChatGPT has around 800 million users and remains a top-ranking app in the iPhone App Store. Notably, Apple acknowledged in April that Safari search volumes were declining. Instead of Google or Bing, more users are turning to chatbots. Rumors suggest OpenAI is working on its own browser. The shift is so dramatic that Hollywood is already developing a film about the rise of ChatGPT.
Google, which still controls about 90% of the U.S. search market, has rushed to adapt. In 2023, the company began adding AI summaries above results. By May 2024, it introduced an "AI mode"—a search interface built around conversational interaction. Its new slogan speaks volumes: "Let Google search for you."
But the model has a downside. According to Similarweb, global search traffic declined by roughly 15% year-on-year as of June. Some categories—historically reliable traffic sources—saw the sharpest declines: educational and academic websites fell by 10%, reference sites by 15%, and medical platforms by 31%.
Content Without Traffic
For media and educational platforms reliant on advertising and subscriptions, the trend translates into direct losses. "We had a great relationship with Google. But now they’ve broken the unspoken agreement," says Neil Vogel, CEO of Dotdash Meredith. Just three years ago, over 60% of traffic to his sites came from Google—today it’s down to 35%. "They’re using our own content to compete with us."
Google claims it operates under the principles of "fair use." Yet, according to Similarweb, the share of news-related queries where users don’t click on any links has risen from 56% to 69%. In other words, seven out of ten users now find answers directly in the search results—without ever visiting a website.
"AI is literally cutting off traffic from most content platforms," says Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow. The site has seen a decline not only in visits but also in user engagement. Wikipedia is sounding the alarm as well: when AI-generated answers don’t cite their sources, they divert both readers and potential contributors.
Protected—or Threatened—Content
In an effort to safeguard their interests, major media companies have begun signing licensing deals with AI developers—sometimes under legal pressure. News Corp, which owns the WSJ and NY Post, reached an agreement with OpenAI while simultaneously filing a lawsuit against its competitor, Perplexity. The New York Times took it further: after signing a deal with Amazon, it sued OpenAI directly.
The legal outlook remains uncertain. So far, courts have mostly sided with the AI companies. In June, two lawsuits in California were decided in favor of Meta and Anthropic, with judges ruling that training AI models on third-party content is permissible. President Trump appears to share that view—his administration recently dismissed the head of the Copyright Office after she questioned the legality of such practices.
AI developers are willing to pay for access to live data streams—but not for training datasets. Even major deals rarely save the underlying business model. Reddit, for example, licensed user content to Google for $60 million a year. Yet after reporting slower user growth, the company’s market capitalization dropped by $20 billion.
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You’re Too Small to Bargain
Smaller websites are in an even more vulnerable position. Their collective contribution to AI training is significant, but each one individually is easily replaceable. Collective action is restricted by antitrust law. Technically, blocking AI bots is possible—but doing so can make a site invisible in search results.
Infrastructure providers are trying to find a balance. Cloudflare, for instance, now lets clients decide whether to allow AI crawling—and for what purpose. The company is testing a "pay-as-you-crawl" model, charging bots for access. "It’s time to set the rules," says Matthew Prince. His idea: "Content should remain free for people, but AI should pay."
The startup Tollbit offers an alternative: websites can set their own prices—higher for fresh content, lower for archived material. In the first quarter of 2025, the system processed 15 million micropayments for 2,000 sites, including Associated Press and Newsweek. "Search engines reward generic queries like ‘When does the Super Bowl start?’," says Tollbit CEO Toshit Panigrahi. "Paid access encourages uniqueness."
Another startup, ProRata—founded by internet advertising pioneer Bill Gross—proposes sharing ad revenue from AI-generated answers with the original content providers. Its system, Gist.ai, already partners with over 500 outlets, including the Financial Times and The Atlantic. It’s still early days, but Gross believes: "This is a model others can follow."
The Age Without Traffic
Media outlets are adapting. Stack Overflow is expanding corporate subscriptions. There’s growing interest in newsletters, mobile apps, and live events. Video and audio remain harder for AI to analyze—both technically and legally. According to Similarweb, when AI does link out, it still most often leads to YouTube.
Google, however, doesn’t believe the web is dying. "This is a growth phase," says Robbie Stein. According to the company, the number of websites has grown 45% over the past two years. New formats now let users scan a bookshelf and receive personalized recommendations.
Google does not disclose click-through data but insists there’s no decline. The company suggests that lower traffic may be due to increased time spent on social media or podcasts.
Predictions about the "death of the web" are nothing new—first came social media, then mobile apps. But AI could pose the most serious challenge yet. "Users clearly prefer AI search," admits Bill Gross. "If we want to preserve the internet, protect democracy, and support creators, AI has to share the revenue."
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