AI Chatbots Send 96% Less Traffic to Publishers Than Search Engines
AI chatbots reportedly send far less traffic to publisher websites than traditional search engines despite AI companies' promises to benefit publishers. Chegg sued Google, alleging its AI Overview feature has profoundly harmed the company's ad revenue by presenting summarized content that discourages users from clicking through to the original site.
What happened
According to data from TollBit, AI chatbots sent 96 percent less traffic to publishers' websites than traditional search engines during the fourth quarter of 2024. TollBit analyzed metrics for 160 news and blogging publishers and found that AI companies' bots scraped those sites an average of two million times during the quarter, with each page scraped around seven times on average.
Although AI chatbots include links to original source sites and summarize information from those sites, users have no reason to visit the links because answers appear directly in the chatbot results. Perplexity was accused of ignoring sites' efforts to block AI scrapers and continuing to scrape content, including paywalled content, without permission.
Reported impact
Publishers receive zero ad revenue from bot clicks, since bot traffic does not generate money for advertisers. Chegg, an edtech company, filed a lawsuit alleging that Google has 'profoundly' harmed the publisher's ad revenue by including its content in Google's AI Overview feature.
Chegg CEO Nathan Schultz stated that 'traffic is being blocked from ever coming to Chegg, because of Google's AIO and their use of Chegg's content to keep visitors on their own platform.' Schultz admitted during an earnings call that the damage to Chegg's bottom line is so severe the company is considering going private or being acquired.
Index analysis
AI companies promised that AI chatbots would provide tangible gains to media companies that partner with them, contrary to what the TollBit data shows. Chegg's lawsuit argues that Google's AI Overviews represent a 'threat to the internet,' as articulated by Ian Crosby, a partner at the Susman Godfrey law firm representing Chegg.
Governance controls
AI companies addressed publisher concerns about traffic loss by including attribution links to the websites whose data served as the basis for chatbot responses. However, these measures have proven ineffective at directing traffic to publisher sites.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.