What an AI-first content strategy looks like

Google is no longer a dependable source of audience. Media brands can't simply adjust tactics—they must play an entirely new game.

Summer usually means schedules slow down for, you know, people, but it’s shaping up to a hot season for bots. Or at least bot news: After making bot blocking the default on its network, Cloudflare this week published a report that accuses Perplexity of evading bot detection with “stealth” techniques. I’ll attack that story later this week, but it touches on how scraping and bot activity will be a major factor in media strategy going forward.

I’ll dive into what content strategy in an AI world looks like in a bit, but a quick announcement: You can still save big on The Media Copilot’s AI courses for journalists and PR professionals. For the next two days, you can get 25% off the sticker price if you use the code AIJO25OFF-SEP (Journalists) or AIPR25OFF-FL1 (PR pros). And if you’ve got a team of 3 or more, get in touch (or hit reply) and we can give you a group rate for even more savings.

Here’s a little more detail on all that, then let’s talk AI content strategy.

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A MESSAGE FROM THE MEDIA COPILOT AND THE UPGRADE

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Can the media make AI work for them? (Credit: Midjourney)

How to build content strategy for an AI-mediated future

A wave of anxiety is sweeping through the media landscape. The threat posed by AI has loomed large for several years, but it is now becoming tangible. Publishers are reporting that search traffic is in free-fall, and there's overwhelming evidence that AI chatbots give very little in terms of referrals. What to do about "Google Zero" has gone from a theoretical destination to a reality the media world must contend with.

Of course, panicking is never a good strategy. But pivoting can be, and there's been no shortage of that lately. Both Wired and The Verge recently announced a stronger push into newsletters, which remain among the most reliable ways to build direct connections with readers. When Business Insider recently announced layoffs, it also signaled an increased commitment to live events. And even publishers that already charge for subscriptions are doubling down on them: Newsweek is launching new offerings for both consumers and businesses, while The Guardian introduced a lower-priced tier for readers who opt out of personalized ads.

The other way to monetize AI summaries

While AI may be prompting many of these changes, they all directionally move toward deepening direct relationships with audience members. That's a smart approach, but at a more basic level, these strategies cater to human desires that go beyond just getting information—a task AI handles quite effectively. Newsletters, memberships, and events foster a sense of community, encourage consistent reading habits, and emphasize distinctive voices—either that of the brand or the individual writer.

Within this shift lies the seed of a post-Google content strategy. However, it's only half a strategy because it only accounts for humans. Increasingly, internet traffic will be driven by bots, whether gathering data to train AI models or acting as individual user agents. Data from TollBit already suggests bot crawling is already close to the same level what the big (non-AI) search engines do—when everyone has their own AI agent, I would wager it will be the majority. A truly forward-looking content strategy must therefore consider both humans and machines.

The human factor

Let's start with the people. A few months back, I hosted a webinar discussing content types most resistant to AI summarization. AI effectively summarizes news but struggles with distinctive voices and perspectives. As a result, readers seeking quality opinion and analysis will likely continue to click through. Visual and interactive content also translates poorly through AI. And because AI can occasionally hallucinate, readers in the process of making critical decisions—think health, legal, or financial—will be inclined to verify information with original sources.