Business
The invisible heist: How AI is stealing from newsrooms
Predictions about the end of journalism have emerged time and again. From the rise of the internet to the explosion of social media, each disruption seemed poised to bring the industry to its knees. Yet journalism survived. It adapted.
What it faces now, however, is a different kind of threat — not another medium, not another platform, but a system that consumes journalism’s value without acknowledgement or return.
This is not some distant future. It is already happening. And the consequences are reshaping how people receive and interpret information.
The architecture of disappearance
When someone searches for information about a recent event, they increasingly receive summaries directly from tools like Google’s AI Overview, without needing to visit the original reporting.
Data from Ahrefs, based on 300,000 keywords, shows that the presence of Google’s AI Overview reduces click-through rates to news websites by over a third. Even major outlets such as The New York Times have seen their share of organic search traffic fall from 44% to just over 36% in only three years.
This is not merely a shift in traffic patterns. Search engines, which once served as conduits guiding readers towards publishers, are becoming destinations themselves. They summarise content, keep users within their own platforms, and reduce the incentive to visit the source. The $80 billion SEO market — built on the value of ranking high in search results — is now facing an existential threat.
As a venture capital firm, a16z recently noted, we are witnessing the rise of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), where visibility means being included directly in the AI-generated answer, rather than ranking highly on a search results page. This fundamentally alters the logic of content strategy and the function of traditional search engines.
While search engines once monetised their role by placing ads alongside results, AI models rely on subscription-based systems that have no incentive to drive traffic back to original publishers. If your content does not directly enhance the model’s output, it may simply vanish from the information ecosystem.
Josh Miller, creator of the Arc browser and now working on Dia browser, argues that traditional browsers themselves are becoming obsolete. He suggests chat interfaces are already functioning like browsers: they search, read, generate, and respond.
So, the goal is not to replace web pages, but to create a hybrid model in which the browser and AI chat interface are seamlessly integrated. Instead of clicking through multiple sources, a user might simply ask Dia to “find me the latest news about renewable energy in Bangladesh and summarise the key policy changes”.
This suggests that the entire pipeline of content consumption is being rewritten from the ground up.
The economics of invisibility
This transformation strikes at the heart of how journalism has sustained itself in the digital age. The model was simple: produce high-quality content, draw readers to your site, and monetise that attention through advertising or subscriptions. AI-powered answer engines short-circuit this process.
As researchers at a16z highlight, a new kind of brand strategy is emerging — one that considers not only public perception but how content is perceived by AI systems. If your reporting does not improve the model’s output, you may disappear from public view entirely.
News Corp recently announced a $250 million licensing deal with OpenAI over five years, giving the AI company access to content from The Wall Street Journal and other properties. While this may appear to be a solution, such partnerships are rare and disproportionately favour large, well-established publishers.
For most media outlets — especially smaller, local organisations — the outlook is far more worrying. Their content is often scraped, processed and repackaged by AI systems without compensation, while the platforms that once delivered their audiences are now being replaced by AI interfaces that retain users within their own ecosystems.
The irony is clear: AI systems become smarter and more valuable by ingesting journalistic content, but their success threatens to dismantle the very financial foundations that enable journalism in the first place.
Responses and impacts
Some publishers have begun to fight back. A few have signed licensing agreements; others are blocking AI crawlers or exploring legal recourse. Some are experimenting with AI within their own platforms. AFP, for instance, has partnered with Mistral AI to give its conversational assistant, Le Chat, access to its news archive, aiming to provide timely and accurate responses rooted in verified reporting.
ProRata, a new startup, is working on a compensation model that tracks which sources contribute to an AI’s output and distributes payments accordingly. Other efforts attempt to preserve the connection between the reader and the reporter by embedding visible citations in AI-generated summaries.
Yet these remain isolated and early-stage responses. The dominant AI companies have little incentive to redesign systems that already serve them well.
This shift also has cultural and cognitive consequences.
When information is delivered in pre-synthesised formats, users may lose the habit of contextual or critical reading. While AI-generated responses are fast and convenient, they often flatten complex narratives, omit nuance or introduce subtle errors.
After the recent plane crash in Ahmedabad, for example, Google’s AI Overview incorrectly identified the aircraft as an Airbus when it was, in fact, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This error appeared at the top of the search results — likely the only version most users would see. Under older models, people might have clicked through to articles that issued corrections. Now, the AI’s version becomes ‘the’ version.
What is next?
The path forward does not lie in rejecting AI altogether. That moment has passed. But there is an urgent need to design systems that acknowledge and support the sources of their information. AI must not replace but reinforce the relationship between journalism and the public.
Publishers need to act swiftly. They must learn from experimental models and adopt strategies that align with their own contexts. AI can assist in organising and distributing information, but the essential work of reporting, questioning, and verification must remain in human hands.
Audiences, too, must be equipped to understand what makes journalism essential. If information arrives fully summarised, readers may stop checking for context, sources or accuracy. Over time, this weakens the very habits that sustain public knowledge. Previous shifts — from print to digital — at least preserved a direct link between journalists and their readers. AI, however, risks severing that connection entirely.
This is not merely about the survival of newsrooms. It is about protecting a societal function upon which democracy depends. AI can deliver swift responses — but it cannot attend court proceedings, investigate corruption, or report with empathy and context.
The labour behind journalism must be acknowledged, supported and protected. If we allow that connection to erode, the architecture of public knowledge may begin to crumble. The moment to act is now, while we still have the means and the clarity to do so.
Usama Rafid is currently a researcher at the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB), where he studies the intersection of media business and technology.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
For Gartner vice president analyst DD Mishra, WNS’s investments in intelligent automation, analytics, and agentic solutions including its TRAC analytics suite and Malkom knowledge management platform will complement Capgemini’s existing technology and consulting strengths.
Sharath Srinivasamurthy, research vice president at IDC, pointed to the acquisitions WNS has itself made in recent months, including Kipi.ai, Smart Cube, and OptiBuy to enhance its data, analytics, and procurement stack and extend its proficiency in business process operations, said.
However, Rajesh Ranjan, managing partner at Everest Group, views the WNS acquisition as more of a strategic play rather than being focused on garnering more agentic tools or capabilities.
Locafy’s AI Search Platform Powers Visibility Across Organic and AI Search
New Product Lineup Tailored to Local, National, and e-Commerce Businesses
AI-Powered Tools Designed to Automate Engagement and Accelerate Online Presence
PERTH, Australia, July 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Locafy Limited (NASDAQ: LCFY, “Locafy”), a globally recognized leader in location-based digital marketing, today unveiled its FY26 suite of AI-powered SEO products. These solutions, now commercially available following successful market testing, are designed to deliver measurable improvements across organic, AI, and marketplace search results.
Locafy initially outlined its AI-powered publishing roadmap in December 2024, promising to streamline content production and improve cost-effective online visibility for businesses.
“We are excited to announce that we’ve delivered on that promise,” said Gavin Burnett, CEO of Locafy.
All of Locafy’s publishing and SEO products are designed to drive visibility in search engines and, increasingly, AI-driven search tools and marketplaces. Recent research shows these optimizations extend across both traditional and emerging search platforms.
“We’ve evolved our technology to influence not only search engine rankings but also AI search results,” said Burnett. “Our platform helps position our clients’ websites as authoritative sources for high-value keywords, across local, national, and e-commerce campaigns.”
Burnett added, “We’ve also automated the creation of AI-search-ready landing pages, opening up a greenfield opportunity for scaled monetization. Our U.S. directory includes more than 9.68 million direct business listings, and our citation management partners publish more than 28 million business listings across our directories. Each of these represents either a direct sales opportunity or a chance to collaborate with partners using the data we already publish on their behalf.”
Locafy is focused on three primary solution categories:
- Online Business Listings
- Local SEO
- AI-powered engagement tools
Online Business Listings
Locafy continues to assert that online business listings form the cornerstone of successful Local SEO. These listings supply structured data that fuels automated SEO product generation. Locafy currently publishes more than 9.5 million listings in the U.S. and remains focused on partnerships with citation management firms and multi-location businesses. It is also exploring acquisitions of databases, directories, and citation management assets.
The Total Addressable Market (TAM) for the Local SEO solution in their key target markets of USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK is more than 40 million businesses.
“We currently host more than 63 million business listings worldwide, of which more than 40 million are in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK,” said Burnett. “However, our direct sales opportunity is more than 11.4 million, plus we have more than 28 million listings that we publish on behalf of partners, who can now connect to our Platform to automate the production of our Local SEO products for their clients.”
| Country | Partner Added* | Claimed* |
| Australia | 2,145,707 | 652,351 |
| Canada | 1,533,479 | 289,274 |
| United Kingdom | 3,458,205 | 802,003 |
| United States of America | 33,076,154 | 9,684,329 |
| TOTAL | 40,213,545 | 11,427,957 |
Local SEO
The flagship solution, Localizer, integrates listing syndication, AI-search optimization, review management, and Google Map Pack enhancement.
“We haven’t seen another product that combines these capabilities—at a price point starting around
AI-powered Engagement Tools
In addition to improving search visibility, Locafy has developed a scalable, cost-effective AI Voice Concierge that can serve as a virtual receptionist, product expert, or customer service agent.
“This is our first step into AI-enabled customer engagement,” said Burnett. “Our Voice Concierge acts like a digital team member—it can take bookings, provide answers, and interact 24/7. Just feed it your business documents and it learns. We record and transcribe every interaction, giving clients full transparency.
“This kind of capability once felt like science fiction, but it’s here now—and Locafy is helping businesses adapt and thrive in an AI-powered world.”
Over the past six months, Locafy has streamlined its product suite, automated key production processes, and validated product performance through live testing. With this foundation in place, the Company is poised for commercial growth in FY2026.
While the company still offers solutions for National SEO and e-Commerce, it believes the immediate opportunity afforded by its breakthroughs in AI Search represents a larger and more scalable revenue opportunity with far greater automation already in place.
About Locafy
Locafy (Nasdaq: LCFY, LCFYW) is a globally recognized software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company specializing in local search engine marketing. Founded in 2009, Locafy’s mission is to revolutionize the US
Investor Relations Contact:
Matt Glover
Gateway Group, Inc.
(949) 574-3860
LCFY@gateway-grp.com
Apple has launched an appeal against an “unprecedented” €500m (£430m) fine imposed by the EU on the company, in the latest clash between US tech companies and Brussels.
The iPhone maker accused the European Commission – the EU’s executive arm – of going “far beyond what the law requires” in a dispute over its app store.
In April, the commission fined Apple €500m after finding the company had breached the Digital Markets Act by preventing app developers from steering users to cheaper deals outside the app store.
Last month, Apple overhauled its app store rules to comply with the EU order to scrap its technical and commercial curbs on developers in order to avoid fines of 5% of its average daily worldwide revenue, or about €50m a day.
As a result Apple introduced new fee structures for developers using its app store. On Monday, Apple accused Brussels of making it deploy “confusing” business terms in order to avoid the threat of fines.
“Today we filed our appeal because we believe the European Commission’s decision – and their unprecedented fine – go far beyond what the law requires,” said Apple, announcing an appeal to the general court, the second highest court in the EU. “As our appeal will show, the EC is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users.”
Apple also accused the commission of unlawfully expanding the definition of “steering” – or the language and methods the company allows developers to use when guiding consumers outside its app stores.
The company said officials on Brussels had changed the definition by, for instance, not just focusing on whether app developers should be allowed to link to an external website, but also on whether developers should be permitted to promote offers inside an app.
Donald Trump’s senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, has accused the EU of using “lawfare” against big US tech companies, describing the use of regulations against American companies such as Apple and Meta as part of a barrage of “non-tariff weapons” used for by foreign states against the US.
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, said in April that the EU will not rip up its tech rules in an attempt to agree a trade deal with the US. In January, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of the Facebook owner Meta, accused the EU of “institutionalising censorship” via its digital rules.
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Trump has set a 9 July deadline to seal a trade deal with the bloc – with the threat of imposing a 50% tariff on EU imports into the US if agreement is not reached.
Tom Smith, a competition lawyer at Geradin Partners and a former legal director at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, said Apple “fundamentally hates” attempts to change its app store.
“The blunt truth is that it is worth spending a few million on legal fees in order to disrupt and delay the development of a more open app ecosystem, which is a market that is worth many billions a year to Apple,” he said.
The European Commission has been approached for comment.
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