Bing to Publishers on how AI Chat will increase traffic, revenue

Bing has revealed the plans it has to increase revenue and traffic to publisher websites amidst growing concerns of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and AI-powered search decreasing website traffic and revenue.

Publishers’ concerns with AI-Powered Search and Chat Answers

Several publishers have raised concerns about AI tools like GPT using their content for free to generate results without driving traffic to their websites. For instance, AI chatbots like Bing Chat and Google’s Bard can provide answers to users without them leaving the search page.

Bing has acknowledged that is aware of the publisher’s concerns. In a blog post published on March 29, 2023, Bing says that publishers are a great player in the internet ecosystem. The ecosystem consists of three main players; users searching for content, publishers that create content, and advertisers who target users visiting publisher sites for information. Eliminating any player from the ecosystem puts the future of the internet at risk. 

Bing says that the introduction of AI chat answers and search results has addressed the long-standing challenges of providing relevant search results for simple and complex searches. With New Bing, it is now easier and quicker to find answers.

The next step is to find a solution for the second player who is the publisher.

Bing AI Chat Ads and Answers benefits for publishers

The first solution to decreasing publisher website traffic that Bing promises to provide is to always include citations in the body and footer of chat answers that link to the publisher’s website.  Below is a preview of how the citations will look like.

Second, Bing has met with publishers to explore ways through which it can continue to use content to generate answers and drive traffic to publishers’ websites.

Lastly, Microsoft is exploring including ads in chat answers and then share revenue with licensed partners.