The great AI paradox: who will generate content if no one visits it?

For years, the Internet has relied on an unwritten pact: creators provide high-quality open content, and in return, search engines direct visibility and traffic to them. This balance has been the foundation of the web as we know it: accessible, diverse, and alive.

But with the rise of generative summaries (AI Overviews) in search engines like Google—and what’s still to come (Google I/O dixit)—this pact has been broken. And so far, it has been broken unilaterally.

AI systems feed on web content to answer queries… but often no longer drive traffic. Users get a full answer directly within the search engine and don’t click. The visit never arrives. And so, the creator receives nothing in return.

The dilemma: why keep creating content if no one sees it?

This creates a serious paradox:

• If content stops being created, AI quality deteriorates.
• But if AI doesn’t return visibility, many creators will stop producing content.

This tension especially affects initiatives without direct commercial goals: personal blogs, small media outlets, educational projects, cultural or activist initiatives… All of them have created valuable content with the goal of being read. If that goal disappears, the content might disappear too.

Companies, on the other hand, still have incentives

LLMs mainly cover informational queries, and in navigational or transactional searches they act as a bridge or do not intervene. Therefore, brands and companies offering products or services still have reasons to maintain content strategies: if that content helps them build trust, generate leads, or sell, it’s still worthwhile. That said, they will have to work harder than ever to gain visibility in an environment with fewer and fewer clicks.

At La Teva Web, we are clear about it: SEO will remain essential, but it is evolving, and we must evolve with it. Being in the “top 3” will no longer be enough. We’ll have to be citable, trustworthy, and relevant. We must stand out in AI summaries or earn users’ trust so they decide to click.

We are heading towards a multiplatform SEO (in which AI SEO will be a key pillar), with stronger branding and link building strategies more PR-oriented than ever before. But always with the same foundations: quality, strategy, and structure.

Towards a new deal?

It’s time to rethink the rules of the game if we want to continue having quality content on the Internet and avoid digital ecosystem degradation. There are several options on the table:

1. Ensure AI drives traffic again. With more links, greater presence of sources, and more respectful formats.
2. Allow creators to restrict access. Some media outlets have already blocked AI crawlers or negotiated deals like El País with OpenAI.
3. Monetize access. For both AI and humans, through paywalls or licensing systems. It’s clear that ads within AI results will also arrive soon, as the current model is neither economically nor environmentally sustainable.

In any case, it is urgent to rebuild a new digital pact that sustains the content ecosystem. Because without creators, there will be no good answers either.