- Websites Risk Losing Brand Position and Authority If They Don’t Leverage AI
- AI-based discovery may not even allow a user to access the actual website.
- Increased governance over outright bans is the solution
A new Hostinger study of more than 66 billion bot requests across five million websites has revealed how ingrained AI has become in our search habits and how important it is for businesses to engage in optimizations beyond traditional SEO.
The report finds that companies that block AI bots to protect their intellectual property risk losing control over how AI assistants interpret their content, while weakening their brand position.
Hostinger explained the shift in internet discovery, where AI assistants summarize and recommend products and services without users necessarily needing to navigate to the website.
Is AI replacing traditional search?
“Among the 66.7 billion records, one message stands out: AI crawlers are rapidly increasing their reach, even as AI training bots face growing resistance from content creators,” Hostinger wrote.
There is a clear reluctance to accept training bots, with coverage of the GPTBot website dropping from 84% in August to 12% in November. Meta’s ExternalAgent also fell from 60% to 41%. On the other hand, OpenAI’s SearchBot and Applebot crawlers have increased their coverage.
Despite the growing activity of AI crawlers, traditional search bots have remained fairly stable, leading Hostinger to speculate that AI “adds a new layer of decision-making on top.” [traditional search]” instead of replacing it – good news for Google, whose discovery covers both traditional search and AI chatbots.
For publishers and content sites, Hostinger explained that website owners may want to increase the visibility of AI assistant responses by using tools like Web2Agent and llms.txt files.
“The real risk for businesses is not access to AI itself, but the loss of control over how pricing, positioning and value are presented when decisions are made,” added Tomas Rasymas, head of AI.
Looking ahead, the report calls for better governance of outright bans, so website owners can ensure they are discovered in emerging AI channels without losing their brand position.
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