As AI content floods the web, marketers face a growing visibility problem
When a blog post written by AI costs about $131 and a human one runs $611, you can see why marketers are reaching for the robot. That’s the latest from Ahrefs, which found that while AI content is drastically cheaper, it’s not actually replacing human writers; it’s just multiplying the output. Over half of the companies surveyed said they plan to increase their AI content budgets, but only 38% are cutting back on freelancers. So instead of swapping out writers, brands are just pushing more content out the door.
This is especially true in sectors where scale is king—think enterprise SaaS or high-churn ecomm. AI lets teams publish faster, test more, and fill every content gap they can find. But here’s the catch: most AI budgets are still pretty modest. Sixty-four percent of users spend under $500 a month on tools like Jasper or ChatGPT. That’s not exactly breaking the bank, but it’s enough to flood the web with content that, let’s be honest, may or may not be getting read.
The Rise of AI Bots
And that brings us to the weirder part.
According to another Ahrefs report, the second most active group crawling websites right now isn’t people, or even Google; it’s AI bots. GPTBot, Amazonbot, and a few other lesser-known crawlers are now responsible for nearly a quarter of all bot traffic online. Only traditional search engine bots crawl more. But unlike Googlebot, which at least sends back some traffic, these AI bots extract content without giving anything in return. No clicks, no referrals, no attribution. Just… vacuum.
This one-way relationship is starting to wear thin. More sites are blocking AI bots entirely, especially when the crawl behavior is inefficient or borderline abusive. And you can’t really blame them. If you’re spending time and money building out AI-assisted content, only for it to be scraped and repackaged without credit—or worse, used to train a competitor’s model—that’s not a great trade. Ahrefs is pushing for the adoption of IndexNow and other standards to make AI crawling less extractive and more transparent. But until those systems are widely adopted, marketers are stuck in a strange loop; producing more content for an audience that might not even be human.
The Visibility Problem
Let’s be clear. This isn’t just a technical issue; it’s a visibility issue. If AI bots are your biggest readers, then the ROI on all that scaled-up content starts to look a little fuzzy. You might be winning the volume game, but losing the attention war. And in a search landscape where zero-click results are becoming the norm, and Google’s own AI is answering questions right in the SERP, it’s getting harder to justify content that doesn’t drive traffic.
Speaking of which, that zero-click trend? It’s not going away. Ahrefs points out that Google is answering more queries directly, especially with its AI Overviews. That means fewer people are clicking through to actual websites. So even if you’re ranking, you might not be getting the visibility you think you are.
The Bigger Question
All of this adds up to a pretty uncomfortable question: what happens when content becomes cheap, abundant, and largely unread? You’re not just publishing; you’re investing in content that might never be seen. And while AI can help you publish faster, it can’t guarantee that anyone’s paying attention. That still takes strategy, distribution, and yeah, sometimes a human touch.
Quick Hits Before You Go
HubSpot’s new take on growth marketing for 2025 is worth a skim. It’s all about rapid iteration, product-led growth, and multichannel plays that don’t rely solely on paid ads. Basically, if your funnel hasn’t evolved since 2019, it’s time.
Influencer marketing is shifting toward smaller creators with tighter communities. HubSpot again—this time with a piece on why
micro-influencers and authenticity are outperforming the mega-fame crowd. Also, more brands are demanding real ROI tracking, not just vibes and vanity metrics.
That’s it for today, folks.
Catch you in the next post.
Until then, keep building.
– Perfect Sites Blog