GenAI sources are becoming powerful gatekeepers of web traffic

The news: By the end of 2026, generative AI could rival paid ads as a source of website traffic.

• Sensor Tower predicts that more than half of top websites will get more traffic from genAI than from paid sources by the end of next year.
• In October 2025, more than one-third (37%) of the top US websites already received more traffic from genAI sources than from paid sources.

The median top 1,000 websites currently get about 0.1% of their traffic from genAI sources, compared with a median of 0.3% from paid sources. While both shares remain small, genAI-driven traffic to those sites grew more than 130% YoY in October. As the genAI user base continues to grow, that traffic will likely increase.

Why it matters: Paid traffic tends to be more volatile and concentrated on major advertisers—such as top retailers like Shein and Temu—while genAI provides baseline traffic to a wider range of sites, per Sensor Tower.

Distribution of web traffic could become more balanced as genAI becomes a dominant driver. This shift could reduce reliance on ad spend, give smaller publishers more visibility, and force big advertisers to rethink traffic acquisition strategies.

What marketers should do: As AI assistants increasingly answer queries with sourced links, marketers need to optimize for AI-driven discovery, not just search algorithms and paid media.

• Influence AI outputs through generative engine optimization (GEO) to gain an advantage long before ad budgets change.
• Monitor for ad tech releases from AI platforms that introduce paid placements directly within chatbot conversations.
• Add FAQs, clean metadata on products, and concise explanations on sites that models can easily read and cite.
• Frequently update content to maximize chances of surfacing, given large language models’ (LLMs) preference for fresh web content.