The AI Boom and the Future of News: Lessons from Silicon Valley

In the early 2000s, I closely witnessed the dot-com bubble burst. After spending a week in San Francisco and Silicon Valley visiting AI companies alongside a group of news industry leaders, I can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu.

Now, I know I’m not the first to draw this comparison. There are obvious and striking resemblances. But I would argue that there are also two major differences:

1. The potential feels even bigger.
2. The incumbents are much better prepared. 

While we have to be realistic about the sustainability of some of these new AI businesses and ask if this bubble will burst too, I’m incredibly optimistic about the long-term impact of AI. 

The WAN-IFRA AI Study Tour gave me some fresh insights, and I want to share my key takeaways with you in this post. 

1. How We Find Information is Changing  

AI’s ability to process information is mind-boggling. But having access to this data is only half the battle. The real challenge is figuring out how to surface it effectively. People increasingly don’t just want links; they want answers. Enter the AI ‘Answer Machine’.

Perplexity has been the leading innovator. OpenAI and Google are rapidly catching up. At OpenAI, I saw how ChatGPT Search is becoming a conversational, intent-driven tool, a big leap beyond traditional search engines. 

We have to reinvent ourselves in this post-social, post-search, and post-link world.

Emilio Garcia-Ruiz

Editor-in-Chief, San Francisco Chronicle

This shift creates new challenges for publishers. Will we have to start thinking about GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) or AMO (Answer Machine Optimization) in addition to SEO? It also means building direct relationships with your audience is more crucial than ever. In a world without links, there won’t be any referral traffic either. You need people to come to you directly, so you can build revenue streams you control. And the unanswered question here is, how can AI help you achieve this goal? 

2. News Consumption is Becoming More Dynamic and Personalized 

But it’s not just how we find information that’s changing; how we consume it is also being transformed. Algorithms already personalize what we see online, and AI is taking personalization a step further, tailoring the news experience to individual preferences. 

Multimodal content is going to explode. Imagine personalized audio summaries of articles for morning commutes, AI-generated video clips accompanying online news stories, or interactive data visualizations that allow readers to explore complex topics in a dynamic way. People want to read, watch, and listen—consuming content however they prefer.  

As Lucky Gunasekara, Co-Founder and CEO of Miso AI, puts it, “We are living in an era of ‘Liquid Information’,” meaning that content is no longer static and fixed, but rather adaptable and flowing, changing form based on user needs and context. This requires publishers to think about content as a flexible, modular asset rather than a fixed article or video.  

3. New, Specialized AI Players Are Entering the Game 

We met with some of the “established” AI players (if you can call anyone established in such a new industry), like OpenAI and Perplexity. But there’s a whole crop of startups focusing specifically on news-related AI.  

For example:

• Tollbit is helping publishers monetize content in the age of AI agents and summarization;
• Miso is providing AI tech so publishers can build their own Answer Machines;
• Particle is rethinking news for the AI era—turning overwhelming information into clear, AI-verified summaries that adapt to how users want to consume stories.  

Just as publishers rely on external partners for essential tools like Content Management Systems and app development, AI companies are poised to become the next tech partners.

While the “build versus buy” debate will inevitably arise, publishers should proactively explore the innovative solutions these AI partners offer. We’re in the nascent stages of AI development for news, giving publishers a unique opportunity to shape these tools from the ground up and ensure they meet the industry’s specific needs. 

The Bottom Line: The Time to Act is Now! 

Do we in Europe have a chance in this AI race against the capital-rich and tech-savvy Silicon Valley companies? I believe we do. It’s easy to feel like we’re in a 1999 moment, but we’re in 2025, and the time to act is now. 

From the many visits I had to AI companies, it was clear that even the big players did not have answers to concrete questions. The advent of DeepSeek r1 has woken up the world and shown that with scarcity comes creativity. 

Let’s also appreciate just how well-positioned we are: European publishers are amongst the most advanced in the world with their expertise in subscriptions, UX, and top-tier newsrooms.

At Twipe, we see this as a collaborative journey. We want to develop a space where publishers can come together and develop concrete strategies. How this will take shape, we – just like the industry – are still experimenting. In the meantime, we invite you to join the conversation by connecting with us on LinkedIn and joining our Twipe Insights community.