What Publishers Should Get From AI Besides Money, With Bombora's Jaime Schultheis

When AI answers the question, publishers lose more than the click. Bombora's Jaime Schultheis on why AI referrals convert, why Google is a shaky foundation, and what AI companies should give publishers besides a check.

Pete Pachal talks with Jaime Schultheis, head of global data partnerships at Bombora, about what Bombora's publisher data shows (steeper referral declines, more bots, niche B2B titles holding up), why AI referral traffic is small but converts far better than search, Google's new option to opt out of AI features, events and communities as "AI proof" experiences, measuring the halo effect for sponsors, sorting good bots from bad, TIME and Mobian's ads-for-bots model and Perplexity's pushback, and why she's optimistic that publishers will come out of this with more leverage.

Chapters

0:00 What a website visit is really worth

1:59 Jaime Schultheis, welcome to the Media Copilot

2:04 From newspapers to Bombora

3:39 "I probably was not worried enough"

4:53 What Bombora's publisher data is showing

6:17 Why specialty publishers are holding up

9:42 What's the reward for GEO?

12:10 Charging more for AI referral traffic

14:11 Don't build your business on Google