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Outsmarting the Algorithm Won’t Cut It — The Real Game In AI Search Crosses A New Milestone
Your AI Product - News Report - July 9th

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.
Hey hey!
Happy Wednesday!
Here’s your news in newsletter!
Sorry for the no show last weeks folks. There’s been a LOT going on behind the scenes. Today’s News issue covers the news from the past 2 weeks, so bear with me!
In this Issue:
The State of Search
Your Weekly Industry News Recap
The Raise Recap

Headliner: Outsmarting the Algorithm Won’t Cut It — The Real Game In AI Search Crosses A New Milestone 🔍💻
The AI Takeover: SEO Is No Longer Just for Google (& Friends)
The traditional world of SEO (search Engine Optimization) was built on keywords, backlinks, and optimizing for search engine rankings. Over the course of the past year, there has been a definite shift in how this world holds together. This entire incumbent system is starting to buckle more and more under the weight of AI usage trends. Startups and content-driven platforms are now facing a new challenge: optimizing for AI agents, not just human queries typed into a search engine. (Even Google Is doing it as of a year ago)
💡 This shift was initially driven by large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini, which are beginning to replace search engines as the first touchpoint for information discovery. These models don’t rank links—they summarize, paraphrase, and pull from multiple sources to build their content. That means traditional SEO tactics like keyword stuffing, schema markup, and other techniques are far less useful if an AI skips your site altogether in its knowledge mapping.
The market adjustment in response, to the user trends and developments of publicly accessible models bring more people to experiment with what could be called AIO—AI Index Optimization. They’re trying to figure out how to become more visible to LLMs:
How do you structure content to be absorbed and accurately summarized by an AI?
Can you encourage your brand or product to be part of an agent’s default recommendation list?
How do you maintain up-to-date visibility when AI agents use stale training data or filtered APIs?
These aren’t SEO questions anymore—they’re questions of AI interface strategy. One that may very well be impacted by giants’ stances in website traffic moderation like this latest news from Cloudflare: What If AI Has to Pay to Crawl?
Cloudflare just dropped a bombshell by proposing that AI models should pay for access to crawl and ingest content from the open web. Historically, websites let search engine bots index their pages in exchange for visibility. But LLMs work differently—they don’t send you traffic. They summarize and often replace the need for users to visit your site at all.
So now, Cloudflare (and others) are asking:
🤔 If AI companies are monetizing our content, why shouldn’t they share the value back towards the original content owners?
💰 Should websites charge AI models a fee to crawl just like licensing data to aggregators?
⚠️ What happens when publishers block AI bots entirely, creating a fractured web of walled gardens?
This sets the stage for a dramatic rebalancing of the open web’s economics. It raises the prospect of a future where websites must choose between visibility vs. value capture, and where leveraging publicly readable data for AI purposes becomes a business transaction, not an ethical grey zone.
🔍 The Big Picture
Together, these stories paint a clear picture: search is being disrupted from both ends. At one end, content creators are scrambling to optimize for new AI-based interfaces. At the other, web infrastructure players are challenging the free-for-all model of AI data harvesting.
Expect this to trigger:
📉 A decline in traditional SEO ROI metrics
🧠 Growth in “AI-ready” content formatting and metadata strategies
⚖️ Policy and legal debates around fair use, attribution, and AI training access (Outside of the USA apparently)
💼 New tools that help creators analyze how visible they are to different LLMs
In short, we’re not just entering the next era of search—we’re entering the age of “AI discovery strategy”. And those who adapt early will own the new front page of the internet: the answer box in your chatbot.

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

TopView AI Launches World’s First AI-Powered News Lens
A new AI lens for breaking news—TopView’s platform pulls insights and context in real time. 📰🔍 🔗 Read moreExit Strategy Talk in AI Startups Heating Up
Startup investors are gaming out better exit paths now that the AI gold rush is real. 💰🛣️ 🔗 Read moreDesigning AI Products Means Listening Deeply
Northwestern profs make the case: the best AI design starts by paying attention to real human needs. 👂🧩 🔗 Read moreStuffing AI Into Everything Is Backfiring
From razors to microwaves—this piece takes a hard look at where AI overreach is doing more harm than good. ⚠️📦 🔗 Read moreStartups Pivot SEO Toward AI Visibility
AI is rewriting SEO rules—startups are adapting fast to boost visibility in this new game. 📈🔍 🔗 Read moreCloudflare Sparks AI Crawler Payment Debate
A bold new plan by Cloudflare could make AI pay to crawl—sparking huge debates. 🌐💸
🔗 Read moreBright Data Powers AI with Real-Time Web Access
AI agents are hungry for fresh data—Bright Data’s helping them get it without delay. ⚡🌍 🔗 Read moreCanada’s Radical Ventures Is Seeding the Future
Radical Ventures is taking Canadian AI global—with serious strategy and patient capital. 🍁📊 🔗 Read moreDentsu Launches All-In-One AI Suite
The ad world meets AI—Dentsu’s new suite blends creative, analytics, and media buying tools. 🎨📊 🔗 Read moreRenesas and Nota AI Team Up on Driver Monitoring
Driver safety goes AI—Renesas and Nota’s new collab brings smart monitoring to your dashboard. 🚘👁️ 🔗 Read moreLunit and Microsoft Partner for Cancer AI
Lunit’s diagnostic AI is teaming up with Microsoft to speed up cancer detection and treatment. 🧬💻 🔗 Read moreFDA Grants Breakthrough Status to AI Bladder Cancer Device
A new AI-powered detection device for bladder cancer just scored breakthrough status. 🧪🚽 🔗 Read moreAmplify: Law Firms Will Be Run by AI by 2027
A whitepaper predicts AI agents will be managing legal workflows—yes, even writing contracts. ⚖️🤖 🔗 Read moreCrowe Offers Tips for Running Better AI Agents
From goal-setting to feedback loops—Crowe lays out 7 strategies to keep AI agents useful. 🎯📘 🔗 Read moreIntuit Debuts AI Agent “Team” for SMBs
Intuit launched a full-on AI squad to help small businesses automate operations and grow faster. 👥💼 🔗 Read more
STARTUPFEST 2025 IS NOW!

🎉 It’s that time of year again—conference season’s kicking off! I’m back at Startupfest in Montréal, where the meetings are aplenty, and great ideas come to life. With AI touching nearly every corner of tech, I’m diving in once more—but this year with an extra eye on the edge.
If you’ve been reading closely, you’ve probably noticed I’ve been slipping more edge stories into the mix. That’s no accident—I really believe getting AI closer to the hardware will unlock bigger, more impactful use cases (don’t worry, I’m not on the robot overlord train 🚫🤖). This year, expect wide-ranging coverage—but you’ll definitely see me nerding out over the Hardtechfest track. 🛠️🔥
In the meantime! Check out last year’s coverage here.
And the follow-on articles:

This Week’s Raise Recap 📈💰
GetWhy Secures €17M to Evolve AI Market Research
Copenhagen-based GetWhy raised more cash to make market research faster and smarter using AI. 🧪📊 🔗 Read moreGranite Asia Leads $60M Round for AI Data Foundry
Singapore VC firm is fueling Centific’s global AI data expansion with a big $60M raise. 🌏💾 🔗 Read moreArgon AI Lands $5.5M Seed Funding
Argon is building smarter AI for recruiting, and this fresh round gives it the fuel to scale. 🧲🧠 🔗 Read moreTHE Lovable (Code Gen Platform that’s taken the world by storm) Raises $150M Growth Round
Fashion tech meets AI—Lovable’s new funding will help scale its emotionally-aware product experiences. 👗❤️🔥 🔗 Read moreGenesis AI Scores $105M in Major Round
Another giant leap—Genesis AI lands over $100M to grow its general-purpose AI platform. 🤖💥 🔗 Read moreLeapter Raises $2M Pre-Seed for AI Tools
Leapter is just getting started, with $2M to create better AI-driven content creation tools. ✍️🚀 🔗 Read moreDexter Energy Gets €23M for AI Forecasting
Helping the renewable sector get smarter—Dexter Energy raised funds to level up AI-based predictions. 🔋📉 🔗 Read moreKhosla Ventures Backs $105M for AI Robotics Startup
A stealth robotics player just scored a massive $105M round with backing from Khosla Ventures. 🤐🤖 🔗 Read moreRemark Raises $16M for Human-AI Models in Ecomm
Merging expert humans with AI, Remark is building smarter ecomm platforms—and just raised $16M. 🛍️🧠 🔗 Read moreAI HAY Secures $10M in Series A Round
Vietnam’s AI HAY grabs $10M to keep scaling its productivity-focused AI offerings. 🌏⚙️ 🔗 Read moreDeeto Raises $12.5M to Fuel Sales AI
Deeto’s AI aims to supercharge customer advocacy—and a new $12.5M boost is pushing it forward. 📢🤖 🔗 Read moreZango Raises $4.8M to Build AI Enablement Platform
Zango wants to streamline AI adoption across teams—and just raised nearly $5M to do it. 🛠️✨ 🔗 Read more

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Stay well, and see you next week!
-✌🏽 Sam
Cue the legal stuff: The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely my own and do not reflect the views, positions, or policies of my employer or any organizations I am affiliated with. All content is for informational purposes only and to express opinion.
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