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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)

💡 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 more

  • Exit Strategy Talk in AI Startups Heating Up
    Startup investors are gaming out better exit paths now that the AI gold rush is real. 💰🛣️ 🔗 Read more

  • Designing AI Products Means Listening Deeply
    Northwestern profs make the case: the best AI design starts by paying attention to real human needs. 👂🧩 🔗 Read more

  • Stuffing 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 more

  • Startups Pivot SEO Toward AI Visibility
    AI is rewriting SEO rules—startups are adapting fast to boost visibility in this new game. 📈🔍 🔗 Read more

  • Cloudflare Sparks AI Crawler Payment Debate
    A bold new plan by Cloudflare could make AI pay to crawl—sparking huge debates. 🌐💸
    🔗 Read more

  • Bright 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 more

  • Canada’s Radical Ventures Is Seeding the Future
    Radical Ventures is taking Canadian AI global—with serious strategy and patient capital. 🍁📊 🔗 Read more

  • Dentsu Launches All-In-One AI Suite
    The ad world meets AI—Dentsu’s new suite blends creative, analytics, and media buying tools. 🎨📊 🔗 Read more

  • Renesas 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 more

  • Lunit and Microsoft Partner for Cancer AI
    Lunit’s diagnostic AI is teaming up with Microsoft to speed up cancer detection and treatment. 🧬💻 🔗 Read more

  • FDA Grants Breakthrough Status to AI Bladder Cancer Device
    A new AI-powered detection device for bladder cancer just scored breakthrough status. 🧪🚽 🔗 Read more

  • Amplify: Law Firms Will Be Run by AI by 2027
    A whitepaper predicts AI agents will be managing legal workflows—yes, even writing contracts. ⚖️🤖 🔗 Read more

  • Crowe Offers Tips for Running Better AI Agents
    From goal-setting to feedback loops—Crowe lays out 7 strategies to keep AI agents useful. 🎯📘 🔗 Read more

  • Intuit 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. 🛠️🔥

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 more

  • Granite 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 more

  • Argon AI Lands $5.5M Seed Funding
    Argon is building smarter AI for recruiting, and this fresh round gives it the fuel to scale. 🧲🧠 🔗 Read more

  • THE 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 more

  • Genesis AI Scores $105M in Major Round
    Another giant leap—Genesis AI lands over $100M to grow its general-purpose AI platform. 🤖💥 🔗 Read more

  • Leapter Raises $2M Pre-Seed for AI Tools
    Leapter is just getting started, with $2M to create better AI-driven content creation tools. ✍️🚀 🔗 Read more

  • Dexter Energy Gets €23M for AI Forecasting
    Helping the renewable sector get smarter—Dexter Energy raised funds to level up AI-based predictions. 🔋📉 🔗 Read more

  • Khosla Ventures Backs $105M for AI Robotics Startup
    A stealth robotics player just scored a massive $105M round with backing from Khosla Ventures. 🤐🤖 🔗 Read more

  • Remark Raises $16M for Human-AI Models in Ecomm
    Merging expert humans with AI, Remark is building smarter ecomm platforms—and just raised $16M. 🛍️🧠 🔗 Read more

  • AI HAY Secures $10M in Series A Round
    Vietnam’s AI HAY grabs $10M to keep scaling its productivity-focused AI offerings. 🌏⚙️ 🔗 Read more

  • Deeto 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 more

  • Zango 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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