Traffic numbers across the media industry are sobering. As ProRata turns one year old this month, the numbers confirm what we’ve been telling hundreds of publishers and creators: we’re NOT in the early innings, the time to act is now.

Gen AI isn’t optional; it’s how people search. By the end of 2025, over one billion people are expected to use generative AI search engines daily.* This is not a passing trend; it’s the new front page. 

But how do the people whose work powers AI answers get paid? Big headline deals for a few. Costly lawsuits for some. “Pay-per-crawl” opportunities… all helpful and not mutually exclusive. One-off fixes are not the answer, and none of these deals scale to the millions of AI interactions happening every day. We need a sustainable long-term solution, which is why we’ve developed an economic model based on usage.  

Attribution is not a feature, it’s the foundation 

Others said it couldn’t be done. We proved it could: fair content attribution is real and is the foundation for a sustainable model. 

If you want output-based compensation, you have to measure contribution. We’ve built technology that provides clear, proportional attribution for generative answers, so it is clear which sources shaped the response and to what degree, allowing revenues to be allocated accordingly. When you can count it, you can share it. 

Control your own destiny and meet user desires 

Grounded licensed content means trusted results. ProRata built an ethical AI search engine, Gist.ai, as a proof of concept for attribution and a licensed based model. Gist.ai attributes each publisher’s contribution in every answer, displayed through a clear attribution bar. I call it the nutrition label, like the ones on packaged goods. We count each publisher’s contribution to every answer so publishers can be paid wherever their content is used. 

Further, we’ve created Gist Answers, our native embeddable, publisher-controlled widget, aimed at driving AI engagement on your media channels, receive traffic from our network of trusted media partners, and drive incremental AI search revenue via Gist Ads. 

• Increase on-site engagement. ProRata’s customisable Gist Answers widget is embedded in trusted publisher channels, powering “ask me anything,” smart summaries, and related questions. Quality AI answers draw from a large, licensed partner corpus. It keeps users on-site, with quality control and channel relevance.
    
• Extended reach. Participation in the ProRata partner content and distribution network, that powers Gist Answers, enables you to reach new users, engaged in gen AI on trusted media channels around the world. 
  
  
• AI search monetisation. Gist Answers, funded via highly contextual Gist Ads, provides a path for partners to actively and transparently get a slice of the fast-growing AI search advertising market, projected to be $26b by 2029.** We split ad revenue 50/50: half to ProRata for operating the technology, the other half shared proportionally with the publishers whose content powered the answer. 

ProRata: pro-publisher, pro-author, pro-content creator, and pro-artist​ 

We are building AI monetisation solutions for all content creators. We believe in industry collaboration without negotiation. 

ProRata’s focus is on sustainability, output, and the consumer-facing answer. Creators receive transparent credit and real income every time their work shapes an answer.  

Output-based economics represents a new paradigm—not one-off deals for the lucky few, but a systematic way to pay everyone who adds value, with real-time reporting in a clean partner portal.  

If digital technology has taught us anything, it’s that tech platforms have exponentially grown off the work of creators and I worry they will continue to do so. This is a fight for the future of human creativity. Join us at prorata.ai. 

 * 2025: The State of Consumer AI

** AI search ad spending in the US to hit $26bn by 2029