Microsoft to Publishers: Don't Block the AI Bots
Microsoft is advising publishers to allow AI bots to scrape their websites instead of blocking them. Nikhil Kolar, VP of publisher product at Microsoft AI, emphasized that this approach can enhance visibility and traffic for publishers. The company is also facilitating licensing agreements to ensure publishers receive fair compensation for their data.
- ▪Microsoft encourages publishers to create content that is accessible to AI bots.
- ▪Currently, four out of five websites block AI bot traffic, limiting their visibility.
- ▪Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace aims to help publishers monetize their data through licensing agreements.
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Publishers Microsoft To Publishers: Don’t Block The AI Bots By Anthony Vargas Tuesday, May 26th, 2026 – 12:45 am SHARE: Microsoft AI's Nikhil Kolar chats with AdExchanger's Allison Schiff at Programmatic AI 2026 in Las Vegas. Microsoft has one big piece of advice for publishers and retailers that are cautiously navigating the AI era: Let the bots scrape your sites. That’s according to Nikhil Kolar, VP of publisher product at Microsoft AI, who spoke at AdExchanger’s Programmatic AI event in Las Vegas last week. Rather than fighting against the rising tide of AI-based search engines and agentic tools, Kolar said publishers and retailers should actually be creating content that can speak directly to these bots (and thus the LLMs generating new forms of traffic).
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at AdExchanger.
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