By Jessica Davies
Publication Date: 2026-02-03 22:01:00
Microsoft is moving its publisher AI content marketplace pilot beyond the initial pilot phase, laying the groundwork for a broader ecosystem to connect publishers with a growing set of AI builders looking to license premium content.
What started with a limited group of publishers and Copilot as the first customer is now evolving into a more scalable model, with Microsoft testing pricing, access and compensation as usage grows.
Business Insider Inc, Vox Media Inc, USA Today Co., People Inc, The Associated Press, Hearst Magazines, and Condé Nast are the first wave of publisher pilot partners. But the goal is to start expanding to more publishers and demand partners — aka LLMs and any AI builders — both in the U.S. and internationally.
Digiday spoke with Nikhil Kolar, vp at Microsoft AI, about how the company is working with publishers to determine pricing models that would have AI builders pay based on the demonstrated value of publishers’ source material, the long-term…
