Zendy built a revenue-sharing model into ZAIA, its AI research assistant. ZAIA uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation over both open-access and licensed paywalled content, and publishers get paid when their paywalled research is cited in ZAIA's answers — a direct response to the complaint that AI models use proprietary content without attribution or payment.
Benefits & outcomes
Publishers are paid per reference ZAIA draws from their content.
Licensing agreements rather than scraping.
Working with IT Governance, Lexxion, British Online Archives and Lived Places Publishing; alternative compensation structures being explored for open access.
Notes & quotes
"This is a positive shift for the academic publishing industry. For the first time, AI is being used to drive revenue back to publishers instead of bypassing them. Ethical AI means giving credit—and compensation—where it’s due." – Kamran Kardan, Co-founder of Zendy
Publisher / company: Zendy (a product of Knowledge E)
Date of mention: 13/03/2025
Source: https://www.edtechinnovationhub.com/news/zendy-unveils-ai-revenue-sharing-model-to-compensate-academic-publishers