The rise of AI-generated writing has sparked fears that machine-authored content could saturate the web. A recent study from Graphite, as reported by Axios, shows that the surge was short-lived. While AI content briefly overtook human-written articles in November 2024, the share of machine-generated writing has now balanced with human work.

Graphite examined 65,000 web pages collected from the Common Crawl archive between January 2020 and May 2025. The sample included English-language articles and listicles. The company used Surfer’s AI-detection algorithm to identify pages where more than 50% of the content appeared machine-written. According to the study, human-written content continues to lead in search engine rankings and citations in AI platforms.

Human content still leads in search and AI citations

Even as AI-generated articles have grown in volume, human-written content continues to dominate what audiences actually see online. Graphite’s report “AI Content in Search & LLMs” highlights that human-written content remains central online. Their analysis shows that 86% of pages ranking on Google are human-written, leaving only 14% to AI-generated material. Likewise, 82% of the content cited by AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity is human-authored.

The data suggests that human authorship remains a critical factor in both search performance and AI recommendations. Producing AI content does not automatically translate to influence or discoverability. Search engines and AI platforms are not just counting the number of pages published; they are evaluating relevance, expertise, and trustworthiness.

Context matters as well. Earlier projections suggested that AI could dominate the web by 2026. However, based on the data, a well-researched human-written article about a product launch, brand story, or industry trend is more likely to appear in search results or be referenced in AI-generated answers than a high-volume AI article on the same topic.

AI content trends vary across topics

The study shows that AI adoption differs across industries. Categories such as productivity and cryptocurrency have a higher share of AI-generated pages, whereas news content remains largely human-written. Graphite’s ranking analysis also revealed that human-written pages outperform AI-generated ones in keyword-controlled comparisons, indicating that quality and relevance continue to drive search performance.

This aligns with broader SEO discussions. Google’s search systems continue to prioritize quality over automation. Forbes notes that content designed purely to manipulate search, whether AI or human, faces penalties. Tools like Google’s SynthID Detector are also being introduced to identify AI-generated media. According to Google, over 10 billion pieces of content have been watermarked using SynthID across its AI models.

AI detection is becoming more complex

Detecting AI-written content is not straightforward. Many writers now use AI for drafting while heavily editing the text themselves. Others combine human expertise with AI outputs, creating hybrid articles. Graphite warns that these workflows blur the line between fully AI-generated and human-written work.

A Google spokesperson, as cited by Axios, confirmed the challenge, noting the growing number of collaborative articles where AI supports human authors. UCLA professor Stefano Soatto described the trend as a “symbiosis more than a dichotomy,” highlighting that both human and AI contributions coexist in many pieces.

What this means for publishers and brands

AI-generated content is now a significant part of the web, but human-written content continues to dominate in search visibility and AI outputs. High-volume AI content alone is unlikely to guarantee visibility.

The study reinforces a key point: integrating AI tools can support content production, but search engines and AI platforms still respond to the value and authority humans bring to the content. Investing in human-written content can still provide a stronger return in visibility and authority than relying solely on AI-generated material. 

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