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People Inc. CEO Vogel: brand value rises in the AI era

June 23, 2026 at 07:14 EDT

Sales & Business
Foundation Models

Neil Vogel, CEO of US media giant People Inc., said at an Axios House conversation during Cannes Lions that trusted brands grow more valuable in an era flooded with AI-generated content. Vogel said that "in a world where things are increasingly fake, and no one knows what's real and what's not real, the value of the brand is going to increase."

Cannes Lions Week · People Inc.

In a World Full of Fakes, Trusted Brands Become the Moat

CEO Neil Vogel: "In a world where things are increasingly fake, and no one knows what's real and what's not real, the value of the brand is going to increase." As AI Overviews gut search referrals, People Inc. is betting on human authenticity and direct audiences.

~50%

Drop in Google search traffic over the past two years

40+

Lifestyle & service brands, led by People, Allrecipes & Investopedia

Human-run test kitchens in a ~40,000 sq ft complex near Birmingham, AL

Google's share of traffic: then vs. now

Reliance on search referrals has collapsed as the company builds direct audiences.

~70%

5 years ago

~30%

Today

The pivot: license to AI, not Google

Bots are blocked while licenses are negotiated with major AI players — notably excluding Google.

Meta / OpenAI

All-you-can-eat (flat-fee)

Microsoft

Pay-per-use marketplace

The strategy, two ways

The promise

Human verification — repeated recipe testing, photography and video — is a "secret weapon" against AI slop. Trust and loyalty are what AI can't easily replicate.

The headwind

It's also a revenue-diversification play built on collapsing search traffic. Its durability hinges on growing AI licensing income and direct audience ties.

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