The data is in, and it’s reshaping everything we thought we knew about AI-generated content. Ahrefs’ comprehensive analysis of 600,000 webpages has revealed that 86.5% of top-ranking pages contain some amount of AI-generated content, while only 13.5% were categorized as purely human-written.
But here’s what the numbers really tell us: this isn’t just about AI adoption—it’s about a fundamental shift in how successful content gets created, optimized, and measured.
What the 86.5% Really Means
The breakdown of AI usage in top-ranking content reveals a nuanced picture: only 4.6% of pages were categorized as “pure AI,” while 81.9% were a mix of human and AI input. This hybrid approach appears to be the winning formula.
Among the mixed content, 13.8% showed minimal AI use (1-10% of content), 40% showed moderate AI use (11-40%), 20.3% showed substantial AI use (41-70%), and 7.8% showed dominant AI use (71-99%).*
The takeaway? The most successful content strategy isn’t about choosing between human and AI—it’s about strategically blending both.
The Critical Finding About #1 Rankings
While AI content clearly isn’t penalized, there’s a crucial distinction for those targeting the top spot. The very highest-ranking pages (#1 positions) tend to have slightly less AI-generated content than lower-ranking pages.
When grouped by AI usage levels, pages with minimal AI use (0-30%) showed a very slight correlation with higher rankings, though the correlation remains weak.
This suggests that while AI assistance is becoming standard, human oversight and original insight still provide competitive advantages for premium positions.
How to Conduct Your AI Content Audit
Based on the Ahrefs findings and current SEO best practices, here’s a systematic approach to auditing your content for the AI era:
Step 1: Inventory and Categorize Your Content
Start by cataloging all your content and categorizing it by AI involvement:
- Pure Human Content (Pre-2023 or intentionally human-only)
- AI-Assisted Content (Human-written with AI editing/optimization)
- AI-Enhanced Content (AI-generated with significant human editing)
- Mostly AI Content (AI-generated with minimal human input)
Step 2: Performance Analysis by AI Usage Level
Since the correlation between AI content percentage and search ranking position was 0.011 (effectively zero), focus on these performance indicators instead:
Traffic Metrics:
- Organic search traffic trends
- Click-through rates from search results
- Time on page and engagement metrics
Search Performance:
- Keyword ranking positions
- Featured snippet appearances
- AI Overview citations (increasingly important)
Content Quality Indicators:
- Bounce rate and user engagement
- Social shares and backlink acquisition
- Conversion rates for target actions
Step 3: Quality Assessment Framework
Evaluate each piece of content against these criteria:
Authority and Credibility:
- Expert quotes and citations from reputable sources
- Original data or proprietary research
- Author expertise and byline credibility
- Fact-checking accuracy and currency
Structure and Accessibility:
- Clear headings that mirror natural language queries
- Direct answers in opening sentences
- FAQ sections addressing common questions
- Mobile optimization and loading speed
User Intent Alignment:
- Search query match and satisfaction
- Comprehensive topic coverage
- Internal linking strategy
- Call-to-action relevance
Step 4: AI Optimization Opportunities
Look for content that could benefit from AI enhancement:
Content That Should Get AI Assistance:
- Outdated but structurally sound articles
- Thin content lacking depth or detail
- Pages with good traffic but poor engagement
- Content missing meta descriptions or structured data
Content That Needs Human Oversight:
- Top-performing pages targeting competitive keywords
- Thought leadership and expertise-driven content
- Brand-sensitive messaging and positioning
- Complex technical explanations requiring nuance
The Measurement Challenge: Tracking AI Content Success
Unlike traditional SEO metrics, measuring AI content performance requires new approaches. Google’s AI Overviews now cite AI-generated content more than human writing, making citation tracking increasingly important.
Key Metrics to Track:
- AI Platform Mentions: Monitor how often your content appears in ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overview responses
- Citation Quality: Track mentions from authoritative sources that AI systems frequently reference
- Search Feature Appearances: Featured snippets, knowledge panels, and AI overview inclusions
- Traffic Quality: Focus on engagement depth rather than pure volume
Tools for Monitoring:
- Google Search Console for AI Overview appearances
- Ahrefs Brand Radar for domain mentions in AI Overviews
- Manual testing of AI platforms with relevant queries
- Traditional analytics for engagement and conversion tracking
Content Audit Action Framework
Based on your audit findings, categorize content into these buckets:
Keep and Optimize
- High-performing mixed content with strong engagement
- Expert-driven content that establishes authority
- Comprehensive resources that answer complete user journeys
Actions: Add citations, improve structure, update factual information, and enhance internal linking.
AI-Enhance and Scale
- Solid foundational content that needs depth
- Outdated content with evergreen potential
- Thin pages that could benefit from expansion
Actions: Use AI to expand sections, add FAQ blocks, generate related subtopics, and optimize for featured snippets.
Human-First Revision
- Top-ranking pages in competitive niches
- Brand positioning and thought leadership content
- Complex explanations requiring expertise and nuance
Actions: Add expert insights, include original data, strengthen unique value propositions, and enhance authoritativeness.
Consolidate or Remove
- Duplicate content covering the same topics
- Outdated information that can’t be easily updated
- Poor-performing pages with little strategic value
Actions: Redirect to stronger pages, update and merge content, or remove entirely.
The Strategic Implications
As Ahrefs researchers noted, “Just as there’s no longer any manufactured steel untouched by nuclear fallout, soon there won’t be any piece of content that isn’t ‘tainted’, or assisted, by AI”.
This reality means your content audit needs to focus on competitive advantage through strategic AI usage rather than avoiding AI altogether.
The winning approach:
- Use AI to scale content production and handle routine optimization
- Apply human expertise to high-stakes, competitive, and brand-critical content
- Focus on unique insights, original data, and expert perspectives that AI can’t replicate
- Optimize all content for both traditional search and AI platform citations
Moving Forward: The Quarterly AI Content Review
Given the rapid pace of AI development, implement quarterly content audits focusing on:
- Performance tracking of AI-assisted vs. human-first content
- Citation monitoring across AI platforms and traditional search
- Competitive analysis of how others in your space are balancing AI usage
- Strategic adjustments based on algorithm updates and AI platform changes
The evidence is clear: Google neither significantly rewards nor penalizes pages just because they use AI. What matters is creating content that serves user intent effectively, regardless of how it’s produced.
The brands that master this balance—leveraging AI for efficiency while maintaining human insight for competitive advantage—will dominate their categories as AI becomes the new front door to information discovery.