Cointelegraph's CEO is Leaving Crypto Media for the AI Industry

After almost five years at Cointelegraph, Yana Prikhodchenko says she learned to tell the difference between a technology people use and a story the industry wants to believe.

That experience helped persuade the former CEO to leave crypto media for artificial intelligence. Prikhodchenko has joined Phase, a company developing infrastructure for autonomous AI agents, as co-founder and CEO.

“As CEO of a media company, you get broad exposure to the industry and a clear sense of what actually succeeds in the market and what remains just a narrative,” she told BeInCrypto.

For her, AI passed that test.

“As CEO of a media company, you get broad exposure to the industry and a clear sense of what actually succeeds in the market and what remains just a narrative,” she told BeInCrypto.

What AI Changed Inside the Newsroom

Prikhodchenko said AI was already reducing the time spent on routine publishing work in media. Staff used it to monitor news feeds, find context in past articles, check copy, translate stories, and adapt reporting for video or social media.

“These tasks used to take hours of manual work. With AI they take minutes,” she said.

She expects newsroom jobs to change as a result, although she argues that reporting and editorial decisions should remain with journalists.

Media is largely pivoting to achieving referrals from LLMs like ChatGPT, which increased over 200% in a year. Loyalty to a single media outlet is weakening as readers now pull information from multiple channels at once. 

“AI will shrink the routine part of journalists’ jobs, not replace journalists. Publishers focus on AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) alongside classic SEO. The main goal is not just to rank high, but to become the source for AI agents. So media need to make content readable for agents, not only for people.” Prikhodchenko said.

Her optimism comes as publishers struggle with the same technology. Google Search referrals to more than 2,500 news sites fell 33% globally between November 2024 and November 2025, according to the Reuters Institute. 

Could AI Agents Become Paying News Readers?

Prikhodchenko also sees a possible new customer for publishers: AI agents that purchase individual articles when they need information.

Using the x402 payment standard, an agent could request a story, pay in stablecoins, and receive it without signing up for a subscription. Prikhodchenko argues that short updates should cost less than exclusive reporting or original analysis.

It remains an emerging model. In the Reuters Institute’s 2026 survey, only 20% of publisher respondents expected AI-related content deals to generate substantial revenue.

Before choosing Phase, she considered roles in events and government-led crypto initiatives. A conversation with founder Kirill Eves changed her plans.

“Two calls and some deep research were enough for me to say yes,” she said.

Her move reflects a bet that AI will reshape both how newsrooms work and how their reporting earns money.