Former Cointelegraph CEO Moves Into Artificial Intelligence

Yana Prikhodchenko, the former Cointelegraph CEO, has stepped down from the crypto media company after nearly five years. During her tenure, she says she learned to distinguish technology with real utility from stories the industry wants to believe.

That background prompted the former CEO to shift careers from crypto media into artificial intelligence. Prikhodchenko has joined Phase, which creates 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.

In her view, AI met 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 noted that AI was already cutting down the time spent on standard publishing tasks. Staff used it to watch news feeds, find background in earlier content, check text, translate stories, and prepare pieces for video or social media.

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

She foresees newsroom roles evolving as a result, though she contends that journalism and editorial choices should stay with reporters.

Media outlets are heavily shifting toward getting traffic from large language models like ChatGPT, which saw referrals jump over 200% in a year. Loyalty to any single publisher is dropping as readers collect news from many sources 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 upbeat outlook exists as publishers face difficulties from the same technology. The Reuters Institute reports that Google Search referrals to more than 2,500 news sites fell 33% worldwide between November 2024 and November 2025.

Could AI Agents Become Paying News Readers?

Prikhodchenko sees a potential new revenue stream for publishers: AI agents buying single articles when they need data.

With the x402 payment standard, an agent could ask for a story, pay in stablecoins, and get it without signing up for a subscription. Prikhodchenko thinks that quick briefs should cost less than original reporting or deep analysis.

The model is still unproven. In the Reuters Institute’s 2026 survey, only 20% of publishers surveyed expected AI content deals to create meaningful revenue.

Before picking Phase, she looked at roles in events and state-backed crypto projects. A talk with founder Kirill Eves shifted her path.

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

The move amounts to a bet that AI will change both the way newsrooms function and how reporting makes money.