Dubai, UAE – March 7, 2025 – Zendy, an AI-powered research library for academic content, has announced a first-of-its-kind revenue-sharing model for AI-generated content, ensuring publishers are fairly compensated when their paywalled research is cited by AI.

ZAIA, Zendy’s domain-specific large language model (LLM), uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to retrieve data from a diverse collection of open-access and paywalled metadata through licensing agreements with publishers. Based on reference generation by the LLM, the new revenue-sharing model enables a fair and sustainable approach to compensating academic publishers for the use of their content by AI.

Empowering Publishers with AI Innovation

For years, major academic publishers have been cautious about AI companies using their research, citing copyright concerns, revenue impact, and the need for proper attribution. Zendy’s new model introduces a transparent, ethical approach for publishers to monetise their content in the AI era.

Many large language models are restricted to training on publicly available research, as major publishers have not yet actively licensed their work to AI companies. Zendy’s revenue-sharing model is one of the first of its kind, ensuring clear consent, proper attribution, and fair compensation based on content retrieval. The transparent revenue-sharing mechanism ensures fair compensation for publishers based on the number of references provided in ZAIA’s responses.

Kamran Kardan, Co-founder of Zendy, said:
"This is a positive shift for the academic publishing industry. For the first time, AI is being used to drive revenue back to publishers instead of bypassing them. Ethical AI means giving credit—and compensation—where it’s due. In the long term, we believe even authors should share in this revenue."

Zendy is partnering with a range of international publishers on this model, including IT Governance, Lexxion, British Online Archives, and Lived Places Publishing. Additionally, the RAG model is available for open-access (OA) publishers, and Zendy is currently exploring alternative compensation models for OA.

A Leap Forward for Researchers and Institutions

ZAIA provides users with precise, contextually relevant content tailored to their research needs. It offers answers to researchers' questions with reference-backed responses, ensuring that researchers and institutions can access high-quality, peer-reviewed materials while supporting the publishers who produce them.

Promoting Sustainable and Ethical AI Content Partnerships

To deliver accurate, unbiased, and comprehensive insights, large language models (LLMs) require diverse academic content. Zendy’s RAG-based model encourages broader collaboration between publishers and AI companies, fostering ethical agreements rooted in mutual licensing. This approach ensures that subscription-based and proprietary research contribute to sustainable AI development, benefiting the dissemination of knowledge and the integrity of academic research.

Zendy invites publishers, researchers, and institutions to collaborate in shaping the future of AI-driven research. To learn more about partnership opportunities, visit www.zendy.io or contact partnerships@zendy.io. 

About Zendy

Zendy is an AI-powered research library with over 780,000 users across 190+ countries. Designed to streamline the research process, Zendy provides access to millions of journals, articles, and e-books while offering a range of AI-driven tools, including ZAIA, an AI assistant that helps researchers expedite their research journey. Zendy collaborates with leading academic publishers to make scholarly content more accessible and affordable, ensuring that users can explore high-quality research with ease.

Press contact:
Monica Chinsami - Head of Marketing

m.chinsami@zendy.io

About Zendy

Zendy was created to facilitate access to academic literature. By addressing the key challenges that we face with traditional ways of finding relevant, high-quality, academic content, Zendy strives to provide peace of mind to all students, researchers, professionals, and knowledge enthusiasts.

Zendy is developed by Knowledge E in a growing collaboration with researchers, students, institutions, and publishers. Zendy aims to democratise access to content by making it more affordable and accessible. There are no limitations on reading, just simple access to scholarly resources.For more information, visit the Zendy Open website: zendy.io