“The Death of the Website?” Not Quite, But Its Role Is About to Change Forever.
My thoughts on the death of websites in the new AI world.
[Image generated using midjourney]
I have been having a few conversation recently about what is the landscapes for websites in this new world being dominated by AI. Not just creative AI but also how customers are consuming and interacting with data using AI.
As such I would like to just throw out my ideas of where I think the future lies for websites in this space.
First and foremost, I believe websites aren’t going away. But I really think the traditional idea of a site as a sales machine stuffed with product pages and technical specs? is going to die fast.
In the age of AI search, voice interfaces, and answer engines, websites will shift from transactional repositories to immersive brand experiences and conduits of structured data for AI systems.
We have already seen this in high street stores, where for a lot of brands you can’t even walk into them anymore and purchase something directly. They are there to sell you the brands experience and sometimes the only way to pick up your product.
So lets break this down a bit further.
The Old Model is Crumbling
For the past two decades, In my eyes websites have served two main purposes for brands. Of course I am referring to the traditional brand/Ecommerce websites not SAAS products or social media sites.
Capture leads or drive eCommerce sales. (Funnels all the way down)
Provide exhaustive technical information. (Usually at the expense of just showing how cool a product is)
To do that, we’ve crammed in, dozens (or hundreds) of product pages. dense FAQs and long-winded knowledge bases and endless SEO content to rank on Google.
But AI is reducing all of that:
I have touched on the new way AI consumes data for websites here but in summary.
AI search engines now answer questions directly, before users even visit your site.
Conversational interfaces replace the need to click through a knowledge base.
Generative shopping tools are comparing products side-by-side without sending traffic anywhere.
Websites are no longer the “first stop” for information.
Websites Are Becoming Brand Experiences
Rather than fighting this, I am seeing and trying to push that brands need to rethink the function of their websites. We should now be focusing on the site being the core expression of your brand (values, aesthetics, mission). Deliver experiences that AI cannot replicate such as interactive demos, communities, immersive storytelling and finally serve as the data layer for AI systems, supplying clean, structured information that flows into answer engines.
Just take 5 minutes to deep dive https://www.awwwards.com/websites/web-interactive/ and you will see what creative work is already being done in this arena.
Do you remember when every website was built using Flash and because of this the creativity was endless. I do and I want it back.
I Think The Future Of Sites Will Be Two-Layered
So if you were to take my ideas above and my previous post about preparing your site for AI, I see the future of sites having 2 layers.
Layer 1: The Machine-Facing Layer (Data)
A layer designed for and catering for AI and machines; reading and absorbing all the information your brand has to offer to the world. This layer being hidden from the user and readable by only machines. Such as;
APIs, sitemaps, structured data.
A site designed for AI crawlers and retrieval systems (RAG, generative search).
A site that supplies clean and accurate information.
Layer 2: Human-Facing Layer (Experience)
The experience, human facing layer. A site that will sell your vision, your identity and brand. Such as;
Immersive storytelling and brand experiences.
Events, communities, user-generated content, AR/VR, interactive demos.
Focused on loyalty and trust, not keyword density.
As you can tell by now I do not think websites are dead. But the idea of a website as the primary selling machine? That’s totally over.
AI will own the discovery and education layer.
Websites will own the deep brand connection and the data supply chain for those AI systems.
So if you only optimise for traffic and product pages, you’ll 100% get left behind and I believe that if you design for experience, trust, and structured information, you’ll thrive.
I would love to know what you think. Comment below and to get more of my AI ramblings and thoughts. subscribe today.