Websites need to become more than an AI fact-checking tool.
As WordPress VIP’s Future of the Web report shows, 86% of people click through AI-powered summaries and overviews to source citations because they don’t fully trust what they learn.
That skepticism is understandable, particularly if you’re a business professional researching a potential purchase that will be deployed across a large enterprise.
Yes, it’s faster and easier to pose a conversational question to ChatGPT or Google Gemini than trolling through traditional search results. But the risk of relying on possibly inaccurate, outdated, or wrong information could put your job at risk.
History suggests this will change over time as AI improves and we all become more comfortable with it.
For example, eventually drivers put away their printed map books and began following GPS’s turn-by-turn directions.Bank customers accepted they could rely on ATMs to dispense cash instead of lining up for a teller.
Once AI earns greater trust, the role of the website is no longer to confirm, substantiate, or corroborate search results.
It’s to offer digital experiences that AI can’t replicate, rewarding each visitor with greater value than before.
We have to start imagining what those experiences might look like, and what it will take to build them.
Traffic’s changing composition, and what it means for your website
The future of web design starts with understanding who you’re serving, and why.
Bot traffic is already surpassing human visits, but only because AI search tools are working harder to find information that answers what people are asking.
Large language models (LLMs) are acting as arbiters of content. Bots are scraping websites based on reputable, comprehensive, and authoritative content that can be summarized and cited.
People remain the audience content serves. They’re not simply looking for web pages that are well-structured with plenty of metadata behind them. They want:
- The ability to connect with the human expertise that produced the content
- The ability to simulate scenarios in which a product or service is used
- Content that adapts to contextual signals about who they are and what they need
- Immersive paths to explore content through video, audio, and 3D modalities such as augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR)
- The ability to take action by comparing information, placing orders, booking reservations, or simply playing with data in a way that educates and inspires them
If bots do a great job as arbiters, audiences will connect more easily to websites that give them these experiences. Brands need to balance developing websites that simplify the work AI agents do while welcoming people with warmth, empathy, and care.
The Future of the Web report found 74% of consumers feel the internet is less than human than 10 years ago. The next generation of websites needs to reverse that.
The website’s new job: experience delivery that builds upon AI discovery
Brands investing in interactive, owned experiences now will be better prepared for an AI-first discovery layer because their websites will become more valuable when it is designed for depth vs. easily commoditized information.
This will likely happen across multiple dimensions, and it’s already beginning with:
1. Content that not only answers people’s questions, but involves them
AI has become a new starting point for discovery, but websites are still the most likely place for bottom-of-funnel activity if they help people go beyond simply reading, looking, or listening.
Think of the online calculators that help a potential customer estimate how quickly they’ll be able to see return on investment (ROI) for a significant purchase.
Some sites offer quizzes that help you prioritize your needs and objectives to guide product and service evaluations, or simply better understand data.
Other organizations offer tools on their website to visualize data or conduct live demos.
AI is making it easier than ever to design and deploy these experiences, but they still require infrastructure brands own and control.
2. Navigation and interfaces that redefine ‘responsiveness’
By now we all expect websites to adapt to form factors when you load them on a smartphone vs. a PC, but there’s so much more that could make using a site intuitive, engaging, and valuable.
Instead of pushing buttons or clicking on drop-down menus, what if more websites could respond to where human eyes travel on the screen to enlarge items, activate a video, or launch a virtual conversation with another person?
Consider the impact of browsing a site for clothing that lets you generate an image of yourself in a retailer’s latest collection, or arriving on a site to look up historical information where you can instantly animate what you read into a short film?
There are already experiments in these areas, where generative AI is fused with enterprise data and advanced content experience platforms to make each website visit more dynamic and worthwhile.
3. Personalization based on controlled, declared context
It’s not paranoid to wonder whether organizations are monitoring your online activity to deliver more targeted advertising. They are. Everything from our recommended products to our social media feeds are increasingly curated based on what brands have noticed about our preferences and behaviors.
This is the digital equivalent of throwing a surprise party, where all the details are based on what organizers know about the guest of honor. But sometimes you want to throw your own party, where everything feels like a more authentic expression of who you are.
It’s time to put people back in charge of deciding what they’re willing to share in exchange for a personalized website experience. These contextual details should be as easy to bring with you as the credit card information stored in a digital wallet.
When you choose to share your preferences, websites should be able to recognize your intentions and proactively offer you the most relevant products, services, or information. If a brand earns your trust by delivering a more personalized experience, you can choose whether to share more.
This approach is in keeping with the ongoing history of the open and intelligent web, and it’s what people want. The Future of the Web report found 80% of consumers say information should remain openly accessible, and three-quarters are concerned platforms are controlling it. Keep an eye out as open standards and tools emerge to offer human-controlled personalization and adopt them accordingly.
We’ll all benefit from a world where we can have greater trust in AI search results. At that point, your website becomes more than a validation layer. It will be where customers come to explore further, make choices, and take action. AI has offered a huge leap forward in search. There’s still a lot of opportunity for websites to build upon what it finds.
