As artificial intelligence reshapes how people find and use information online, traditional websites face an inflection point. More users are delegating search and browsing to AI assistants rather than clicking through pages themselves. In fact, recent research shows AI-generated search summaries have already caused a 15 to 64% decline in organic web traffic (varying by industry). By 2025, nearly 99.9% of content could be consumed by AI models rather than humans, according to AI expert Andrej Karpathy​. This seismic shift means business decision-makers must rethink their web presence. If your content isn’t optimised for AI agents, it risks becoming invisible in the coming era​.

AI agents are beginning to mediate each stage of the customer journey. This Bain & Company illustration below shows how steps that used to involve human-driven web browsing (“Yesterday”) are increasingly handled by AI assistants (“Today” and in the “Near future”). The traditional funnel from need discovery to purchase is evolving as AI agents build options, create shortlists, and even evaluate choices on behalf of users.

The Rise of AI-Driven Search and Interaction.

Not long ago, a typical customer journey started with a Google search yielding “10 blue links” to websites. Today, AI-driven answers and assistants are replacing those links with direct, conversational responses​. Whether using ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Bard, or Amazon’s Alexa, users can ask complex questions and receive curated answers without ever visiting a site. For example, instead of reading multiple reviews, a user might simply ask an AI, “Which smartphone has the best battery life?” and trust its recommendation over a list of search results​.

This trend is not hypothetical, it’s happening now. A CapGemini Consumer Trends 2025 report found that nearly 60% of consumers have already replaced traditional search engines with Gen AI tools for product recommendations and 45% of Gen Z & 41% of Millennial consumers already use Gen-AI for shopping experiences. Major shifts are underway in discovery and engagement:

• Declining Organic Traffic: With AI tools summarising content, many websites are seeing significant drops in human visitors. Even content-rich platforms like HubSpot and Stack Overflow have reported steep traffic declines as users turn to AI for answers​. Overall, analysts report that the introduction of AI summaries (such as Google’s AI “overview” answers) can cut website visits by up to 60%​.
  
• AI as the New Middleman: Gartner predicts that by 2026, traditional search engine queries will drop by 25%, as users shift to an “agent-led” search approach where AI retrieves answers on their behalf​. In the same timeframe, it’s projected that the majority of traffic to websites will come from AI agents, not human users​. In other words, your next customer might reach you via an AI referral or taskbot instead of clicking a homepage link or Google Ad.
  
• AI Agents Taking Action: Unlike basic chatbots of the past, modern AI agents can execute tasks. They can book appointments, fill out forms, or make purchases directly through APIs – all without a person manually navigating your site​. For instance, ChatGPT’s Operator can handle multi-step processes like ticket booking or shopping, acting as a concierge for users. Microsoft’s Bing Chat and emerging tools even promise to complete web transactions end-to-end. This means a user might say, “Order my usual office supplies,” and their AI assistant will visit supplier websites, place orders, and check out; with minimal human involvement.

Changing Customer Expectations and Behaviour

These developments are fundamentally altering customer expectations. Consumers increasingly expect instant, relevant answers – whether delivered by a website or an AI intermediary. They’re less inclined to slog through navigation menus or read long pages of text. As Yext’s Chief Data Officer observes, search is “merging with AI agents” and moving from discrete queries into ongoing conversations​. In practical terms, a potential customer’s first touchpoint with your brand might be an AI-curated summary or voice response, not your actual website​.

Consider how this plays out in a typical scenario today: A busy executive asks ChatGPT or Siri for the “best project management software for a small team.” The AI sifts through content (blogs, reviews, pricing pages) and responds with a concise recommendation. If your company is mentioned, the executive might then have the AI directly initiate a trial signup on your site, or they may never visit your beautifully designed landing page at all. As Chris Andrew, CEO of Scrunch AI, noted after observing his own habits, “I realised I was visiting fewer websites. I was expecting an answer from ChatGPT instead of 20 links from Google". In his view, browsing itself is being outsourced to AI agents, which changes the entire marketing funnel.

From a business perspective, this is a double-edged sword. On one hand, AI referrals can deliver highly qualified traffic (someone whose AI already vetted you). Indeed, early data suggests that conversion rates from AI-driven visits can be twice as high as those from standard search​. On the other hand, you lose the opportunity to make a first impression directly. If the AI’s summary of your offerings is lackluster or if incorrect data about your business circulates, potential customers may never engage with you at all. Bain & Company warns that companies failing to optimise for AI “have already started to lose potential customers” without even realising it, simply because the AI never sends those prospects their way​. Unlike in the past, when a curious visitor at least landed on your site (providing an opportunity for retargeting or sign-ups), an AI-mediated journey might skip your site entirely, leaving no trace in your analytics.

From Web 1.0 to Web 4.0 – An Evolution Accelerated by AI

To put this change in context, it helps to see it as the next stage of the web’s evolution. We’ve moved from:

• Web 1.0 - static information portals, to 
• Web 2.0 - interactive and social web, then to 
• Web 3.0 - mobile-first and cloud-driven, with an emphasis on user-generated content and decentralisation. 
• Now, Web 4.0 – often called the “Intelligent Web” – is emerging, characterised by symbiotic human-AI interactions and ubiquitous intelligence. 

This new Web 4.0 era is defined by:

• AI at the Core: Web 4.0 integrates advanced AI and machine learning so that online systems can understand and even anticipate user needs. Websites and apps become smarter, adapting content in real time. Gartner describes this trend as moving to “answer engines,” where generative AI provides direct results instead of traditional search listings​.
  
• Multi-Modal Interfaces: Interaction is no longer confined to clicking and typing. Voice commands, conversational dialogue, augmented reality, and even gestures are becoming part of the experience. For instance, voice assistants and chat interfaces are now common ways users retrieve info that lives on websites (think of asking Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant about a business’ hours or services).
  
• Seamless Integration of Physical and Digital: The lines are blurring between web content and the real world. Web 4.0 envisions use of Internet of Things (IoT) and AR/VR such that, for example, a smart home AI could interact with a retailer’s site to reorder supplies when stocks run low, automatically and invisibly.
  

In short, the web is shifting from a predominantly human-operated medium to a hybrid human-AI ecosystem. We’re witnessing “a change in the world order” for online search and content discovery​. Companies like Google are reorganising their entire platforms around AI to stay ahead of this shift​. For businesses, this isn’t just a tech trend, it’s a strategic inflection point requiring action.

Where to Begin: A Practical The New Purpose of a Website in an AI-Dominated WorldStarting Point

With AI agents handling more of the heavy lifting, it’s fair to ask: “What is the role of a website going forward?” Clearly, websites are not going extinct; humans will continue to browse and buyers will still click the “Purchase” button on e-commerce pages. However, the purpose of a website is evolving. Rather than solely being information hubs or online brochures, successful websites in the age of AI will serve dual roles:

1. Human Experience Hubs: For human visitors, your site must immediately grab attention, build trust, and deliver a compelling experience that goes beyond what an AI summary can convey. Think of this as conversion and branding on overdrive. When a real person lands on your page (perhaps after an AI’s suggestion), the content should be engaging, the design intuitive, and the value proposition crystal clear. There may be fewer human visitors, but those who do arrive are likely more qualified; making each visit more critical to convert. Your site should quickly spark interest and emotion, and provide rich media, storytelling, and personalised touches that an AI cannot replicate in a text summary.
   
2. AI Access to Data and API Endpoints: At the same time, your website must serve as a data source of truth for AI agents. This means providing structured, machine-readable data about your business: prices, inventory, services, hours, locations, reviews, documentation – in formats that AI systems can easily ingest. Increasingly, websites will act as back-end for AI-driven interactions, exposing application programming interfaces (APIs) or feeds that allow AI agents to transact and query information. In effect, part of your web presence is becoming an API endpoint, even if you didn’t formally set out to build one, as AI crawlers will treat your content as data to consume.

In practical terms, we can imagine tomorrow’s website further developing into multiple simultaneous roles:

• Instant Engagement and Conversion (Human-Centred): Serving as a conversion-optimisation centre that immediately addresses a human visitor’s needs and persuades them to take action. Since visitors who arrive via search or referral might only give you a few seconds, content must be sharply focused on pain points and benefits. Strong calls to action, trust signals (testimonials, security badges), and seamless navigation are critical.
  
• Rich, Trust-Building Experiences (Human-Centred): Providing multi-sensory, experiential content that goes beyond text – think interactive demos, videos, or even AR/VR/360 previews of products. These are things that AI agents alone cannot deliver. For example, a travel site might offer an interactive 360° tour of a destination, appealing to the human desire for exploration, while an AI agent might only relay facts like price and weather. You can use your site to tell a story and create an emotional connection that complements the AI’s logical answers.
  
• Source of Structured Information (AI-Centred): Acting as a well-organised data repository for AI systems. This involves implementing structured data (using schema.org markup or similar) so that your content, from product details to FAQs, is easily parsed by AI crawlers. It also means keeping information up-to-date and consistent. If an AI agent queries your site for “latest pricing” or “holiday hours,” that data should be correct and readily accessible via meta tags or an API. Companies that embrace this (for instance, by maintaining robust knowledge graphs and data feeds) will be preferred by AI systems looking for reliable info​rmation.
  
• Transactional Interface for AI (AI-Centred): Enabling AI-driven transactions through APIs or other integrations. This could be as simple as offering an API for ordering or booking, which lets an AI agent directly execute a transaction for a user. Many forward-thinking businesses are already doing this. For example, the restaurant booking platform OpenTable provides an API that ChatGPT plugins use to make dinner reservations​. By offering a machine-friendly way to transact, you ensure that when an AI tries to perform an action on behalf of a user, it can succeed. In the future, more websites may have a parallel “AI storefront” where agents can conduct operations swiftly, while humans still have the traditional interface.
  
• Insight and Data Collection Point (Both): Lastly, websites will remain vital for collecting first-party data and insights. Even AI referrals can drive users into your funnel (e.g. an AI might initiate a free trial sign-up via your site’s backend). Your site should be prepared to capture those leads or data points. For human visits, every click or scroll can feed into personalisation algorithms. For AI interactions, logs of what information agents request can guide your strategy (for instance, if you see many AI queries for a certain product spec, you might highlight it more on your human-facing pages as well).
  

In summary, the website is transforming from a static destination into a dual-purpose platform: one that delivers high-impact experiences for people and provides seamless data access for machines. Companies that adapt their websites to serve both audiences will have a distinct advantage. They’ll engage the dwindling pool of human visitors more effectively and become the go-to sources that AI agents trust (and therefore recommend).

Those that do not adapt, however, risk seeing their hard-earned SEO rankings and traffic dwindle, as competitors scoop up the AI-driven visibility.

What You Should Do Next About Your Website?

All of these changes hinge on one thing: taking proactive steps to evolve. This isn’t about scrapping your existing site and starting from zero. It’s about adapting and augmenting what you have to meet new demands. 

In the next article in this series, we’ll delve into how to approach designing a dual-interface website that serves both humans and AI agents effectively. We’ll explore practical strategies and real-world examples of businesses already embracing this dual approach. By understanding the tactics – from structured data to intelligent user interfaces – you can start planning the transformation of your own digital presence.

If you need help or would like to speak to us about your current website, book in a meeting with our CEO and Chief Maven, Kingston Lee-Young.