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We’re on the cusp of a elementary redesign of the web. Not a facelift. A full-body transplant.
For greater than 30 years, the net has been our playground, our office, our excessive avenue and our therapist’s sofa. However it’s additionally been solely designed for us easy people who sort, faucet, click on and scroll. Interfaces constructed for eyes. Navigation designed for fingers. Choice timber dressed up as web sites.
However right here’s the reality: We’re not going to be the net’s main customers for for much longer.
AI brokers primarily based on ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude and Gemini are shifting from passive assistants to energetic members. At present, we ask them to do issues for us. Tomorrow, we’ll authorize them to behave as us.
And proper now, we’re asking Ferraris to drive on cobblestone.
AI is already making an attempt to function inside a human-shaped world. Clicking buttons. Dragging cursors. Filling out varieties. It’s like placing a robotic in a glove and telling it to fake it’s bought fingers. It really works, for now, but it surely’s wildly inefficient.
Keep in mind when automobiles first appeared on horse trails? Effectively, I don’t however I do know the story. It labored, barely. Till somebody realized velocity requires tarmac. The identical logic applies to the net. AI brokers aren’t going to only be digital chauffeurs. They’re going to be drivers that navigate, determine and transact. Quick. With out us within the loop.
We’re about to wish a brand new net.
AI brokers require machine-native design
What does the net seem like when it’s constructed for machines?
It’s quick. Invisible. Transactional. Pages turn out to be endpoints. Interfaces dissolve. There are not any “click here” buttons. Simply structured information, unstructured context, uncovered capabilities and intent flowing between programs.
APIs will turn out to be the brand new storefronts. AI doesn’t have to learn a product web page or scroll via a overview carousel. It must ask one query: “Is this the best option based on my user’s preferences, budget and priorities?” And it wants that reply immediately.
The whole structure of the web will bend towards AI-native interfaces. Sooner protocols. Cleaner metadata. Verifiable sources. Belief turns into the forex as a result of AI can’t depend on vibes. Brokers will assess supply reliability, cross-check information and be taught from person outcomes. Status, construction and verification indicators will matter greater than design.
And all of the sudden, “user experience” takes on a distinct which means. You’re not designing for a distracted shopper. You’re designing for an artificial mind with infinite tabs open and 0 tolerance for friction.
Two webs, one future
So what occurs subsequent?
We could find yourself with two parallel webs. One for people that is still visible, persuasive, gradual. One for machines that’s minimal, environment friendly, quick.
However extra seemingly, the longer term is layered. Each digital floor will want a machine-readable pores and skin. Your web site, your content material, your commerce, if it’s not optimized for autonomous brokers, it’s invisible.
This modifications all the things:
search engine marketing turns into MEO: machine expertise optimization.
Content material turns into information.
Model belief turns into much more quantifiable and clear.
Affect shifts from design to accessibility, from structure to latency.
Effectivity and trustable turn out to be key web site differentiators. The manufacturers that embrace this shift early to construct AI-ready entrance doorways, not simply fairly touchdown pages will thrive . . They may deal with their AI compatibility the way in which they as soon as handled cellular optimization or safety.
As a result of in 5 years, it received’t be a human clicking “buy now.” It’ll be your AI agent, appearing in your behalf, making a whole bunch of choices a day — not simply purchases, however scheduling conferences, reserving journey, screening content material and negotiating providers throughout each area of digital life.
And it received’t select the prettiest web site, it’ll select the quickest, most dependable and reliable, most machine-readable one.
Backside line
We’re not simply upgrading browsers. We’re rewriting the foundations of the net.
The previous web was constructed for folks. The brand new one will probably be constructed for brokers. And the businesses that acknowledge this and construct infrastructure, content material and interfaces accordingly, will almost definitely personal the longer term.
Identical to roads advanced for automobiles, the net will evolve for AI.
And the following digital revolution? It’ll be executed in milliseconds by machines, for machines, on an internet designed for (and fairly presumably by) them.
Justin Westcott leads the worldwide expertise sector for Edelman.
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