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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 online has been our playground, our office, our excessive avenue and our therapist’s sofa. But it surely’s additionally been totally designed for us easy people who sort, faucet, click on and scroll. Interfaces constructed for eyes. Navigation designed for fingers. Determination timber dressed up as web sites.
However right here’s the reality: We’re not going to be the online’s major customers for for much longer.
AI brokers primarily based on ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude and Gemini are shifting from passive assistants to energetic individuals. In the present day, 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 attempting 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 obtained fingers. It really works, for now, but it surely’s wildly inefficient.
Bear in mind when automobiles first appeared on horse trails? Properly, I don’t however I do know the story. It labored, barely. Till somebody realized pace requires tarmac. The identical logic applies to the online. AI brokers aren’t going to only be digital chauffeurs. They’re going to be drivers that navigate, resolve and transact. Quick. With out us within the loop.
We’re about to wish a brand new internet.
AI brokers require machine-native design
What does the internet appear to be when it’s constructed for machines?
It’s quick. Invisible. Transactional. Pages develop into endpoints. Interfaces dissolve. There aren’t any “click on right here” buttons. Simply structured information, unstructured context, uncovered capabilities and intent flowing between methods.
APIs will develop into the brand new storefronts. AI doesn’t must learn a product web page or scroll by means of a evaluation carousel. It must ask one query: “Is that this the most suitable choice primarily based on my person’s preferences, finances and priorities?” And it wants that reply immediately.
Your complete structure of the web will bend towards AI-native interfaces. Quicker 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 study from person outcomes. Status, construction and verification alerts will matter greater than design.
And abruptly, “person expertise” takes on a special that means. You’re not designing for a distracted shopper. You’re designing for an artificial mind with infinite tabs open and nil tolerance for friction.
Two webs, one future
So what occurs subsequent?
We might 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 adjustments all the things:
- search engine optimization 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 format to latency.
Effectivity and trustable develop into 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’ll deal with their AI compatibility the best way they as soon as handled cell optimization or safety.
As a result of in 5 years, it gained’t be a human clicking “purchase now.” It’ll be your AI agent, performing in your behalf, making tons of of selections a day — not simply purchases, however scheduling conferences, reserving journey, screening content material and negotiating providers throughout each area of digital life.
And it gained’t select the prettiest website, 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 principles of the online.
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 developed for automobiles, the online 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 probably by) them.
Justin Westcott leads the worldwide know-how sector for Edelman.
