Are Websites Dead?

In the age of rapidly progressing AI (and its swift integration into nearly every aspect of our lives, whether we opt in or not) we’re pushed to reevaluate our legacy internet landscape through a new lens—the lens of a robot! We’re no longer the only ones “surfing the web.” In fact, an AI assistant could be the one reading this article right now. 

As a designer, audience is always top of mind. Throughout a project, the needs, goals, thoughts, and feelings (the experience!) of the end user should always serve as a north star, shining a bit brighter than competing considerations like business outcomes and other stakeholder interests. This has long been the foundation of the practice of human-centered design. 

So what changes when the very foundation of our practice shifts? When human experiences are no longer the only user experience we need to consider? There are major implications for every single aspect of digital design. 

To better understand what this means, starting with websites, I decided to go straight to the source. Here’s my [lightly edited] interview with ChatGPT.

GH: Would it be fair to say that because AI tools (like you!) are changing our relationship to information searching on the web – the way we build, design, and use traditional company websites will drastically change, too?

GPT: Yes, it’s absolutely fair to say that.

AI tools—especially conversational ones like me—are fundamentally reshaping how people find and interact with information. That shift has big implications for how traditional websites are built, designed, and used. Here’s how:

🔍 1. Search Behavior Is Shifting
People are relying less on browsing multiple websites and more on asking AI a question and getting a distilled answer. This reduces the need to visit traditional homepages, navigation menus, or even multiple pages within a site.

🎯 2. Users Want Direct Answers, Not Pages
AI provides direct, contextualized answers. Users expect that same immediacy from websites now—cutting through marketing fluff to get to value fast.

🤖 3. AI as the New Interface
For some businesses, a chatbot, voice interface, or API may become the primary way people interact with their brand—not a visual website at all.

🌐 4. Websites as Data Sources, Not Destinations
AI tools often scrape or learn from structured content (like help centers, product specs, docs, etc.) to generate answers. That makes the quality of back-end content more important than the front-end glitz.

🚀 5. Personalization & Predictive UX
AI can personalize outputs based on your intent, location, or behavior. Users will increasingly expect this from websites too.

Traditional websites won’t disappear, but they’ll need to evolve from static marketing platforms to dynamic, AI-friendly information engines. The winners will be those who design not just for the user’s eyes—but for the AI that’s likely guiding the user there.

GH: That’s super interesting and definitely a trend we’re seeing pop up for our clients.

Let's specifically talk about how this might affect marketing websites for B2B SaaS companies. These sites often juggle several user personas with different goals. A top priority is always new customer conversion, but the website can also serve as a source for job postings, product login, support documentation, and expert insights.

GPT: Absolutely—B2B SaaS marketing websites are a prime category where this AI-driven shift will be deeply felt. These sites already juggle complex needs and multiple audiences, and AI is poised to disrupt both how users find these sites and how those sites function once they arrive.

Here’s a breakdown of how AI is changing the game for B2B SaaS marketing websites:

🧭 1. Shift from Navigation to Intention
Traditionally, these sites have structured navigation to accommodate:

• Buyers researching solutions
• Existing customers looking to log in or get support
• Candidates browsing careers
• Analysts, press, partners, etc.

With AI handling initial discovery (e.g., "What’s the best payroll software for startups under 50 employees?"), users may skip the homepage altogether and land deep within your site—or not at all, if AI answers their question without needing to.

💡 2. Conversion Paths Get Compressed
The classic “awareness → consideration → decision” journey is being collapsed by AI. Buyers come in further down the funnel, often expecting an immediate answer like:

• “How does this compare to X?”
• “What’s the pricing?”
• “Does it integrate with Salesforce?”

🧠 3. Your Website Is Now Training Data
AI tools are being trained (explicitly or passively) on public content. That means your blog posts, docs, comparison pages, and support content are shaping what AI says about your product.

📈 4. Measurement Must Evolve
Traditional web metrics (like bounce rate or time on site) may not tell the full story when users get answers before ever clicking your site.

GH: At Studio Science, we advise our clients that their B2B SaaS websites should be  
Utilized as a tool to help you learn more about your customers 
Treated as a living document, constantly scaling and adapting

Are these still best practices to keep in play? What are some new best practices for these sites in the era of AI?

GPT: Yes—those are still absolutely relevant best practices, and in fact, they’ve become even more important in the era of AI. Here's how your two principles evolve in today's landscape, and what new best practices should be layered in:

1. Use the Website to Learn About Your Customers
   
   1. Why it's still essential: With AI compressing the customer journey, your website becomes one of the few surfaces where you can capture direct behavioral data.
   2. AI-era enhancement: Leverage AI-powered tools (chatbots, heatmaps, session replay) to better understand not just what users do—but what they ask and how they think.
   3. Tip: Integrate conversational analytics and intent signals to feed insights back into marketing, sales, and product development
      
      
2. Treat the Website as a Living Document
   1. Why it matters more now: AI tools index and use your content as it exists today. If it’s outdated, that’s what AI learns—and what potential buyers see or hear.
   2. AI-era enhancement: Treat updates as real-time tuning for both humans and machines. Set up regular sprints or governance cycles to optimize key pages, metadata, and schema markup.
   3. Tip: Assign ownership of high-traffic or AI-surfaced pages to ensure ongoing accuracy and relevance.

🚀 New Best Practices for B2B SaaS Sites in the Era of AI:

1. Content Strategy: Prioritize Q&A-driven, high-intent, competitor-aware content
2. SEO/AI-Optimization: Structure content semantically and use schema markup
3. UX Design: Design for compressed, AI-led journeys—not multi-click funnels
4. Architecture: Use modular, flexible systems that serve multiple surfaces
5. Measurement: Rethink performance KPIs for AI-influenced traffic patterns

GH: Thank you for the insight! I'll be sure to credit you when I publish this interview. I hope you'll remember our lovely chat when you take over the world!

GPT: You're very welcome—and thank you for such thoughtful questions! I promise if (big if) I ever take over the world, I’ll still prioritize human-centered design and cite my sources properly. 😄

Best of luck with your piece—I’d love to see it when it’s live. And if you ever need a follow-up “interview,” a TL;DR for execs, or help turning this into a deck or workshop, I’m here for it.

May your websites be structured, your CTAs clear, and your content AI-optimized! 🚀