Q: How?
A: Talk of the “death of the website” misses the point. What’s dying are bad, impersonal, ad-soaked sites that prioritise clicks over value. Meanwhile, AI-led experiences are booming — and they are websites or apps: ChatGPT, Midjourney and most AI services live on the open web.
The shift we’re entering is as significant as the move from non-responsive sites to mobile-optimised, cloud-hosted ones. Sites that rely on clickbait, ad overload and SEO games will fade. What wins now: trust, usefulness, and a sense that “this site understands me”.
The AI user experience era is the next phase in the web’s evolution. Publishers and media brands can compete on experience and data quality, not just volume. Embrace AI as you embraced mobile and the cloud.
Your advantage as original creators is clear: you can serve steak, not the “hamburgers” produced when others mash up your content. Own the format, the context, and the conversation.
There are two sides to AI UX: firstly, enhanced content creation and production and, secondly, new, intelligent interfaces for consuming that content.
1. Enhancing content creation & production
Most teams already use AI somewhere — photo fixes, grammar help, image or video generation, or general assistants. The next level is native AI in your CMS and workflow:
- Title alternatives, summaries, key takeaways, social sharelines and in-article questions.
- Assisted fact-gathering and structured outlines inside the editor.
- Auto-translation and auto-generation of audio and video, so every article can become a podcast clip or short explainer.
- Curating and securely supplying your data to LLMs for higher-fidelity answers.
Every media team should be running these workflow pilots now — with a clear path to production.
2. Enhanced interfaces: what to build first
- AI news. Let users choose interests and timeframes (eg. Sport + Entertainment, last 48 hours) for a rapid catch-up, then offer a 5—10 minute audio digest or a 15-minute video roundup.
- AI assistants. Go beyond “site chat”. Create news and insight companions, sales / support concierges, or community-specific guides. Make them multilingual by default so English source content can serve Japanese, Icelandic or Arabic audiences seamlessly.
- AI-enhanced search. Add AI overviews to site search for fast, trustworthy synthesis — then allow drill-down to sources. A hybrid (AI overview + classic results) is a quick, high-impact win.
- Article questions. Replace bland “related articles” with AI-generated questions at the end (or within) pieces. They prompt deeper exploration tailored to the reader’s intent.
- AI analysts. Layer analyst-grade Q&A over your proprietary content and data so users can interrogate it directly. This is a bigger, customised investment — but often delivers more value than generic data tools.
- Site AI. The destination is a website that holds intelligent, focused conversations with every visitor and adapts format on the fly — text, audio, video, charts — based on how each person prefers to consume information.
AI’s impact is obvious in our tools, but too rarely in our user experiences. The next 12—24 months are a window to move decisively towards Site AI. Those who do will set the standard; those who don’t will be eclipsed by platforms and competitors that deliver personal, helpful, and truly modern experiences.
Q: What are your three top tips?
- Get hands-on. Spend real time with tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Build a feel for what “good” looks like today — speed, clarity, helpful follow-ups, and sensible guardrails.
- Run safe experiments now. Pilot internally and with trusted clients. The biggest adoption blocker isn’t capability — it’s fear of AI “messing things up”. Swap fear for FOMO: every month you delay is time competitors (or major platforms) gain on you.
- Iterate in public. Nothing is perfect on day one. Ship small, explain limitations, share tips for getting the best results, and keep improving. Clear micro-guides make new AI features indispensable.
Markus and the other contributors to our AI Special took part in an ‘AI Special – Q&A’ webinar on 18th November. You can watch a recording of the webinar by registering here
Affino delivers dynamic AI-enhanced customer experiences from your content. Our Unified Platform and AI plugins add personalisation, automation, AI enhanced search, smart adaptive analytics, and conversion funnels. This increases productivity and speed of execution. Affino provides hands-on leadership and services that has helped our clients consistently outperform their rivals.
Email: markus.karlsson@affino.com
Website: www.affino.com
This article was included in the AI Special, published by InPublishing in October 2025. Click here to see the other articles in this special feature.
