Every generation believes its technological disruption is unprecedented, yet history shows that old interfaces fade slowly. Are we witnessing the decline of websites in favour of AI agents?
Image: Independent Newspapers / File.
Every generation believes its technological disruption is unprecedented.
In most cases they are wrong.
History shows that technological change often follows a familiar pattern: old interfaces do not disappear overnight, they slowly become less central until one day society realises it has moved on.
We saw this happen when print lost its monopoly on information to digital media.
Then came the rise of the website.
In the early days of the internet, what technologists now call Web 1.0, websites functioned largely as digital brochures.
They were static, informational, and transactional. Businesses rushed online simply to prove they existed.
Then Web 2.0 arrived.
Platforms became interactive.
Search engines such as Google reshaped discovery.
Social media companies such as Meta Platforms transformed communication.
Entire industries reorganised around websites as the primary gateway to consumers.
I entered the technology industry during that transition and witnessed how dramatically it changed business models.
Then came another shift.
The smartphone era.
As mobile devices began replacing desktop computers as tools of productivity, applications became the dominant interface.
Businesses that once obsessed over websites redirected resources toward mobile-first experiences.
Companies that failed to adapt were left behind.
Today, we are witnessing another transition, one that may prove even more consequential.
We are moving from websites and apps toward AI agents.
This shift deserves far more attention from business leaders than it is currently receiving.
Like all technological transitions, legacy systems will not disappear entirely.
Websites will continue to exist just as newspapers still exist.
Mobile apps will remain relevant just as desktop software remains useful in certain contexts.
But their dominance is beginning to weaken. Why?
Because the internet is moving away from tools that require constant human intervention.
A traditional website waits.
It waits for you to search, click,compare and decide.
AI agents do not wait.
They act by carrying what they understand about your intentions.
That distinction changes everything.Instead of manually navigating dozens of websites, consumers will increasingly delegate tasks to AI systems.
Shopping may become one of the earliest industries to feel this disruption.
For years, e-commerce businesses invested heavily in visual persuasion that involved beautiful homepage banners, cart animations, emotional storytelling, carefully designed landing pages and product photography
These design choices made perfect sense when humans were the primary decision-makers.
But what happens when the buyer is no longer directly browsing your site?
Imagine a consumer telling an AI assistant:
"Find me a waterproof minimalist backpack under R5,000 that fits a 15-inch laptop."
That request may be fulfilled by an AI assistant from OpenAI, Google, Amazon, or future specialised agents we have not yet seen.
The consumer may never visit your homepage.
They may never see your beautifully designed product carousel and may never engage with your emotional marketing copy.
Their AI agent will simply look at these factors and data points: price, reviews, product dimensions, return policies, durability, availability and delivery speed.
Based on this information it will then make a recommendation, or complete the purchase. This is the rise of agentic commerce.
And it fundamentally changes most that we know about digital strategy.
The new storefront is no longer your website homepage.
It is the algorithmic recommendation layer inside someone else’s AI assistant.
That should deeply concern companies whose digital strategy remains centered on human browsing behavior. Businesses must begin preparing for machine-readable commerce.
That includes investing in structured product data, API accessibility,transparent pricing histories,interoperable inventory systems, machine-readable product specifications and real-time fulfillment capabilities.In this new world, clarity beats cleverness.
Precision beats aesthetics. Structured information may become more valuable than award-winning web design. This transition extends beyond retail.
It will include the following businesses that are in travel, media, finance, healthcare and professional services firms.
Any organisation that depends on customers manually navigating websites should be paying attention.
This does not mean websites disappear tomorrow.
It means their role is changing—from primary interface to infrastructure layer.
That is precisely what happened to print.
It did not vanish.It simply stopped being the dominant medium.
The same may soon happen to websites. What I’ve observed is that history tends to be unforgiving toward businesses that mistake temporary dominance for permanence.
The leaders who thrive in the next decade will not be those who build prettier websites.
They will be those who understand that increasingly, their most important customer may not be human at all.
Wesley Diphoko is a Technology Analyst and the Editor-In-Chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine.
Wesley Diphoko is a Technology Analyst and Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company (South Africa) magazine.
Image: Supplied
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