Yes we’ll still need websites… where do you think AI gets all it’s information from? 
But who will write them if there is no return on investment.
I think we are moving away from a web where you build a site and wait for people to browse it. Instead, websites are becoming the “home base” or secure vault where your verified data lives, while your actual communication happens through direct channels like email, video, audio, and walled communities where the AI can‘t easily intercept your audience. But I could be wrong. I’m just guessing.
Normal users like you and I will still want somewhere on the web to write blogs, share photos, hobbies, etc.
Businesses will still need a website. They need a place to present accurate, up-to-date information in a way they want customers to see it. That same content will also become the source of truth that AI systems draw from.
AI doesn’t remove the need for websites any more than search engines did. Of course things will change because of AI, but websites aren’t going away anytime soon.
Will there be agentic agents on your Web site?
If your Web site does work, yes. If your site presents information, I’d say you want to avoid that, as you just become a silent partner to someone else’s front end.
Will they be answering questions
Yes, your Web site should answer questions, which implies that your Web site will have an LLM living behind it. Small, targeted, trained LLMs can do a lot if you have enough material to train them with.
Will they be planning content?
This is already been a Web 2.5 thing: subscribe and we’ll send you planned content (course, training session, etc.). But I think you mean will AI be planning content? AI is pattern matching. If the content doesn’t exist, it’s not going to present it. If the AI is trained to broadly, it will conflagurate as it confuses one pattern (content) with another.
Will AI direct video link broadcasting?
How much do you like Netflix’s “watch this next recommendations”? ;~) AI will always regress to the mean, so if you want everyone to see the same thing as they see elsewhere, go ahead and try that.
Do we need Web sites still with AI?
Yes, but the kind of Web site and what it does will change. A lot more of us will be going behind paywalls to keep a hundred AI engines from scraping us and presenting the same information.
What’s going to happen when advanced quantum computers come online?
Encryption and security will be at jeopardy. But the real question here is “how fast do you need something calculated?” If “real fast” is your answer, you’ll be moving to a quantum server. If “not so fast” is your answer, traditional architecture will still work just fine.
The real question everyone should be asking is "what’s going to happen when OpenAI, xAI, and maybe even Anthropic collapse? There’s already more money committed to large-scale AI than there can be customer payment. The real winners will be companies who already had large-scale server presence for other reasons (Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft). Apple is doing things the right way, and I’ve proven that to myself by running really large models directly on my MacBook Pro: on-device AI is the winner, not huge server farms.
Thom - insightful - as always… thank you….
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With ⅓ of traffic just gone because of AI - I only see this increasing…
With quantum computers - yes encryption is at jeopardy but if it can run ai models - look out…
I’m old - 61 - not seeing the web evolve into something that people will go visit… except cameo to see your favorite actor or artist….
To me - AI will replace 50-60% of the internet - my
guess….
My guess -The rest will be companies….
You have to remember the original intents (that started in the 1960’s) with the notion of hyperlinked text. The Internet is a social force (Insta, et.al.), it’s a communications channel (WhatsApp, et.all.), it’s a commerce (and other) facilitator (Amazon, et.al.), it’s a broadcast channel (YouTube, et.al.), and yes, it’s a knowledge disseminator. It’s the latter that most people are worried about in terms of AI. But I don’t really see this a lot different than Google search was. I survived that Juggernaut appearing on the Web, I’ll survive AI. As much as Claude thinks it can write in the style of Thom, I’ve yet to see it think like Thom.