Your website is not dying. It’s evolving. Is your business ready?
Janne Tuominiemi
AI is revolutionizing consumer behavior to its very foundations, and we are only at the beginning of this development. What does this inevitable change mean for your business, and how can you turn it to your advantage?
The unspoken shift in Digital Customer Experience
In recent years, the world of digital customer experience (DCX) has been dominated by a single truth: the website and e-commerce as your primary business tools. We’ve optimized, A/B tested, and perfected the user journey. But a quiet, yet monumental shift is underway. Instead of viewing AI as just another tool, we should recognize it as the force fundamentally reshaping customer-brand interactions and what a “website” even means.
Our claim at Hion is clear: the future of digital UX is agentic and multimodal. This profound evolution makes your current digital assets more valuable, not obsolete. Our new vision is to pioneer the future of digital customer experience, driving our clients’ business success through agentic intelligence and multimodal experiences.
Point 1: The AI-altered customer journey
Think about your own online habits. How often do you start your search on a website versus asking an AI assistant? AI is changing the customer journey, creating what we call a “Zero Clicks” reality. The traditional marketing funnel is transforming into something shorter, smarter, and more valuable.
The top of the funnel – the “Awareness” and “Interest” stages – is being automated by conversational AI and search assistants.
Instead of a high volume of low-intent clicks, these AI assistants can push highly qualified, high-intent customers directly to the “Decision” stage of the journey.
This change redefines the purpose of your website. Its purpose has expanded beyond a simple conversion path to become a true data powerhouse and a destination for brand experience. Your website becomes the critical source of first-party data, providing insights to personalize experiences across all channels. More than that, it’s the central hub for creating “wow” moments through exceptional design and engaging content.
Point 2: The future of UX is agentic and multimodal
AI is not just altering the journey; it’s transforming the user experience itself. Multimodal and conversational interfaces are augmenting and enhancing the traditional web and mobile experiences. Leading industry analysts confirm this trend: Gartner predicts that by 2027, 40% of Generative AI solutions will be multimodal. This development is also backed by explosive market growth. According to Research Nester, the global Multimodal AI market is expected to grow from $2.35 billion in 2025 to over $55.54 billion by 2035, accelerating at a staggering compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.2%.
This means the web is becoming:
- Multimodal: Interacting through more than just clicks and text. Users will increasingly use voice, images, and other sensory inputs to engage with your brand.
- Agentic: The passive website becomes a home for a suite of proactive, personalized AI agents. These agents act as extensions of your brand, anticipating user needs and operating across the entire customer journey.
Ultimately, these changes extend the power of your website rather than replacing it. Your beautifully designed web entity with structured content still matters immensely. It’s the essential headless hub and digital experience platform (DXP) that feeds all of these new touchpoints, ensuring your brand’s voice and data are consistent and trusted everywhere.
Your next step in the AI era
Future success hinges on seamlessly integrating AI with your web presence. While AI is transforming the customer journey, your website remains the indispensable foundation for building a successful, future-ready business. This is where your first-party data resides, where your brand’s unique story comes to life, and where conversion still happens.
So, what are the concrete steps to embrace this multimodal, agentic future?
- Stop thinking in siloes. The future isn’t about AI projects; it’s about AI-augmented experiences. Ensure your tech, design, and data strategies are unified and working toward the same goal. Treat your website as the core of your digital CX – the central hub from which all intelligent experiences are powered..
- Invest in your foundation. To power intelligent agents and conversational interfaces, you need clean, structured, and credible content. Your website must become a robust data powerhouse, built on a future-ready, headless architecture.
- Start small, but start now. The shift is already happening, and waiting for a full-scale AI revolution isn’t an option. Begin with low-risk pilot projects or “agentic add-ons” that demonstrate immediate value, like a multimodal search or an AI-powered content assistant.
- Embrace sustainability and purpose. As digital experiences become more complex, so does their environmental impact. Prioritize partners who build efficient, low-carbon solutions. This not only benefits the planet but also strengthens your brand’s ethical standing in the market.
Forget the narrative of the dying website. The reality is far more exciting: it’s evolving into a more powerful and central part of your business than ever before. The key is to be a part of that evolution.
If the shift described in this blog raises questions, you’ll get the answers in our webinar on October 7th. Join us to hear, together with a Google expert, how you can turn the disruption brought by AI into a business advantage.
