Will AI KILL Websites as we know them?

Today, I was reading an email Rand Fishkin sent in response to a journalist.

For a while now, Rand has been sounding the alarm about:

• The decline of search click-through rates

• The vanishing of organic traffic

• Platforms rewriting their feeds to trap users inside, blocking outbound clicks

• And the evolving role of digital marketers

Here’s Rand’s email:

I’d seen this pattern before—and felt its impact.

BUT...

Today, while searching on Google, it hit me: the problem runs far deeper than we thought.

Much, MUCH deeper.

Take a look at my SERP (I just did). What do you see?

Any small business? Startup? Blog? No.

Now, scroll down to the next half:

You find YouTube, after AI-generated answers. Still no trace of the little guys.

Keep scrolling:

Third scroll: Still no small business, blog, or startup.

Finally, the fourth scroll:

FINALLY! One lonely link—from Jonathan Mast, a personal blog.

Now, mix Rand’s insights with my firsthand experience — and the fact we know social platforms no longer optimize for followers but for interest and engagement, and ask yourself:

What does this mean for you?

These digital behemoths — and AI itself — are not just shaping the web. They’re taking it over.

Just to terrify you — and make it more clear — let me lean into the sci-fi here:

Picture the internet as the universe. Social platforms? They’re the Earth.

AI is the collective brain — or consciousness — animating it all.

With interest-based algorithms, people won’t roam freely. They'll cluster in tribes, each echo chamber curated by AI.

Once AI fully integrates with your social profiles, those profiles get smart. They’ll write. They’ll read. They’ll engage. They’ll sell. Hell, They'll talk to each other. All without you leaving the platform.

You’re already 90% inside this ecosystem of behemoths.

Why build an eCommerce site when you can sell directly on TikTok or Instagram?

Why maintain a personal blog when LinkedIn and X offer the tools AND the audience?

Why visit a website for answers when AI chatbots integrated in your social feed deliver them instantly?

This means that the direction of all tech giants are moving towards dominating the internet and making it their playground.

And establishing a kind of dominance in which living outside their infrastructure of these platforms will be impossible.

I'd argue it is already impossible.

If there is some freedom today to grab a piece of internet's real state (call it a website) and direct traffic to it, soon it will be over.

You can only rent real estate from the giants.

The metaverse isn’t just a concept; it’s happening now.

Beyond what Rand suggests in the short term, long-term marketing will look very different.

Traditional ads? Marketing gimmicks? They’ll fade away — except perhaps on the giant social platforms themselves. AI will absorb the need for most educational or logical content.

As technology use and social isolation rise, people will crave something rare: real, authentic human experiences centered around shared interests.

The tools and businesses we know? They’ll become obsolete when your AI agent can do everything for you—in minutes.

What kinds of businesses will exist?

That would be the billion dollar question.

I know what i described might seem too far from us today, but i think will come sooner that we think.

What do you think?