AI Strategy Starts with Your Boring Website

For years, we treated the website like yesterday’s news. A destination. A brochure. A conversion surface.

I’ll own it: when I led digital worldwide at Nestlé, I gave brand websites very little respect.

“We need to meet consumers where they are" was our common refrain (reinforced by Big Tech ad sales teams).

And at the time, maybe that was true.

Then AI changed the rules.

In an answer-driven world, FAQs, PDPs, and plain-spoken explanations are doing the work ads used to do—only now they’re read by humans and machines.

AI doesn’t reward slogans.

It rewards clarity.

It amplifies whatever your website actually explains—or avoids.

If your site can’t answer real questions, AI will.

And you may not like the answers. So why not invest in making sure your story shows up right?

After thousands of brand audits, one pattern is consistent: when consumers ask questions about you—or your category (e.g., “What’s the best toothpaste?”), LLMs go to websites first.

Not TikTok influencers. Not YouTube videos. Not even Reddit, Inc..

Oh, one more thing.

When consumers ask questions (especially a SERIOUS question), DON'T insult them with a pop-up ad, a click-to-buy listing, or promotional noise.

"Performance" and conversion counts...but in the right context.

Channel the consumer-smarts of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok instead.

Be respectful. Be empathetic.

Be genuinely enthusiastic about the question.

Boring? Maybe.

Strategic? Absolutely.