AI: The Future of Corporate Websites

When we think about the future of corporate websites, it’s clear that AI will be shaking things up in a big way. Just a year ago, we used AI to boost our content. But now, the focus has shifted. We’re striving to understand how customers use AI and what that means for businesses, their websites, and their digital strategies.

This shift highlights a major change in the digital world. It’s no longer enough to just use AI for content creation and management. Companies need to adapt to a reality where AI influences how consumers behave, their expectations, and how we interact online.

By understanding how customers leverage AI, businesses can tweak their strategies to meet these new demands. This way, their websites will stay relevant, engaging, and effective in delivering what users are looking for.

The drivers of change

When it comes to training Large Language Models (LLMs), like GPT-3 and BERT, there’s a lot of data involved. Here’s a peek into where this massive amount of information comes from.

1. Common Crawl

Think of Common Crawl as a giant archive of the web. Since 2008, it’s been collecting petabytes of data from across the internet to essentially “save the web.” It’s like a massive digital snapshot of what’s online.

2. OpenWebText2

OpenWebText2 is an updated version of OpenWebTextCorpus. It’s got all the posts from Reddit, dating back from 2005 up to April 2020. This helps models understand how people chat and share information in those online communities.

3. BookCorpus

BookCorpus, which includes Books1 and Books2, is a treasure trove of book texts and makes up about 16% of the data used to train GPT-3. It’s like having a huge library of books for models to learn from.

4. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a familiar source for many. It’s a huge online encyclopedia with a wealth of information. It’s used extensively to help LLMs get a solid grasp of factual content and general knowledge.

These sources give LLMs a diverse range of information, helping them understand and generate human-like text more effectively.

By combining these sources, AI models gain a comprehensive view of language and user behavior, which enhances their ability to generate relevant and accurate responses.

Effects on user interaction

A recent Storyblok survey shows how AI is shaking up the way people research brands and products online. Instead of sticking with traditional search filters, users are now enjoying more intuitive, conversational interactions. For example, platforms like ChatGPT let users find what they’re looking for without sifting through preset filters, making the experience much more personalized and engaging.

Take Booking.com as an example. Over the years, they’ve continuously adapted to meet users’ growing expectations for personalization. Initially, Booking.com offered a simple search with a few filters for things like location, price, and availability. As user needs evolved, they expanded their filters to include over 170 options by 2022, covering everything from amenities and accessibility features to specifics like "pet-friendly" or "eco-friendly."

Even with all these filters, Booking.com realized that users were still struggling to find exactly what they wanted. That’s where AI comes in. By integrating AI, Booking.com and other platforms are moving towards a more intuitive experience.

Now, instead of navigating a maze of filters, users can chat with AI-powered bots that understand natural language. So, if someone types, "Find me a family-friendly hotel with a heated pool near theme parks in Florida," the AI can quickly deliver the best options.

As people get more used to these AI-driven interactions, their expectations are only going to get higher.

The impact on corporate websites

The way users’ expectations are changing, as seen with platforms like Booking.com, really shows how crucial AI is for the future of corporate websites. Embracing AI for personalization and creating user-friendly interfaces is key for businesses to keep up with what customers now expect. By doing this, companies can not only meet but surpass these evolving demands, keeping their audience engaged and thriving in the digital world.

Content creation and management: 83% of marketers already use AI

With the explosion of online content now reaching zettabytes, it’s clear that managing all this data effectively is more important than ever.

A zettabyte is a massive unit of digital information. To give you a sense of scale, one zettabyte equals one trillion gigabytes.

Just a few years ago, the total amount of data created, captured, and consumed globally was projected to reach several zettabytes annually. As of now, this number has only grown, and we're dealing with even more data.

This explosion in data volume makes managing and making sense of all this information much more challenging. Corporate websites and content management systems need advanced technologies like AI to help process, organize, and analyze this massive amount of data effectively. Without these tools, it would be nearly impossible to handle the sheer scale of content we're dealing with.

And it’s not just about handling data; AI is also helping marketers. In fact, 83% of them think AI can automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for more strategic work. This shift highlights using AI to make content workflows smoother and boost productivity.

User journeys

Navigating the user journey from first hearing about your brand to making a purchase has become pretty complicated. Companies now have to manage many touchpoints to keep users engaged and help them make decisions.

Take B2B SaaS companies, for example. They often deal with up to 54 different touchpoints from the first contact to generating a lead. It’s crucial to stay on top of those interactions to adapt to how user behaviors are shifting, especially with AI involved.

Managing and optimizing all these touchpoints is a big task. Each one influences how users see your brand and their decision-making process. Here’s how companies can handle it.

• Personalized Content: Use AI to understand what users like and deliver content that fits their needs at different stages. For example, share specific case studies or success stories with users who are evaluating their options.
• Data Integration: Combine data from various touchpoints to get a complete picture of the user journey. This helps in spotting patterns and tweaking your strategy to boost engagement and conversion rates.
• AI-Driven Insights: Let AI track and analyze how users interact across touchpoints. AI can reveal which touchpoints are working best and where users might be losing interest, so you can make smart improvements.

Rethinking SEO and Content Strategies

As AI continues to evolve, it's also changing traditional SEO practices. With AI-driven search engines like Google's AI Overviews becoming more common, businesses need to rethink how they optimize their content. It’s not just about sprinkling in keywords anymore. Now, it’s about crafting content that AI can understand and respond to effectively.

Take ChatGPT as an example. These models are great at generating content, handling user interactions, and analyzing data. They can make user experiences smoother by providing quick, smart answers to questions. But this also means we need to adjust how we think about SEO.

Instead of focusing solely on keywords, consider how users naturally phrase their questions. For instance, instead of just targeting “best travel destinations,” think about how someone might ask, “What are the top travel spots for a family vacation?” Creating high-quality content that answers these kinds of questions makes it more likely that LLMs will recognize and use it.

Keeping an eye on how LLMs generate responses based on your content is crucial. You’ll want to regularly check and ensure these models represent your brand accurately and maintain high quality.

Before AI became a major player, search results primarily featured snippets and organic listings. These traditional results were the main focus for driving clicks and traffic. However, with the introduction of AI Overviews (AIO) by Google and similar features like Bing Copilot, the landscape has shifted dramatically.

Optimizing for AI involves a few key areas. Keep your content keyword-rich and relevant for traditional search engines. Use keywords naturally to stay visible in search results. Make your content easy for AI to understand by using clear, structured formats. Schema markup and structured data can help AI models interpret your content better.

While AI Search Interfaces and AI tools can be incredibly useful, they’re not perfect. They might produce incorrect or misleading information, and relying too much on them can reduce human oversight. As we move forward, the key will be finding a balance—leveraging the benefits of LLMs while keeping an eye on their limitations.

According to a Gartner survey, consumers are gearing up for AI-enhanced search, with 79% planning to use it within the next year. By 2028, we could see brands' organic search traffic drop by 50% or more as generative AI-powered search engines take over. The rapid rise of GenAI is set to shake up how CMOs use organic search to drive sales.

The future of corporate websites

Corporate websites of the future are set to undergo some big changes to keep up with new user expectations and tech advancements. To stay ahead and really shine, businesses should focus on a few key areas.

To block or not to block your website from AI bots

The first question any website has to answer is: Do I want to block my website and its content from being accessed and scraped by AI bots?

Blocking LLMs keeps your content away from AI systems, so you don’t have to worry about it being used or misrepresented by these models. By blocking access, you minimize the risk of your content being interpreted incorrectly by AI, which helps maintain its integrity.

Blocking LLMs from accessing your content doesn’t mean your brand disappears from their radar. LLMs usually gather information from all over the web, so if other sites like Wikipedia or review articles mention you, the LLMs will still have some info about your brand. Basically, if you block your own website, you’re giving up some control over how LLMs perceive you.

Our recommendation is to embrace optimization to stay ahead of the curve and leverage the power of AI to enhance your brand’s presence.

When you optimize your content for LLMs, you make sure it's more likely to show up in AI-generated responses, which can help you reach more people. Well-optimized content can lead to more relevant and useful AI responses, which means better engagement from users who rely on AI for information. By optimizing now, you're getting ahead of future trends and ensuring your content is ready for the next wave of technology.

Optimizing content for LLMs does require some additional effort to make sure it’s structured in a way that AI models can understand. Even with optimization, there’s still a chance that AI might misinterpret your content, which could affect how your brand is perceived.

So, while blocking might seem like a way to protect your content, optimizing it will probably bring you more benefits in terms of visibility and engagement.

What does it take to stay relevant?

1. Detailed and structured metadata

Having detailed, well-organized information about your products and brand is becoming a must. This helps search engines and AI tools understand and showcase what you offer more accurately.

2. Quality over quantity

It’s no longer enough to just churn out lots of material; your content needs to deeply address individual customer needs. Move away from the one-size-fits-all approach and make sure your content provides real value and solutions tailored to your audience's unique challenges and interests.

3. Varied user journeys

Users’ paths are becoming more diverse, with the initial discovery often happening outside your own channels. This means they might come to your site already well-informed. Your content strategy should be flexible enough to cater to different stages of their journey.

4. Focus on empathetic content

To stand out, your website should offer high-quality, empathetic content that addresses specific customer problems and needs. The selfish content should be pushed down to the bottom of your funnel.

5. Optimized for AI

Providing detailed and relevant meta information will help boost your visibility and ensure that your content is accurately understood and presented by AI systems.

Websites of the future will thrive by blending structured information with high-quality content, all while being optimized for both human users and AI systems. Embracing these changes will help you deliver exceptional user experiences and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital world.

This article is based on insights from the OMR Masterclass: VI 2024 Webinar presented by Timo Mayer and Thomas Peham.

Learn More

• Discover How Brands and Consumers are Transforming with AI-Driven Content
• Webinar on-demand: The Future of Corporate Websites
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