Will people stop visiting websites in 2026?

In the US, Google now has a faceted navigation feature on ecommerce searches that allows users to browse different colors, sizes, and styles of items directly on its site, much like a standard online shopping experience. But instead of viewing one site at a time, users can compare multiple brands and retailers within Google’s own ecosystem.

Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)

Meanwhile, ChatGPT has partnered with Stripe and PayPal to enable online conversions directly within ChatGPT, known as Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP, if you want yet another acronym). This is a significant development and one that could ultimately determine whether a customer converts on your site or a competitor’s, based on which is better prepared for agentic journeys.

To complete a checkout, sites must meet certain requirements. For example, can the bot access the website? Can it find the right product? Can it complete a guest checkout? All of this happens without the user interacting directly with the website. You can already ask ChatGPT to attempt a conversion, and it will tell you what its sticking points are to help you troubleshoot. This is one of many reasons why conversion rate optimization (CRO) is becoming an increasingly important metric within the organic search industry. Google is also developing its own agentic features within AI Mode.

Cultural acceptance

I feel confident predicting that AI Mode and AI Overviews will merge further to become more seamless. This will bring AI Mode functionality into the standard search page and into Google’s ‘new usual’ search experience. Now that ChatGPT is offering ACP, it’s only a matter of time before Google follows suit. Google’s rush to release Bard was a clear sign of how aware the search giant is of ChatGPT's rising popularity and that it doesn’t want to fall behind this new rival.

I don’t believe people will stop visiting websites entirely. Even with the trust that Google and ChatGPT have earned, buying a product directly through their platforms without ever visiting the brand’s site will feel odd for many users, especially with the increasing number of scam websites. It will take time for this to become culturally accepted. People will want to hear from friends who have done it successfully before they adopt this behavior themselves. Capability alone does not equal usability. That said, from a pure user experience perspective, these journeys are far easier, so once cultural acceptance arrives, I believe this could become very popular.

Core purpose

The bigger question then becomes: what should brands actually put on their websites? It remains essential to appear in these results, meaning you cannot abandon content or the technical foundations of SEO, and you certainly cannot scrap your website altogether. Instead, the rise of ACP signals another shift toward websites acting as a library for Google and LLMs to gather information to display directly on their own platforms.

There will still be a place for websites in some industries, especially those built around community engagement, such as Reddit. But AI-driven journeys are moving into more verticals, as demonstrated by the significant impact AI Overviews have already had on news site visits.

It’s also important to remember Google’s core purpose: to make money through paid advertising. So how will it generate paid clicks if users no longer visit websites? Could Google act like an affiliate, with the conversion happening on its own site, and the brand is charged for it? That feels like a much harder challenge for Google to solve and could be an area where ChatGPT gets ahead, at least in the short term.