Your website is about to become irrelevant (unless you do this)

A few weeks ago, I had my sixth conversation in a few month with a marketing leader planning to redesign their website. Different companies. Different industries. Same question, “Is now the right time to rebuild our site?”

My honest take? Most of them are solving the wrong problem. They’re redesigning because of the 3-5 year redesign cycle they’re in or because traffic and/or conversion is down.

I’ve been doing a lot of pondering and experimenting on this topic with client work and on our own site at StealthX, and I keep coming back to the same idea.

To skate where the puck is going (shout out to Wayne Gretzky), companies need to move from an emphasis on content to an emphasis on intelligent experiences. Not just prettier pages or adding more content, but systems that help customers answer specific questions, solve real problems, and give guidance personalized to where they are in the buying journey.

This isn’t just about UX or design trends. It’s a shift in the entire purpose of a website. If your goals are to drive conversion, grow trust, and create better pathways to value, then slapping a fresh coat of paint on your site won’t get you there.

From content to intelligent experiences

Most company websites are still built on the 2010s model. Landing pages, dropdown menus, pages of content, maybe a search bar that half-works. If a customer wants to know whether you integrate with a particular system or can help them solve a specific problem, they need to dig through docs, find a contact form, or call your team.

We’ve all experienced this. Wading through PDFs & pages, guessing the right search term, or giving up altogether. It’s painful. It's slow. And with AI, it’s entirely unnecessary. Here’s what’s changing:

• Customers no longer want to search. They want help.

• They expect answers, not pages.

• They expect guidance, not more content.

This is the real AI opportunity. Not a chatbot gimmick, but a shift in the paradigm of interaction. At StealthX, we’re calling it the move from content to intelligent experiences (queue angelic music and trumpets 🎺👼).

Your site shouldn’t just display information. It should understand what people are trying to do and help them do it.

Putting this into action:

• Identify your top 10 customer questions and test how easy they are to answer today. Is it immediate or buried?

• Use tools like Eleven Labs or CustomGPT to create natural language interfaces to talk to your docs and content.

• Start treating customer queries as signals, not noise. Every question is a window into what they actually need/want.

Every interaction is intent that AI can capture & interpret for you.

Today, most marketing teams can see what customers click. Maybe even what they download. But they still don’t know what people actually meant. What they needed. Or how confident they felt. AI changes that. Every question becomes a data point:

• What role does this person have?

• Where are they in the decision process?

• Are they just exploring, or ready to buy?

• What questions are we not answering well?

• What are they ultimately trying to accomplish?

• What pain or challenges do they have (met/unmet)?

• How are they feeling right now?

This isn’t just an upgrade to marketing. It’s a new layer of customer intelligence. When someone asks your AI assistant, “What’s the lead time for bulk orders in Texas?” you now know their geography, urgency, role, product interest, and more. That data should sync with your CRM, sales workflows, and marketing plans. It’s not just about the answer. It’s about the insight that interaction generates.

Once you’ve got a conversational experience that’s seamlessly part of your site (i.e., not a chatbot in the corner), there’s a ton you can do. For example:

• Map out how AI-generated signals can integrate into your CRM or analytics workflows.

• Begin building role-based and intent-based segments using conversational data.

• Use these insights to inform product updates, campaign strategies, and sales follow-ups.

You already have the pieces. What’s missing is the intelligence layer.

Most B2B teams have done the hard work already. You’ve got content. You’ve got platforms. You’ve got a CRM, a modern CMS, marketing automation, analytics tools. In short, the infrastructure is there. But the experience still falls flat. Why? Because you’re missing the connective tissue. The real-time insight. The adaptive layer that takes your systems and makes them feel alive to the customer. That’s what AI enables. It doesn’t replace your systems. It activates them.

When done right, AI turns:

• Static content into personalized conversations

• One-size-fits-all pages into role-aware experiences

• Data smoke into forward-looking signals

• Your website into an interface your customers want to use

This is the difference between a site that’s “working fine” and one that actually drives outcomes:

• Fewer support tickets because people find answers immediately

• Shorter sales cycles because buyers are better informed

• Richer segmentation and intent data for your marketing team

• Higher trust because the experience feels relevant

Your marketing doesn’t need more tools. It needs a brain. That’s what the intelligence layer provides. The good news? You’re closer than you think. The pieces are in place. Now it’s about orchestrating them to work together in real time, with the customer at the center.

How we’re applying this at StealthX

This isn’t just theory. We’re actively rethinking our own digital experience at StealthX. We’re currently working to build a smarter site and client portal experience that:

• Surfaces insights and ideas based on who’s visiting and what they’re trying to accomplish

• Helps people get answers without needing to browse, click, or dig

• Captures signals from those interactions to better tailor future content and outreach

It’s part AI concierge, part insight engine. Because we believe your website shouldn’t just be a place people visit. It should be a system that works for them by answering, assisting, learning, and improving every day.

Build what’s next. Not what looks better.

This isn’t a trend. It’s a complete paradigm shift to an agent-powered web experience. Your website is no longer a glorified repository of content for customers to search on their own. It’s the first intelligent interface to your business. Design it that way. Build it that way. Invest in it that way. Because if you’re only giving your site a fresh coat of paint, you’re polishing the past. Build for what’s next.

Onward & upward,
Drew

P.s. If we haven’t met yet, hello! I’m Drew Burdick, Founder and Managing Partner at StealthX. We work with brands to design & build great customer experiences that win. I share ideas weekly through this newsletter & over on the Building Great Experiences podcast. Have a question? Feel free to contact us, I’d love to hear from you.