Your website is about to become invisible to AI agents

ChatGPT just launched its Agent feature, and most businesses have no idea what’s coming.

Here’s the thing: This changes everything about how websites need to work.

But here’s the irony that nobody’s talking about: Most of what AI agents need is what your website should have had all along. Accessibility. Speed. Clear information. Proper HTML. Schema markup.

If you’d followed basic web standards from the last decade, you’d already be ready.

But you didn’t. Almost nobody did.

And now there’s a deadline.

The demos show it booking restaurant reservations. Analyzing competitors and building presentations. Shopping for groceries. All autonomously.

But here’s what should scare you.

Half the websites it tried to access blocked it completely.

The other half? It could see them but couldn’t actually use them. Heavy reliance on JavaScript broke the experience. Multi-level dropdowns and hidden menus stopped them completely. Poor structure meant it missed critical information.

If you’re not optimizing for these autonomous systems RIGHT NOW, you’re about to lose access to what will likely become the primary way people interact with the internet by 2026.

But wait. Let me tell you what “AI optimization” really means.

It means finally implementing the web standards you’ve been ignoring since 2010.

@iamrodneywarner ChatGPT Agent Rollout: Why You Need AI Optimization Now OpenAI just combined deep research with browser automation, creating AI that can think AND act on websites. But most sites fail basic AI usability tests. Here's what AI Agent Optimization means and why you have weeks, not months, to fix it. #ChatGPTAgent #AIOptimization #AIAgentOptimization #BizTok #AIRollout #WebsiteOptimization #AEO ♬ original sound – iamrodneywarner

Why this is different from everything before

“So it’s just SEO and accessibility best practices?”

Not quite. Here’s what’s actually new:

1. AI doesn’t send traffic – it completes transactions

Google sends visitors. AI agents book appointments, make purchases, and fill out forms without anyone visiting your site. That’s a fundamental shift.

When was the last time you clicked through to 10 websites to compare options? Now imagine never doing that again because AI does it for you.

2. Keywords are dead. Conversations are everything

Old SEO: “emergency plumber Houston” New reality: “I have water coming through my ceiling, need someone who can come tonight, takes AmEx, and works in the Heights area”

AI agents process full conversational queries. Your keyword strategy is worthless if you can’t match how people actually talk.

3. First movers train the AI

This isn’t like traditional SEO where you can catch up later. AI systems learn preferences. Every successful interaction makes them more likely to recommend that business again.

Your competitor who optimizes first isn’t just getting early traffic. They’re training AI to prefer them while you play catch-up.

4. The timeline is brutal

Mobile took years to reach critical mass. AI agent adoption is happening in months. We’re already seeing AI agent traffic double in just a few weeks across some early adopters.

Why your JavaScript-heavy site is invisible to AI

Reports show AI agents struggling to navigate many business websites. Even sites with award-winning designs and huge development budgets.

The systems often can’t find basic contact information.

Why? Everything that makes sites “modern” breaks AI:

• Phone numbers as pretty images instead of text
• Contact forms that require JavaScript to appear
• Navigation with vague “Learn More” or “Click Here” links
• Critical information locked in PDFs

The same stuff that’s been failing accessibility tests for years.

Why? Everything was buried in JavaScript. The phone number was an image. The contact form required complex interactions the agent couldn’t perform.

This business is invisible to autonomous systems. Today. Right now.

Meanwhile, their competitor with a basic WordPress site and proper schema markup? The machine found them instantly, understood their services, and could have booked an appointment.

But here’s the real tragedy: You can have both. Stunning design AND perfect AI readability. It’s not a choice between beauty and function anymore.

Guess who’s going to win that battle.

The false choice that killed your AI visibility

For years, businesses have been choosing:

• Pretty animations over fast loading
• Clever designs over clear navigation
• “Modern” JavaScript over accessible HTML
• Visual impact over screen reader compatibility

Web developers begged you to follow standards. Accessibility advocates showed you the guidelines. SEO experts recommended schema markup.

“But it looks better this way,” they said. “Our customers don’t need accessibility,” they said. “We’ll add schema later,” they said.

Well, later is now. And “later” has a 30-day deadline.

The brutal truth: You don’t have to choose between beautiful and functional. You never did. That was always a false choice made by people who didn’t understand modern web development.

Great developers have been building stunning, accessible, fast websites for years. The tools exist. The standards are clear. The techniques are proven.

If your team says you have to sacrifice design for AI readability, you don’t need AI optimization.

You need a better team.

SEO is dead. AEO is here

We’re moving from Search Engine Optimization to what I’m calling Answer Engine Optimization.

The difference is fundamental.

SEO is about ranking for keywords. AEO is about being the source AI pulls from when answering questions.

Traditional search queries average 4 words. AI queries are conversational – full sentences, complex questions, multiple parts.

“Best pizza near me” becomes “Find a pizza place that’s open until 11 PM, has vegan options, delivers to downtown, and has good reviews for their thin crust.”

Your keyword strategy just became obsolete.

But here’s what really matters: AI doesn’t send traffic – it sends buyers.

When an autonomous system books an appointment or makes a purchase recommendation, it’s already done the research. Pre-qualified the option. Verified the details.

That’s why businesses report AI-driven conversions at nearly double the rate of traditional search traffic.

The real business impact of finally following web standards

Let’s talk about what happens when you finally implement what you should have done years ago.

Immediate improvements (that would have always helped):

• Better accessibility means more customers can actually use your site
• Faster loading keeps impatient humans AND impatient AI
• Clear navigation helps everyone find what they need
• Structured data improves your traditional SEO too

AI-specific benefits:

• Higher quality leads: AI pre-qualifies based on detailed needs
• Lower acquisition costs: No paying for clicks from confused visitors
• Compound advantage: Every successful AI interaction builds preference
• Competitive moat: Being first means training AI to prefer you

The real kicker: Every benefit you get from AI optimization is something you could have had all along if you’d just followed web standards.

That local service business spending $5K/month on Google Ads? They could have had better conversion rates years ago with proper accessibility. Now it’s not optional.

The e-commerce site struggling with abandoned carts? Clear information architecture would have always helped. Now AI makes it mandatory.

The brutal math:

• Cost to implement web standards in 2015: $2,000
• Cost to implement web standards in 2025 under pressure: $2,000
• Cost of ignoring web standards until AI makes them mandatory: Your entire business

Businesses aren’t paying for AI optimization. They’re paying the technical debt of a decade of shortcuts.

The uncomfortable truth about “AI optimization”

Let me be brutally honest about something the “AI experts” won’t tell you:

90% of AI optimization is just doing what web developers have been begging you to do for the last decade.

Accessibility? Screen readers have needed descriptive link text since 1999.

Schema markup? Google’s been recommending it since 2011.

Fast loading times? Been critical since forever.

Semantic HTML? Web standards from the beginning.

Clear navigation? Usability 101.

So why are businesses scrambling now?

Because most businesses ignored it when it was “just” about accessibility or SEO. They chose pretty over practical. Style over standards. “Modern” over accessible.

And now AI agents use the exact same signals screen readers do. The exact same structured data Google wanted. The exact same clean code developers recommended.

The difference? This time there’s a deadline. And this time, ignoring it means losing all your customers to competitors who finally listened.

Here’s what AI agents actually need from your website

The pattern is becoming clear from early reports and testing.

Structure beats beauty. Every time.

The agent needs:

• Clean HTML with semantic markup (like using <article>, <section>, <nav> instead of div soup)
• Schema.org structured data (not optional anymore)
• Fast load times (it won’t wait)
• Accessible forms and CTAs
• Clear navigation patterns
• API endpoints for direct access (think: letting AI agents check your inventory or book appointments without navigating your site)

BTW – this isn’t about making your site ugly. It’s about making it understandable to machines while keeping it beautiful for humans.

The best sites do both.

What “AI-readable” actually means (with real examples)

Let me show you the difference between a site that looks good to humans but fails for AI, versus one that works for both.

Bad structure that AI can’t parse:

<div class=”header-stuff”>

<div onclick=”showContact()”>Contact</div>

</div>

<div class=”info-box”>

<img src=”phone-number.png”>

</div>

AI-friendly structure:

<header>

<nav>

<a href=”/contact”>Contact</a>

</nav>

</header>

<div itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/LocalBusiness”>

<span itemprop=”telephone”>555-0123</span>

</div>

See the difference? The second one tells machines exactly what everything is.

Here’s what you actually need for core business visibility:

{

“@context”: “https://schema.org”,

“@type”: “LocalBusiness”,

“name”: “Your Business Name”,

“telephone”: “555-0123”,

“address”: {

“@type”: “PostalAddress”,

“streetAddress”: “123 Main St”,

“addressLocality”: “Houston”,

“addressRegion”: “TX”

},

“openingHours”: “Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00”,

“priceRange”: “$”

}

This isn’t optional anymore. Without it, you’re invisible.

What to tell your web team immediately

The conversation is simple: “Remember all those accessibility and performance improvements you’ve been recommending for years? We need them done in 30 days.”

First priority: Stop blocking AI

Tell your developer: “Check our robots.txt file.” Make sure you’re not blocking:

• OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT)
• ChatGPT-User
• Claude-Web
• PerplexityBot

This is a 5-minute fix that opens the door to AI traffic. If your developer can’t explain what robots.txt is, it might be time to find someone who can.

Also check your sitemap: If key pages aren’t in your sitemap.xml—or if it’s outdated—you’re hiding content from both AI agents and search engines. Another 5-minute fix that’s been best practice since 2005.

Second priority: Finally add that schema markup

Tell your team: “Implement the schema markup you’ve been talking about since 2015.” This structured data tells AI:

• What your business is
• Where you’re located
• What services you offer
• How to contact you
• When you’re open

Your developer already knows how to do this. They’ve probably been asking to do it for years.

Third priority: Fix what’s been broken forever

Have your team audit for:

• Images containing text (especially phone numbers)
• Links that say “Click Here” or “Learn More”
• Forms that require JavaScript to appear
• Content that only loads after clicking
• PDFs with no HTML alternative

The uncomfortable question: If your developer says this is all new to them, ask why they haven’t been following basic web standards. Then probably find a new developer.

What this costs: A competent developer can implement all of this in 2-3 days. They’re not learning anything new – they’re finally doing what they should have done originally.

Why being first to AI optimization matters

Here’s what most businesses miss: Being early to this shift isn’t just about staying relevant.

It’s about dominating while your competitors are still sleeping.

We’re already seeing AI agent traffic double in just a few weeks across some early adopters.

By the time your competitors figure this out, you’ll own the AI agent landscape in your market.

But only if you move now.

4 mistakes that are killing your AI visibility

Mistake 1: Thinking “Our SEO is fine”

Your SEO means nothing if AI can’t parse your site. Ranking #1 on Google while being invisible to AI is like having a billboard in a ghost town.

Mistake 2: Taking a “wait and see” approach

By the time you “see,” it’s over. The businesses optimizing now will have trained AI to prefer them. Playing catch-up later will cost 10x more and might not even work.

Mistake 3: Dismissing this as “just hype”

The difference between hype and fundamental shifts is clear. This is like saying the internet was hype in 1995. Ask Blockbuster how “wait and see” worked with Netflix.

Mistake 4: Assuming “Our customers don’t use AI”

They will. And sooner than you think. People in their 60s and 70s are already asking AI to find local services. Your customers aren’t telling you they use AI – they’re just finding your competitors instead.

Stop it.

“But my customers aren’t tech-savvy” (the deadly assumption)

This is the objection that kills businesses.

“My customers are contractors/seniors/blue-collar/traditional – they don’t use AI.”

Listen. Your customers don’t need to be tech-savvy. They need to be human.

How non-technical people actually use AI:

• Voice assistants: “Hey Siri, find a plumber near me”
• Smart home devices: “Alexa, who fixes water heaters?”
• Family proxies: Kids finding services for parents
• Work assistants: Employees researching vendors

The pattern hiding in plain sight: People don’t announce they’re using AI. They just show up educated about your services, knowing your prices, ready to buy. You think you got a “good lead.” You actually got an AI-qualified lead.

Real scenarios happening now:

• Retiree asks grandkid to “find someone to fix the roof”
• Office manager asks ChatGPT for “reliable catering options”
• Busy parent uses voice search while driving
• Property manager has AI compile vendor lists

They’re not “using AI.” They’re solving problems. AI just happens to be the tool.

The brutal truth: By the time your “non-technical” customers are comfortable admitting they use AI, your competitors will own the entire AI recommendation space. You’ll be competing for scraps.

Your customers’ tech sophistication is irrelevant. What matters is whether AI can find and recommend you when anyone – tech-savvy or not – asks for help.

Your “Stop the Bleeding” checklist (do this week)

Forget the 30-day sprint. Here’s what needs fixing TODAY:

Critical fixes (1-2 hours each):

• [ ] Is your phone number actual text, not an image?
• [ ] Do all links say what they lead to? (Not “click here”)
• [ ] Is your address in plain text on every page?
• [ ] Are your main services listed clearly in navigation?
• [ ] Does your contact form work without JavaScript?

Foundation fixes (do this week):

• [ ] Add basic schema markup (business name, address, phone, hours)
• [ ] Check robots.txt – are you blocking AI agents?
• [ ] Update your sitemap.xml with all important pages
• [ ] Test your site with JavaScript disabled
• [ ] Fix all “click here” and “learn more” links

Enhancements (weeks 2-4):

• [ ] Add FAQ schema for common questions
• [ ] Create individual service pages with clear URLs
• [ ] Include price ranges where possible
• [ ] Simplify all forms to basic HTML
• [ ] Speed up your load time (under 3 seconds)

Budget reality: A competent developer can do ALL the critical and foundation fixes in one day. If they quote weeks, find someone else.

How to verify it’s working:

1. Ask ChatGPT: “What services does [your website] offer?”
2. Turn off JavaScript and try to use your site
3. Run Google’s Rich Results Test
4. Check your PageSpeed score

If ChatGPT can accurately describe your business and services, you’re on the right track.

What success actually looks like (know when it’s working)

Here’s how businesses know their AI optimization is working:

Week 1-2: Foundation signals

• Google Rich Results Test shows your structured data (should have had this years ago)
• ChatGPT can accurately describe your services when asked
• Your site loads content without JavaScript
• Screen readers can navigate your site (yes, this is an AI test now)

Week 3-4: Traffic changes

• Spike in “direct” traffic (often mislabeled AI visits)
• Shorter site visits with higher conversion (AI pre-qualified them)
• Inquiries include specific service details
• Customers arrive knowing your prices and services

Month 2-3: Quality improvements

• Leads arrive pre-educated about your services
• Price shoppers decrease, value buyers increase
• Appointment bookings are more specific
• “How much?” is no longer the first question

Month 3-6: Compound effects

• AI consistently recommends you for relevant queries
• Competitors scramble to copy your “new” approach
• Traditional PPC costs may decrease
• Customers mention “AI recommended you”

Red flags you’re doing it wrong:

• Your developer says “AI optimization” requires special tools
• You’re adding complexity instead of simplifying
• Traffic increases but quality doesn’t
• You’re focusing on tricks instead of basics

The biggest tell? When customers say “ChatGPT said you were the best option for [specific need].” That’s when you know you’ve won.

The progressive optimization path (crawl, walk, run)

Not every business needs every optimization. Here’s how to prioritize based on your situation:

Phase 1: Minimum Viable AI Optimization (Week 1) Do this even if you do nothing else:

• Allow AI agents in robots.txt
• Add basic business schema (name, phone, address)
• Make contact info plain text
• Ensure services are listed clearly

This alone puts you ahead of 70% of competitors.

Phase 2: Competitive Positioning (Month 1) Once basics are done:

• Add service-specific schema
• Create FAQ content
• Include price ranges
• Simplify forms
• Remove JavaScript dependencies

Now you’re in the top 20%.

Phase 3: Market Domination (Month 2-3) For those who want to own their market:

• API endpoints for direct booking
• Real-time availability data
• Conversational content optimization
• Multi-language support
• Review/testimonial schema

This is where compound advantage becomes insurmountable.

Industry-specific priorities:

• Local services: Focus on location, availability, and service clarity
• E-commerce: Prioritize product data, inventory, shipping info
• B2B: Emphasize capabilities, case studies, clear process
• Professional services: Highlight expertise, results, consultation booking

The 80/20 rule: Phase 1 gives you 80% of the benefit. But in competitive markets, that last 20% determines who dominates.

Choose your level based on competition, not comfort.

The transparency paradox (and why it’s not new)

“If I show my prices, competitors will undercut me.” “If I list all services, they’ll copy my offerings.” “If I’m too transparent, I lose negotiating power.”

These are the same excuses businesses have used to avoid accessibility for years. “Why make it easy for everyone to see our prices?”

Well, now “everyone” includes AI agents making purchasing decisions.

Smart transparency tactics:

For pricing: Show ranges, not exact numbers

• Instead of hiding everything: “$2,000-3,000 depending on scope”
• AI gets the info it needs, you keep flexibility
• This has always been better for users too

For proprietary services: Focus on outcomes, not process

• Don’t reveal your secret methodology
• Do explain the results clients get
• “Our process reduces costs by 40-60%” (specific enough for AI, vague enough for competitors)

The competitive reality: Your competitors can already mystery shop you. They can call, email, pretend to be customers. Hiding information from your website doesn’t protect you from competitors – it protects your competitors from disruption.

What actually protects your advantage:

• Service quality that transparency can’t replicate
• Relationships that information can’t replace
• Local knowledge that data can’t match
• Execution that knowledge can’t copy

Bottom line: The businesses that spent years hiding information to “protect” themselves are about to learn they were only protecting their competitors from having to compete on transparency.

The standards have always been clear: Make information accessible. Now there’s finally a consequence for ignoring them.

Special note for e-commerce: For some industries, AI doesn’t even visit your site—it uses structured API data from platforms like Shopify, OpenTable, or industry aggregators. If you’re in e-commerce or reservations, make sure you’re properly set up in those data sources too. Being invisible on your own site is bad. Being invisible in the APIs that AI actually uses is worse.

The real cost of waiting

Every day you delay, AI agents are learning to prefer your competitors.

These systems have memory. They learn which sites work and which don’t. They develop preferences based on successful interactions.

Once an AI agent learns your competitor is more reliable, changing that preference gets exponentially harder.

You’re not just losing today’s traffic. You’re losing future preference.

How a hypothetical local business would transform for AI

Let me walk you through exactly how a local plumbing company could go from invisible to dominant in the AI agent era.

Starting point: Beautiful $20K website with:

• Hero video that autoplays
• Services hidden behind “Learn More” buttons
• Contact form in a popup modal
• Phone number as a stylized image
• Pricing only available after “request quote”

Why it fails: Autonomous systems can’t:

• Click through to find services
• Trigger popups to reach contact forms
• Read phone numbers from images
• Access pricing without form submission

The transformation (30 days):

Week 1: Foundation

<!– Add to every page –>

<script type=”application/ld+json”>

{

“@context”: “https://schema.org”,

“@type”: “PlumbingService”,

“name”: “Houston Pro Plumbing”,

“telephone”: “555-0123”,

“address”: {

“@type”: “PostalAddress”,

“addressLocality”: “Houston”,

“addressRegion”: “TX”

},

“openingHours”: “Mo-Fr 08:00-18:00, Sa 09:00-14:00”,

“priceRange”: “$”,

“areaServed”: {

“@type”: “City”,

“name”: “Houston”

}

}

</script>

Week 2: Service clarity Replace vague “Learn More” buttons with clear, accessible service pages:

<section itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Service”>

<h2 itemprop=”name”>Emergency Pipe Repair</h2>

<p itemprop=”description”>24/7 emergency response for burst pipes,

typically on-site within 60 minutes</p>

<div itemprop=”offers” itemscope itemtype=”https://schema.org/Offer”>

<span itemprop=”price”>$150-300</span>

<meta itemprop=”priceCurrency” content=”USD”>

</div>

</section>

Week 3: Conversational content Add FAQ schema for natural language queries:

{

“@type”: “FAQPage”,

“mainEntity”: [{

“@type”: “Question”,

“name”: “How quickly can you fix a burst pipe?”,

“acceptedAnswer”: {

“@type”: “Answer”,

“text”: “We respond to burst pipe emergencies within 60 minutes

in the Houston metro area, 24/7.”

}

}]

}

Week 4: Direct booking capability Simple, accessible booking without JavaScript dependencies:

<form action=”/book” method=”POST”>

<label for=”service”>Service needed:</label>

<select name=”service” id=”service” required>

<option value=”emergency”>Emergency Repair</option>

<option value=”maintenance”>Maintenance</option>

</select>

<label for=”date”>Preferred date:</label>

<input type=”date” name=”date” id=”date” required>

<button type=”submit”>Book Appointment</button>

</form>

The result: When someone asks ChatGPT “find me a plumber in Houston who can fix a burst pipe today,” this business shows up with:

• Clear service offerings
• Transparent pricing
• Immediate booking ability
• Verified business information

While competitors remain invisible behind their JavaScript-heavy implementations.

How to test if your site works for AI (5-minute audit)

You can’t fix what you can’t measure. Here’s how to check if your site is AI-ready:

1. The Google Test Have your team run your site through Google’s Rich Results Test. If it says “No structured data found,” you’re invisible to AI. This is like having no signs on your store.
2. The Phone Test Turn off JavaScript in your browser (or have your developer do it). Try to find your phone number and contact info. If you can’t, AI can’t either.
3. Ask AI Directly Go to ChatGPT or Claude right now. Type: “What services does [your website] offer?” If it can’t give a clear answer, you’ve got work to do.
4. The Speed Test Run PageSpeed Insights on your site. If it takes more than 3 seconds to load content, many AI systems will give up and check your competitor instead.
5. Red Flag Check Signs your site is AI-hostile:

• Contact info only in images
• Services behind “Learn More” buttons
• Prices hidden until after form submission
• Important info locked in PDFs
• Pop-ups required to take any action

If you see these, you’re losing business to AI-friendly competitors right now.

The death of traditional SEO agencies

This shift is going to be brutal for agencies and consultants who don’t adapt.

But here’s the real kicker: The agencies that survive won’t be teaching anything new. They’ll just finally convince clients to implement what good developers have been recommending forever.

All those businesses paying for “AI optimization”? They’re really paying someone to finally implement:

• Proper semantic HTML
• Accessibility standards
• Schema markup
• Performance optimization
• Clean, descriptive navigation

The same stuff that’s been best practice since 2010.

If you’re working with an agency that treats “AI optimization” like some mysterious new technique instead of just doing web development properly, fire them.

If they’re trying to sell you special “AI tools” instead of just fixing your broken accessibility, fire them.

If they can’t explain why descriptive link text matters for both screen readers AND AI agents, fire them.

I’m serious.

Your timeline: Days, not months

ChatGPT Agent launched yesterday. By next week, millions will be using it.

Google’s AI agents are coming. Amazon’s are coming. Every major platform is building autonomous agents.

In six months, AI agents will be the primary way many people interact with the internet.

In twelve months, businesses without AI optimization will be invisible.

In two years? Game over.

Your move

You have two choices.

Keep believing you have to choose between beautiful design and AI functionality. (Spoiler: You don’t.)

Or start optimizing today – building sites that are gorgeous for humans AND perfect for machines.

The future belongs to businesses that refuse to compromise. Beautiful design. Flawless function. AI-ready architecture.

Because while your competitors debate whether to sacrifice design for functionality, you’ll be dominating both.

Will they find you?

Or will they find your competitor?

Start now or stay invisible.

Resources and next steps

The good news? You don’t need new tools or techniques. You need to finally implement what’s been best practice all along.

Questions to ask your team this week:

1. “Why haven’t we implemented the accessibility standards you’ve been recommending?”
2. “How long have you been asking to add schema markup?”
3. “What happens to our site when JavaScript is disabled?” (They already know it breaks)
4. “Why do we still have ‘Click Here’ links in 2025?”
5. “When did we decide accessibility didn’t matter?”

The standards you should have been following:

• WCAG 2.1 Guidelines (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
• Schema.org structured data
• HTML5 semantic elements
• Core Web Vitals
• Progressive enhancement principles

Warning signs your current agency doesn’t get it:

• They treat AI optimization as something mysterious and new
• They can’t explain why accessibility matters for AI
• They want to add complexity instead of removing it
• They focus on “AI tricks” instead of web standards
• They’ve never mentioned that screen readers and AI need the same things

If you’re hearing these things, you don’t need an “AI expert.” You need someone who actually understands web development.

Your business depends on it.

And BTW – if you think I’m exaggerating the urgency, bookmark this post. Check your competitor’s AI visibility in six months.

See who finally listened to their developers.

The bottom line nobody wants to admit

Here’s what this really comes down to:

For over a decade, developers have been begging businesses to implement web standards. Accessibility advocates have been showing the guidelines. SEO experts have been recommending best practices.

Most businesses ignored it because:

• “It works fine for most people”
• “Our customers don’t need that”
• “We’ll add it in phase 2”
• “Design is more important”

Now AI agents need the exact same things screen readers need. They use the same structured data Google wanted. They require the same clean code developers recommended.

The only thing that’s changed? Now there’s a financial consequence for ignoring standards. Now “most people” includes AI making purchasing decisions. Now “phase 2” has a 30-day deadline.

The most expensive words in business: “We’ll fix the accessibility issues later.”

Later just became now. And your competitors who built things properly from the start? They’re about to eat your lunch while you scramble to implement decade-old best practices.

Welcome to the future. It looks exactly like the standards documents gathering dust on developers’ desks everywhere.

But this time, there’s a deadline. And this time, your competitors who listen to their developers will get your customers.

Start with the checklist above. Fix the basics. The rest will follow.