Building AI-Powered Moats: A Web PM’s Strategy for Future-Proofing Engagement

The Traffic Cliff Is Real—And It’s Your Opportunity

The digital landscape is fracturing. Since ChatGPT’s arrival, Google’s once-unshakeable traffic dominance has plummeted, breaching the 90% threshold for the first time in a decade—a seismic shift no Web PM can afford to ignore.

While your competitors panic over declining CTRs and zero-click searches, you have a choice: fight over shrinking traditional traffic, or build direct customer relationships through AI-powered conversations.

Smart website PMs are already making this shift. They’re moving from optimizing static pages to orchestrating dynamic, intelligent customer experiences. They’re allocating 20% of their product capacity to master this transition while others scramble for yesterday’s metrics.

The shift is happening now, but you can still get ahead of it.

From Politics ↔ Perspectives

Just as “Madam I’m Adam” reads forward and back, the AI-era PM flips the mirror—priorities once pushed by internal stakeholder teams now pull insights straight from customer conversations.

They become customer intelligence orchestrators—using AI systems that can listen to and analyze thousands of customer conversations at scale, then using those insights to drive product decisions.

This isn’t just a nice-to-have evolution. It’s competitive survival.

While competitors struggle with declining traditional metrics, you’ll be building moats through superior customer understanding. 🧠

The New Interface Reality

Websites are evolving beyond static pages into conversational, task-driven experiences. Based on recent research into AI interface innovation, here are four interaction models website PMs should pilot:

1. Task ↔ Talk

Instead of optimizing page flows, guide users through complex processes. Think coding assistant or step-by-step form filler, but for your customer’s specific needs. A consulting firm might let prospects upload voice briefs about desired RFP requirements. A fashion brand could guide customers through personalized wardrobe curation.

2. Speak ↔ See (Multimodal)

Enable users to upload photos, documents, or voice recordings to communicate their needs. This isn’t just about chatbots—it’s about accepting the full range of how customers want to express their problems and goals.

3. Canvas ↔ Create

Let users drop images, text, or video anywhere on your site. AI helps organize, create, and iterate visually. Perfect for brainstorming sessions, product customization, or collaborative planning.

4. Build ↔ Become (Auto-Built UIs):

AI creates the interface users need on the fly. Instead of fixed screens, build buttons, inputs, and views based on specific requests. This requires rethinking traditional design review processes entirely.

The smartest website PMs will start piloting experiences that exchange real value with customers—from uploading personal photos for personalized recommendations to providing voice briefs for custom service proposals.

Palindrome Point:
“Reflection isn’t passive—each AI interaction echoes back user intent. Track not just outcomes, but how well your site ‘mirrored’ what they asked for.”

Measuring What Matters in the AI Era

Traditional engagement metrics like dwell time and scroll depth are becoming less relevant than interaction depth and information exchange quality.

New metrics website PMs need to track:

• Share of Attributed Influence Value (AIV): How often your brand gets mentioned in AI responses, even without clicks
• Brand mention measurement: Track when your content influences AI-generated answers across platforms
• Conversation depth: Number of back-and-forth exchanges, questions asked, information provided
• Value exchange rate: How often interactions lead to meaningful data sharing (photos uploaded, problems described, preferences shared)
• Task completion quality: Success rate of users completing complex workflows through AI guidance

As Digital Marketing and SEO expert Mike King notes, clicks from AI interfaces are higher quality—users spend more time on site and engage more deeply. This aligns perfectly with the AI-era focus on relationship building over traffic volume.

➡️ The measurement shift: From passive engagement (how long did they scroll?) to active engagement (how much did they share, ask, or accomplish?).

Governing the AI Transition

Digital governance expert Lisa Welchman has long spoke of the opportunity for website PMs to “govern up” and bridge the gap between digital creators and C-suite executives: AI presents the ideal moment. While executives ask big-picture AI questions, the operational teams understand how these technologies actually work.

Four governance priorities for AI-era websites:

1. Values and Reputation Protection: Establish clear policies for how AI systems represent your brand.

• What responses are acceptable?
• How do you ensure AI-generated content aligns with company values?
• Create review processes for AI outputs that could impact brand perception.

2. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Website PMs are uniquely positioned to coordinate between IT, design, content, legal, and marketing teams.

• PMs with AI expertise will become bridges between makers and management.

3. Clear Decision-Making Authority: Define who makes AI-related decisions and when.

• When can AI systems act autonomously?
• What requires human oversight?
• Establish escalation paths for edge cases.

4. Standards for AI Integration: Create consistent approaches across teams.

• How do you measure AI system performance?
• What data can AI systems access?
• How do you maintain quality standards as AI capabilities expand?

The opportunity here is significant. As one financial services leader told Welchman, executives are constantly seeking AI guidance from digital practitioners. Website PMs who master both the technology and the governance frameworks will become indispensable strategic advisors.

Your AI-First Website Blueprint

Use this as your starting point for your next roadmap:

1. AI-Powered Search & Recommendations

Deploy vector search or semantic engines that surface exactly what each visitor needs based on their expressed intent, not just keywords.

2. Adaptive Content Systems

Swap modules and content based on user conversation history, stated preferences, and behavioral signals—not just demographics.

3. Conversational Flow Integration

Embed AI assistants into key user journeys: onboarding, support, discovery, and decision-making processes.

4. Content-as-Intelligence

Transform your CMS into a knowledge base that feeds both front-end experiences and AI training, ensuring your unique insights power personalized responses.

5. Multimodal Input Capabilities

Enable photo uploads, voice messages, document sharing, and other rich input methods that let customers communicate naturally.

The Competitive Moat Strategy

While competitors fight over declining search traffic, companies building direct customer conversation capabilities are creating sustainable advantages:

• Brand presence in AI ecosystems: Your content influences AI responses across platforms
• Unique data advantages: Deep customer conversation history that competitors can’t replicate
• Higher-quality relationships: Users who engage conversationally become more loyal customers
• Future-proof positioning: Ready for whatever interface evolution comes next

Your Next 90 Days

Week 1-2: Audit your current “AI footprint”—how does your brand show up in AI responses? Use tools like iPullRank’s SGE Threat Report to understand your baseline.

Week 3-6: Select your first pilot. Start with task-driven workflows since they align with existing conversion optimization mindsets. Pick one customer journey where you can guide users through a complex process.

Week 7-12: Launch your pilot and begin tracking new metrics. Focus on interaction depth and value exchange rather than traditional traffic metrics.

Budget allocation: Dedicate 20% of your product development capacity to these experiments. Companies already doing this are building competitive moats while others remain focused on optimizing for the past.

What’s Next?

The website PMs who master AI-era customer conversations will own direct customer relationships while competitors struggle with declining traditional metrics. This isn’t about replacing your current site—it’s about evolving into a living, learning platform that customers want to engage with.

Your customers are already having conversations with AI tools about their needs. The question is whether those conversations happen on your website, where you can provide unique value and build relationships, or on generic platforms where you’re just another data source.

Start your first pilot this quarter. Pick one interface type, allocate the capacity, and begin building your competitive moat.

Remember, great AI sites are like palindromes: what you put in is exactly what your visitors see in return. Hold that mirror high—forward or backward, your users should recognize themselves.

– Madam I’m Adam

Links & Reading

• What Even Is a Website? Carly Ayres
• Do You Still Need a Website in 2025? Adam Monago
• Lisa Welchman: Content, AI, and Digital Governance – Content + AI Podcast Episode 29
• How AI Mode Works (and how SEO’s can prepare) iPullRank
• Google traffic decline vs Bing + ChatGPT data
• “Interfaces Beyond Chat for AI” Hiten Shah
• “Website Product Management: Key Aspects”

PS: Are you a Web PM that’s already working on your new web experience incorporating some of the techniques described? Hit reply and tell me about it.

Share this newsletter with a Web PM who needs to see this!

---