For nearly three decades, websites have been built around the same core interaction model: navigation, search, and forms. Users click through menus, search for information, compare the available options, and piece together answers on their own.
AI is changing that.
We've entered a new era where digital experiences can actively assist users, guide decision-making, personalize interactions, and help people accomplish goals in real time. The future of the web isn't a chatbot bolted onto a website. It's intelligent, AI-powered experiences embedded directly into the user journey.
In this session, we'll explore how AI is reshaping the user experience layer of the web and why organizations across higher education, government, healthcare, and enterprise are beginning to rethink how digital experiences are designed.
Using the University of Waterloo as a real-world example, we'll demonstrate how an AI-powered admissions advisor helps prospective students navigate a complex decision-making process, receive personalized guidance, discover relevant content, and get answers instantly from trusted institutional information.
But the real story is bigger than admissions. We'll examine how the same patterns are emerging across various industries as organizations move beyond traditional navigation and keyword search toward AI-assisted experiences that reduce friction, improve outcomes, and create more meaningful digital interactions.
The session will cover:
- How AI is changing content discovery, search, and digital engagement, with users increasingly expecting answers instead of navigation
- Lessons learned from designing Waterloo's AI-powered admissions experience
- The role of trust, governance, and organizational content in AI-powered experiences
- How Drupal's open architecture positions it as a foundation for trusted, enterprise AI experiences
Attendees will leave with a practical framework for understanding how AI is transforming digital experiences, where organisations are already seeing value, and what it takes to evolve from traditional websites toward AI-native experiences.
Key takeaways for attendees include:
- An understanding of how AI is changing the user experience of the web
- Learn why search and navigation are increasingly being complemented by AI-assisted experiences
- Exploration of the University of Waterloo AI Advisor tool
- An understanding of the importance of trust, governance, and owned digital experiences in an AI-first world
- The discovery of how Drupal can serve as the foundation for AI-native enterprise experiences
This session features a speaker from our Silver Sponsor, ImageX.
