The way people find businesses is changing, and Australian data shows it's already well underway.
According to auDA's Digital Lives of Australians 2026 report, 61% of Australians now use AI, up from 56% in 2025. Small businesses are moving even faster: 72% now use AI, up from 64%.
But here's the interesting part. AI isn't replacing websites. It's changing how people get to them.
Australians are still visiting websites
IAB Australia and Pureprofile's Commerce & Discovery Report 2026 found that around 60% of Australian online shoppers use AI-powered tools at least sometimes when shopping, rising to 75% among 18 to 39-year-olds.
Among those using AI to shop:
- 78% use AI summaries for a quick answer, then click through to websites for more detail.
- 74% use AI as one of several sources rather than relying on it alone.
Meanwhile, 92% of online shoppers still use search engines or online retail stores to discover, research or compare products and brands.
The takeaway? People are using more channels to make decisions, not abandoning the old ones. And many of those journeys still end on a website.
AI visitors arrive with expectations
Think about what happens when someone clicks through from ChatGPT, a Google AI Overview or a Perplexity answer. They've already read a summary of what you do. They arrive with their question half answered and a reason to check you out.
That changes the job of your landing page. It isn't introducing your business from scratch. It's confirming what the AI said, filling in the detail and making the next step obvious.
If your page is vague, slow or cluttered, the visitor has an easy way out: go back and ask the AI about your competitor.
What should marketers focus on?
Start with the basics:
- Clarity: state what you offer on the first screen, in plain words.
- Trust: show reviews, credentials, pricing cues or real examples that back up your claims.
- User experience: keep navigation simple and remove anything that slows people down, especially on mobile.
- Conversion: make one next step obvious, whether that's enquire, book, sign up or buy.
Here's a quick example. A hero headline like "Innovative solutions for modern businesses" gives an AI-referred visitor nothing to check against what they've just read. "Bookkeeping for Sydney tradies, from $199 a month" confirms the summary in one line and gives them a reason to keep scrolling.
You don't always need a complete redesign. Fixing a few key issues on your highest-traffic pages can make a meaningful difference.
Make more of the traffic you already have
Whether someone finds you through AI, Google or a paid campaign, the goal stays the same: help them find what they need and take the next step.
YourCrow helps marketers spot the issues holding their websites and landing pages back, and shows what to fix first.
More traffic is great. Making better use of it is even better.
Run your landing page through the scanner at YourCrow.com and see what's slowing visitors down.
Sources
- auDA, Digital Lives of Australians 2026
- IAB Australia and Pureprofile, Commerce & Discovery Report 2026 (survey of 1,079 Australians aged 18 to 70 who shopped online in the past 12 months)
