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AI-Written Content Online Has Eclipsed All Human Output For the First Time. What You Do Next Is the Only Thing That Matters.
The web is producing more AI content than ever, and most of it is noise. The volume of AI-written content online has surpassed human-written content for the first time, and the gap is widening by the hour. Amazon is drowning in AI-generated books. Apple’s App Store is overwhelmed by AI-generated apps. LinkedIn has become a scroll of AI-generated posts, commented on by AI-generated responses.
And yet, for the builders, developers, agencies, and marketers who get this right, the noise is the opportunity.
In this keynote, futurist and digital anthropologist Brian Solis names what’s happening (cognitive Darwinism, AI slop, cognitive surrender, the AI tax), explains why it matters to everyone building for the Intelligent Web, and issues a direct challenge: become the signal. Be source-worthy. Design for outcomes. Create content not just for traffic, not just for rankings, but for the humans and the agents working on their behalf who are trying to do something, decide something, buy something, learn something.
What You’ll Learn In This Session
- Cognitive Darwinism: What it is, why it’s happening right now, and why the builders who recognize it have a structural advantage over those who don’t.
- The AI tax: How competitors flooding the web with AI-generated content are creating work for everyone, human visitors and AI agents alike, and why clarity and quality become a competitive moat as the noise compounds.
- Context over content: Why “content is king” is the wrong frame for the Intelligent Web, and what it means to design for outcomes rather than for traffic.
- The dual reality in practice: Solis demos using OpenAI’s Atlas browser to book restaurant reservations in New York through AI agents and unpacks what that experience reveals about how people and agents make decisions together.
- What leaders, marketers, creatives, agencies, and SMBs should each be doing differently right now, and the one question every person building for the Intelligent Web needs to answer first: What do you stand for?
The Insight Worth Sharing
“AI is not taking us out of the equation. We already know that the future of the web is more messy than it needs to be. That’s our opportunity to be the signal.” —Brian Solis
One Keynote Down. Three More Worth Your Time.
The other keynotes in this series go deeper on the infrastructure of the Intelligent Web, the business case for AI search visibility, and the product capabilities WP Engine has built to meet the moment. Watch them in any order, or start with the one most relevant to your role.
Watch Keynote 2: What’s Next at WP Engine
Watch Keynote 3: The Future of the Intelligent Web
Watch Keynote 4: Visible, Credible, Recommended
