The AI Web: The Race to Zero UI

2026 is the year when apps, operating systems, and websites will dissolve into unified, AI-native experiences. We’ll see an unprecedented shift, with generative AI rapidly reshaping how people work, play, search, and shop. Our new consumer research provides a glimpse into the future, offering a data-backed roadmap for brands to prepare for the AI Web.

Discover the AI Web

What is the AI web?

The AI Web is a unified digital environment where AI systems—such as assistants, agents, and AI‑powered browsers—interpret, personalize, generate, and take action on web content and services on behalf of the user.

AI browsers (e.g., Edge with Copilot)

that can read, summarize, interpret, and act on web pages

AI assistants (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini)

that translate intent into actions

AI agents

that can navigate sites, fill forms, compare products, make purchases, or complete multistep tasks end-to-end

What is Zero UI?

Zero UI (zero user interface) is an emerging concept of tech-enabled interactions that bypass traditional interfaces and instead favor AI-powered chat, voice, and smart devices like smart speakers or wearables.

What this means:

Consumers will expect simplicity and convenience, personalized answers, and action from brands.
People will rely more on talking than typing via AI voice assistants, chat platforms, smart devices, and multimodal search. 
Brands will begin to compete with context, not content.

How your brand can prepare for the AI Web

Move from “click-and-read” to “ask-and-do.” To show up in AI answers and agentic experiences, make your content clear, structured, and trustworthy—and connect your product data via feeds/APIs so assistants and agents can act on it. 

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Microsoft Advertising’s Generative AI Guide

A practical playbook with GEO‑focused content tips and expert perspectives. It covers how AI assistants parse pages, which signals matter, how to make your content snippable and selection‑worthy across AI surfaces, and more.

Download the guide

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From discovery to influence: A guide to AEO and GEO

Improve your online store content for AI discovery with our hands-on playbook. Learn how to structure pages for answer selection, surface trustworthy facts, and connect feeds/APIs so AI can compare, recommend, and convert.

Download the playbook

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How to optimize your content for AI search & GEO

Join our on-demand webinar session to learn how AI assistants choose content, what to fix first (structure, schema, clarity), and how to measure impact.

Watch now

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How to get your content to show up in AI search answers

Discover how AI selects content for answers, and what improves eligibility: clean headings, modular sections, matching schema, and precise language.

Get your optimization tips

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Conversations that convert: Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents

Two capabilities can help your brand thrive in today’s landscape shift. Copilot Checkout turns conversations into conversions—instantly. Brand Agents bring AI-powered guidance for customers to your own site.

See how to get started

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Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools

We are happy to introduce AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools, a new set of insights that shows how publisher content appears across Microsoft Copilot, and more.

Read the blog post

Look into the future of the AI web 

Want to know what consumers really expect from AI agents and brand experiences? Explore the data, scenarios, and trust signals that will define zero UI in our report. By knowing what consumers expect brands to build next, you can help model this advertising evolution. 

Discover the AI Web

Zero UI data points you need to know

Want to get ahead in the future of brand engagement? Then you need to understand how consumers are using AI today,
where they still have concerns about zero UI, and what motivates people to try new tech. 

59%

are ready to use AI agents instead of traditional websites for some tasks

Smart device and voice assistant adoption is surging. For the most tech-forward consumers, daily use of screen-free interfaces is becoming the norm. From shopping and travel to finance, tech-forward users—and even tech moderates—have signaled a major shift in how people expect to interact with brands.

64%

 of high-tech users are comfortable with automated systems acting for them

Nearly two-thirds of tech-forward respondents are already comfortable with AI making automated decisions for them, without requiring new permissions each time. This is an early view of zero UI adoption and how AI exposure leads to enthusiasm.

49%

are concerned about privacy and data security in zero UI

Privacy and security are critical in Zero UI. Brands will need to know not just how to create trustworthy experiences for consumers, but also how to choose trustworthy partners to build them. To gain confidence, experiences should be transparent, secure, reliable, and safe at every interaction. 

57%

 trust well-known brands more for AI-powered experiences

Brands that are already trusted by consumers have a leg up with AI. Over half of consumers said they’re more likely to trust AI-powered experiences from well-known brands they already use. This gives familiar brands a new kind of first-mover advantage to drive early adoption. 

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Experience our guides and reports as a personalized AI podcast!

Visit Copilot. 
Copy and paste this prompt: "I’m a [insert your job title]. Make me a short podcast with this content [insert link to consumer research].” 
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Frequently asked questions

The AI Web: The Race to Zero UI is Microsoft Advertising’s study exploring how digital experiences are evolving in an AI-driven world. It covers macro trends like conversational interfaces, system-led engagement, and agentic AI—helping you understand what’s next for consumer behavior and marketing strategies in a web without traditional screens.

Zero UI represents a fundamental change in how people interact with technology. Instead of engagement happening almost purely through screen-based interfaces today, engagement happens through natural language, gestures and automation without the use of screens, making experiences more intuitive and ubiquitous.

The web is moving from static browsing to dynamic, conversational, agentic experiences. Users will interact with one UI companion that truly understands every user to anticipate needs, deliver personalized actions, and streamline decision-making, all of which show a shift from prioritizing intent over input and context over content.

Yes. Our research shows 60% of consumers are ready to use AI agents instead of websites, and 70% expect brands to deliver zero UI experiences within a year, signaling a major opportunity for brands to lead in AI-driven engagement.

Consumers worry about privacy, loss of control, and misinterpretation of preferences. Brands must address these concerns with transparency, strong data security, and manual override options.

Trust Is twofold. Do you have both agentic and human trust with consumers? Brands now need to think about trust in terms of systems. From an agentic perspective, you need to create digital integrity and searchability. And from a human perspective, you need clear communication, privacy safeguards, and user control. Reputation matters, and consumers will trust well-known brands more in this new era.

Brands need to:

Structure content for AI discoverability.
Develop conversational experiences and branded agents.
Prioritize transparency, security, and user control.

Agentic AI refers to systems that act on behalf of users—anticipating needs, making decisions, and executing tasks. This proactive approach transforms engagement from reactive clicks to predictive, personalized actions.

Traditional metrics like clicks and impressions will give way to measures of completion, trust, and discoverability, while reflecting success in AI-powered environments.

Retail, travel, and entertainment are leading the way, as consumers demand convenience and personalization in these sectors.

Design shifts almost exclusively from screen-based interfaces to ambient experiences, focusing on clarity, trust, and seamless integration across voice, chat, and automated systems. Also, how brands are experienced is changing and will continue to change in many ways, including through increasingly non-screen-based experiences.

Microsoft Advertising provides AI-powered advertising and agentic commerce solutions that allow you to optimize your content for discoverability and create trust-driven experiences.

We offer solutions like semantic search optimization, conversational ad formats (like Brand Agents), and integrations with intelligent assistants such as Copilot and Copilot in Microsoft Advertising Platform to ensure brands like yours remain visible in AI-powered ecosystems.