AI is moving faster than any tech wave before it.
It took the Internet 14 years to go mainstream. Cloud computing? About 12. Generative AI? Just six. That’s not a forecast—that’s past tense. AI is already mainstream.
Why the acceleration? AI didn’t need its own infrastructure or mindset shift. It piggybacks on what’s already here: APIs, open source, compute. It went viral because it could.
The consequence of that adoption speed is disruption—everywhere, all at once. One place it’s hitting hard? Your web apps. The same ones your business depends on to sell products, deliver services, and engage customers.
Yep, the good ol’ web. But the rules are changing.
Old vibe: SEO grind. New drip: JSON Flex
Anyone in marketing knows the SEO playbook: structure the content, repeat the right keywords, optimize meta tags. Do it all for Googlebot. It works—because Googlebot cares about formatting, page load speed, bounce rates, and other engagement signals.
But there’s a new player on the web: GPT bots. And they don’t care about any of that.
According to a DesignRush report, GPT bots now generate more web traffic (13%) than Googlebot (8%). That’s not a minor shift; that’s a new reality.
So, what do GPT bots want?
They want raw, structured information. Not pretty images. Not clever layout. They’re looking for content in machine-friendly formats—think plain-text, highly structured JSON.
What this means for you
If your web presence is optimized only for traditional search bots, you’re already behind.
GPT bots and, increasingly, AI agents want the same data, just served differently. They don’t need full HTML pages with branding and navigation. They want lightweight endpoints that deliver fast, structured summaries. And they’re already indexing your content whether you’re ready or not.
What’s the fix? Application delivery.
Bespoke application requirements, meet AI
Most orgs can’t just rewrite their apps to serve AI-specific content. That’s why ADC09 exists in the Application Delivery Top 10: sometimes you have to solve a problem without changing the app.
That’s where modern application delivery comes in. It can:
- Intercept and inspect incoming requests (e.g., GPTBot or Claude)
- Take action based on what it sees
- Route, reject, or rewrite as needed
Sometimes it means routing users to different services (load balancing). Sometimes it means injecting or stripping content (delivery & security). In this case, it means serving machine-readable JSON to the bots that need it.
The move: Let your apps speak bot
Use traffic steering to route GPT bots and AI agents to a lightweight, structured version of your content. If you can’t stand up a new endpoint, use the programmability of your application delivery controller (ADC) to dynamically return simplified responses.
The goal? Let your web apps “speak the language” of AI—without rewriting them.
Because AI disruption isn’t coming. It’s here.
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