When I first started building websites over twenty-five years ago, the internet felt like a place of endless discovery. Every new page I created taught me something. Every problem I solved felt like a genuine achievement because there wasn't an AI assistant ready to explain the answer or write the code for me.

Back then, I built websites using Microsoft FrontPage, uploaded files over painfully slow internet connections and slowly learned through experimentation. I recently reflected on those early days in From FrontPage to AI, and looking back makes today's pace of innovation feel even more remarkable.

Over the years I've watched the internet reinvent itself time and time again. Search engines battled for dominance, social media transformed how people communicated, smartphones changed the way we consumed information, and cloud computing quietly became the foundation of almost everything we use today. Each of those moments felt significant, but they unfolded over years rather than months.

That's why I find the current moment so fascinating.

After spending most of my life building online, I genuinely believe the internet has changed more in the last three years than it did during the previous fifteen.

A Different Kind of Revolution

Technology has always moved forward, but usually at a pace people could absorb.

Google didn't become the world's dominant search engine overnight. Facebook didn't replace MySpace in a single month, and smartphones gradually became something we couldn't imagine living without. Even major shifts like responsive web design or cloud hosting felt like natural evolutions rather than overnight revolutions.

Artificial intelligence has been different.

One moment it felt like an interesting research project. The next, it was helping developers write software, designers generate concepts, marketers produce campaigns and entrepreneurs launch businesses at a pace that would have seemed unrealistic only a few years earlier.

I've never witnessed a technology spread through so many industries this quickly.

My Own Way of Working Has Changed

For most of my career, solving technical problems meant opening dozens of browser tabs. I'd search Google, read documentation, browse Stack Overflow, test ideas, break things, fix them, and slowly piece together a solution. It wasn't always efficient, but it was simply how software development worked.

Today my workflow looks almost unrecognisable.

I still write code, make decisions and solve problems myself, but AI has become part of almost every stage of the process. It helps me explore ideas, challenge assumptions, explain unfamiliar concepts, review code, generate prototypes and identify problems that might otherwise have taken hours to discover.

Tools like ChatGPT have rapidly become part of my everyday workflow, not because they replace expertise, but because they remove much of the repetitive work that used to slow projects down.

What surprised me most is that AI hasn't replaced my experience. In fact, it's reinforced many of the ideas I explored in What AI Can and Can't Replace, where I argue that the biggest advantage people still have isn't access to AI — it's judgement, creativity and experience.

Building Businesses Has Become Faster

Running online businesses has always involved wearing multiple hats.

Over the years I've been the developer, the designer, the marketer, the SEO consultant, the project manager and, occasionally, the person trying to fix everything that had gone wrong at two o'clock in the morning.

In the past, turning an idea into a real product often required weeks or months of work before you could even discover whether people wanted it.

Today, that process has changed dramatically.

I can sketch an idea in the morning, build a working prototype far more quickly than before, test it, improve it and launch it while the original idea is still fresh. That doesn't guarantee success, but it removes much of the friction that used to stop good ideas from ever seeing daylight.

As someone who enjoys building things, that's incredibly exciting.

Search Is Changing Again

Having worked in SEO for well over a decade, I've become used to Google's constant updates.

Algorithms have changed countless times. Ranking factors have evolved, search behaviour has shifted and new platforms have emerged. Yet despite all of that, the basic process remained largely the same: people searched for information, websites provided answers and Google connected the two.

Now we're entering another transition.

Increasingly, people are asking questions directly to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's own AI experiences. Instead of searching with a handful of keywords, they're having conversations. Google's own work on AI Overviews in Search shows how quickly search is moving from traditional results pages toward more direct, AI-assisted answers.

Some people see that as the end of websites.

I don't.

Someone still has to create original ideas, experiences, research and opinions. AI doesn't invent knowledge in isolation. It builds upon the work that people publish every day.

That makes high-quality, authentic content even more valuable.

The Human Advantage

One thing I've realised over the last few years is that technology keeps changing, but certain qualities remain remarkably consistent.

Curiosity still matters.

Judgement still matters.

Creativity still matters.

Trust still matters.

AI can generate impressive outputs, but it can't replace lived experience or genuine perspective. Two people can ask exactly the same question and receive almost identical answers, yet they'll still build completely different businesses because of the decisions they make afterwards.

That's where people continue to make the difference.

Why I'm More Excited Than Ever

There was a period where building online started to feel predictable.

The tools improved, websites became more polished and technology kept advancing, but there were fewer moments that genuinely made me stop and think, everything is changing again.

That feeling has returned.

Projects that once seemed too ambitious suddenly feel achievable. Ideas move from notebook to reality far more quickly than they used to, and I'm finding myself experimenting in ways I haven't for years.

It's reminded me why I started building websites in the first place.

Not because the technology was perfect, but because there was always something new to learn.

Over the years I've also been fortunate enough to be mentioned, quoted and featured in different places online. Looking back through my media features and interviews, one thing becomes clear: the tools change constantly, but the core principles of building useful things, staying visible and adapting over time remain surprisingly consistent.

Final Thoughts

After more than twenty-five years building on the internet, I've lived through several major transitions. I've watched old technologies disappear, new companies emerge and entire industries reshape themselves around the web.

None of those periods have felt quite like this one.

The pace of change over the last three years has been extraordinary, and I don't think we're anywhere near the end of it.

I don't believe AI is replacing builders, developers or entrepreneurs. I believe it's raising the bar. The people who succeed over the next decade won't simply be the ones with access to the best tools. They'll be the ones who remain curious, continue learning and are willing to adapt as quickly as the internet itself.

For someone who's been building online for over two decades, that's not something I find intimidating.

It's exactly what makes this the most exciting time I've ever experienced on the web.