Could AI end web agencies as we know them? I asked the CEO of Duda

Date:
Fri, 19 Sep 2025 14:35:00 +0000

Description:
I spoke to Itai Sadan, CEO of Duda, about how AI is, and will continue to, impact the website building space for agencies.

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Not a week seems to pass without at least one of the best website builder platforms adding a new AI feature to its toolkit, making it easier than ever for anyone to create, launch, and manage a website.

But now that building a website is as easy as writing a sentence and clicking a button, where does that leave the agencies that previously offered the highly technical skills needed to launch a site?

Earlier this week, I was invited to attend Duda's customer summit in Amsterdam. Duda is a website building platform that has been purpose built with website professionals in mind, making it one of the best website
builders for agencies on the market.

During the event, I had the chance to talk to everyone from agency owners to the Duda co-founders, giving me a unique perspective on how AI is really impacting website building professionals.

So, will AI end the website agency as we know it? Below you will find what Itai Sadan, CEO and Co-founder of Duda, had to say about the topic. In a recent press release, Duda claimed that agencies must evolve from service providers to strategic partners. What specific capabilities should agencies
be focusing on in order to survive and thrive in the next 5 years?

The future isnt about being a website factory; its about helping businesses grow smarter, faster, and more sustainably.

Agencies that want to survive and thrive over the next five years must shift from simply building websites to becoming true strategic partners for their clients. That means focusing on digital reputation management, enabling businesses with AI-driven tools, and embracing consultative services that
look beyond the website to the entire business.

Agencies need to think holistically about growth, offering digital marketing strategies that directly drive SMB success, while also orchestrating the
right mix of technologiesincluding AIto increase productivity and deliver measurable outcomes. The future isnt about being a website factory; its about helping businesses grow smarter, faster, and more sustainably. With 50% of websites built on Duda now using AI, are traditional methods of website building becoming obsolete?

AI isnt replacing the art of website building. If anything, its amplifying
it.

At Duda, weve embedded multiple AI assistants into the website building process, from creating copy and optimizing SEO to automating workflows and gathering client content, so builders can work faster and smarter.

But the real magic happens when agencies infuse that efficiency with creativity and strategy. Without that human touch, 10,000 accountant websites generated by AI would all look the same. At the end of the day, websites need to stand out, be discovered, and build trust. In an era where E-E-A-T is more important than ever, its the human expertise guiding AI that ensures every site is not only functional, but truly unique and credible.

Put your agency's brand first with Duda's white labelled tools

Duda is purpose built with agencies and freelancers in mind. Along with a
host of dedicated agency tools, the platform is white labelled, helping you create a cohesive brand experience for your customers. View Deal As AI makes it faster, easier, and cheaper to build websites, how can agencies continue
to create value and drive profits in a world where making a website is as
easy as typing a sentence and clicking a button?

Clients arent paying for the time it takes to build a site anymore; theyre paying for outcomes, strategy, and expertise.

AI is undoubtedly transforming how websites are built, making the process faster, easier, and more cost-efficientbut that doesnt mean agency pricing will go down.

Clients arent paying for the time it takes to build a site anymore; theyre paying for outcomes, strategy, and expertise. As small businesses face increasing complexity across digital channels, the value of an agency that
can simplify, strategize, and drive results becomes even more critical.

AI allows agencies to do more with less; streamlining operations, automating tasks, and focusing their human creativity where it matters most. Ironically, in a world where building a site is as easy as typing a sentence, agencies that embrace AI to deliver smarter, more comprehensive services may be in a position to deliver, and subsequently charge, more, not less. Itai taking the keynote speech at the Duda Partner Summit in Amsterdam. (Image credit:
Future) With AI helping automate much of the work traditionally done by entry level employees, how do you see agencies nurturing junior talent in the
coming years?

The reality is that its going to be harder for entry-level employees to break into the industry, because many of those traditional first jobs, like
drafting and reviewing content, can now be done by AI.

The way forward is for aspiring talent to educate themselves on these tools and arrive not just ready to learn, but ready to add value. Agencies will be looking for people who can bring ingenuity, innovation, and fresh approaches to leveraging AI in ways that more seasoned professionals may not yet have embraced. The next crop of junior hires wont be trained from scratch, rather, theyll prove they can elevate the work from day one. Your MCP server lets users manage sites through AI assistants like Claude. Are you worried that Duda could become a backend service whilst AI assistants become the primary interface? How do you plan on continuing to offer value to your customers in this case?

We're not threatened by new interfaces. On the contrary, we embrace them.

We're not threatened by new interfaces. On the contrary, we embrace them.

Whether it's AI assistants like Claude, voice interfaces, our own UI, or direct API access, we want to empower users to work in the way thats most natural and productive for them.

The value Duda delivers isnt just in how users interact with the platform,
but in the platform itself; where the sites live, scale, and succeed. Our mission is to support the creation of more websites, and our incentives are fully aligned with that goal, no matter what tool or assistant gets the job done. What are the biggest opportunities agencies should be looking to take advantage of in the coming months?

As AI continues to reshape the way people search and discover information, agencies have a massive opportunity to step up and provide clarity to their clients navigating this new landscape.

Just like Zynga capitalized on early Facebook to scale rapidly, theres a similar moment happening now with AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. These tools are the new gateways to customer discovery. Agencies that understand what people are asking these models and craft
content that aligns with those questions have an opportunity to leap-frog their competition by becoming the default brand that these models recommend. Are there other exciting updates to Duda you are currently working on that
you can share with us?

One of the most exciting developments were working on is Copilot, our own native conversational assistant embedded directly within the Duda Editor.

Unlike external AI tools, Copilot is deeply integrated into the platform, blending the intuitive power of natural language with the precision of our drag-and-drop interface. It exists in context, understands the Duda ecosystem out of the box, and makes building beautiful, high-performing websites even faster and easier. We're incredibly bullish on the value this will unlock for our power users.

Beyond Copilot, were doubling down on AI discoverability, investing in everything from LLMs.txt to schema optimization and ongoing researchall with the goal of maximizing how AI can elevate the performance and discoverability of every Duda site.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/website-building/could-ai-end-web-agencies-as-we -know-them-i-asked-the-ceo-of-duda


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