Webflow, long established as one of the best website builders on the market, recently announced an expansion to its platform, shifting the company’s focus from traditional websites to full-stack web experiences.
Following on from this announcement I had the chance to talk to Lisa Tong, CEO of Webflow. We started by talking about the forces currently shaping the web application space and, perhaps unsurprisingly, how AI is positively and negatively impacting website and web app development.
If you are interested in using Webflow, you can read our full Webflow review here.
Linda Tong is the CEO of Webflow, the industry’s first Website Experience Platform (WXP) for modern marketers, designers, developers, and agencies. During her tenure, Linda has guided Webflow through significant growth, serving hundreds of thousands of global customers and achieving substantial revenue milestones. Linda brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of leadership from her executive roles at Cisco, NFL, and Google.
Owain has led on all website builder content at TechRadar since October 2023. Over the last 1.5 years, he has interviewed executives from all of the top website builders including Wix, Squarespace, and Hostinger.
What are the most significant forces currently reshaping the future of web app development that you can see from your vantage point?
Instead of sending users to links, AI engines now deliver full answers 75% of the time.
One of the biggest shifts we’re watching is how AI is changing how people find and interact with web content. Instead of sending users to links, AI engines now deliver full answers 75% of the time, eliminating the need for the user to visit a website. Gartner expects traditional search engine volume to drop by 25% by 2026.
This shift is pushing companies to rethink the role of their website, not just as a destination but as a source of truth. They serve as a primary input for AI models, shaping the answers users get from LLMs. It’s no longer enough to rank in search results. It’s about making sure your products, perspective, and voice are reflected accurately wherever decisions are being made.
We’re also seeing a move from static sites to more dynamic, app-like experiences. Teams are building with real-time data, APIs, and more flexible infrastructure to create tools like booking engines, calculators, and conversational interfaces. As consumer expectations rise, strong performance, consistent branding, and clean data structures still matter. The fundamentals haven’t gone away. They just need to work harder in more complex environments.
AI is becoming increasingly established in SEO and content creation, but what are the most exciting and perhaps unexpected ways you are seeing AI being applied to web application development workflows today?
One of the most exciting shifts we’re seeing is how AI is helping more people contribute meaningfully to the development process. Designers are shaping interactions, marketers are launching testable MVPs, and teams are working together earlier and more often. It’s making iteration faster and helping teams move from idea to execution with less friction.
We’re also starting to see AI support the creation and scaling of design systems that grow with the product. That makes it easier to stay consistent as teams test and build across different parts of the experience. Behind the scenes, AI is stepping in to streamline foundational work like generating page structure, improving accessibility, and flagging performance issues. These are the kinds of tasks that used to slow teams down. Now, they’re happening faster and with more context, which leads to better outcomes, earlier in the process.
AI is already helping more people get working websites off the ground, fast. What used to take weeks now takes minutes, even for someone without a technical background. That alone lowers the barrier to entry in a big way. But what will really move the industry forward is the ability to go beyond prototypes and build websites and applications that are reliable, performant, and secure.
We’re starting to see early signs of that shift, and it has the potential to bring more people into the process without compromising quality. I also think we’ll see meaningful impact in how teams manage what happens after something is live.
Most of the work in software development happens post-launch: updating content, improving performance, and making sure things stay secure and stable. AI has a real opportunity to reduce the complexity of that work. Helping teams make smarter decisions, act on usage data, and automate what used to be manual will create space to focus on what actually moves the business forward.
What do you perceive as the biggest risks in applying AI to web application development? How can companies mitigate these risks?
We’re starting to see a wave of quick builds that aren’t designed to last.
AI has made it a lot easier to get something off the ground. With the right prompt, almost anyone can spin up a website or tool in minutes. But that speed can lead to shortcuts. We’re starting to see a wave of quick builds that aren’t designed to last. Apps with no plan for how they’ll be maintained, improved, or scaled over time.
The bigger risk isn’t just bad content or bugs, it’s treating launch like the finish line. Most platforms still focus on creation instead of what comes after the launch. But the real work starts after something goes live: updates, performance tuning, adapting to what users actually need. That’s where teams spend most of their time and money. The companies that get this right will take a lifecycle approach and build with systems that support iteration, performance, and long-term value from the start.
In your opinion, where do you anticipate the greatest investment and innovation will occur in the web/app development space over the next five years? Which areas are poised for the most significant disruption or growth?
Over the next five years, I think we’ll see the most innovation in how teams manage the full lifecycle of digital products, from first build to what happens after launch. It’s becoming easier to ship something quickly, but building something that lasts (something scalable, secure, and maintainable) is still where most teams hit friction. That’s where there’s real room for better tools, better systems, and clearer collaboration.
I also think we’ll see more investment in helping teams iterate faster once something is live. That means better ways to track what’s working, make changes without breaking things, and keep everyone, whether you’re a designer or marketer or an engineer, working in sync. The platforms that make that kind of end-to-end visibility and agility possible are the ones that will define what the next era of software looks like.
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