Shaping the future of domain names in an AI-driven world

Artificial intelligence is changing the way people find information, discover businesses and navigate the internet. Instead of browsing through search results, more users are turning to AI-powered assistants to ask questions, compare services and receive recommendations. These changes bring new questions for businesses, but also for the organisations and professionals responsible for the internet's underlying infrastructure.

Understanding what this means for domain names requires looking beyond individual organisations. Registries, registrars, technical experts, businesses and researchers all have a role in sharing knowledge and helping the wider internet community adapt.

A reliable online presence still matters

AI may change the way people arrive at a website, but the website itself remains an important point of reference. It is where organisations explain what they do, share their knowledge, communicate with customers and provide access to their services.

A domain name gives that website a recognisable online address. It helps people identify an organisation, find its official website and return to it when needed. As AI-generated answers increasingly summarise information from different sources, being able to trace that information back to an identifiable website remains valuable.

Having a domain name does not, on its own, guarantee visibility in AI-generated answers or search results. The quality, relevance, accessibility and clarity of the website's content is what matters.

New developments, familiar principles

For businesses, this means paying attention to how their online presence is structured and maintained. Descriptive page titles, meaningful headings, well-organised content and consistent organisational information help visitors understand what a website offers. These practices can also help automated systems interpret its content.

Keeping information accurate and up to date, and ensuring that important pages are technically accessible, remain essential. AI is adding a new dimension to online discovery, but it does not make clear communication, useful content and good website maintenance any less important.

Why cooperation matters

The changes brought by AI also raise wider questions for the domain name community. How will people find reliable information? How can businesses maintain a recognisable online presence? What developments should registries and registrars anticipate, and how can the domain name infrastructure continue to meet changing expectations?

These questions benefit from different perspectives. Registries and registrars have practical insight into how the domain name system operates, technical experts can help assess emerging developments, while businesses and researchers bring experience of changing user behaviour and expectations.

Through industry forums, working groups and exchanges between organisations, the community can share findings, identify common challenges and explore possible responses. This cooperation is particularly valuable in a period when technology is developing quickly and its longer-term implications are still taking shape.

For businesses operating across European markets, domain names also play a role in establishing a recognisable online presence. The .eu domain offers a European online address, while .ею and .ευ allow organisations to use Cyrillic and Greek scripts.

AI will continue to influence how people interact with the internet, and the tools used to discover information will keep changing. By combining technical knowledge, practical experience and cooperation across the domain name community, we can better understand these developments and help shape a reliable and accessible internet for the future.