Hey, it’s Fiona!
If you’ve been following along, we’ve already covered why your next user might not be human, how AI agents actually read the web, and even what happens when interfaces start generating themselves.
This week, we’re zooming in on something so fundamental most teams forget it: information architecture — the way your product or site is structured.
IA has always mattered for humans. But now it matters just as much for AI agents. And the way those two audiences “see” your structure could not be more different.
Think of your site like a city.
Humans are tourists: they follow street signs, wander into cafés, and get their bearings from the vibe of each neighbourhood. That’s your navigation menu, your labels, your categories.
AI agents are satellite maps: they don’t stroll the streets, they zoom out and look at the grid. They care about the exact street names, intersections, and coordinates, not the café murals or the atmosphere.
The danger? Most teams design the city for tourists only. So when the satellites look down, they see chaos: unlabelled streets, duplicate names, dead ends. And if they can’t map it, they won’t recommend it.
Why this matters now
In the past, bad IA was a human problem. A confusing menu slowed people down, but they could usually click around until they found what they needed.
With AI agents, there’s no patience. If the facts aren’t clear, the agent simply moves on to a competitor. And because agents are increasingly the first filter for human decision-making, messy IA can mean you don’t even make it into the conversation.
This is why IA has quietly become one of the most important competitive advantages you can build.
Where IA falls apart (real examples)
I see the same mistakes over and over:
Vague labels. “Solutions” in a menu might pass with humans, but to an agent it’s meaningless. Replace it with “Accounting services for startups” and you’ve given both audiences clarity.
Heading chaos. A page with three H1s is like a book with three titles. The agent can’t tell which is the real one, so it devalues all of them.
Content in the wrong format. Pricing in a PDF. Services listed only as icons. Product specs hidden in images. All invisible to agents.
Dead-end pages. Humans hit the back button. Agents just stop processing, assuming the trail isn’t worth following.
Each of these seems small. Together, they’re the difference between being on page one of an AI’s shortlist… or not being on the list at all.
The Dual IA Lens
Here’s the mindset shift: your IA now has two audiences, and you need to design for both.
Human-facing IA: predictable navigation, intuitive categories, breadcrumbs for orientation, copy that feels natural.
Agent-facing IA: one H1 per page, consistent heading hierarchy, XML sitemaps, schema markup, plain-text facts, internal links that connect related content.
The two layers don’t compete. In fact, when they align, they strengthen each other. Clearer headings help agents understand your content, and make humans scan faster too.
A practical exercise
Pick one page of your site. Strip it back to plain text using Reader View (most browsers have it). Now ask yourself:
Could someone still tell exactly what the page is about?
Are the key facts (price, features, delivery time, location) written out, or are they hidden in a graphic?
Does the heading structure read like a logical outline?
Are there at least 2–3 links to other relevant pages, so agents understand how this content fits into the bigger picture?
If you said “no” to any of these, you’ve found an invisible blocker.
Why I love this shift
At first glance, IA feels dry. No one brags about schema markup at parties. But honestly? This is where the fun is.
Because once you design IA with both audiences in mind, you unlock possibilities most teams don’t even see:
A service page that doubles as a data feed agents can parse instantly.
A category structure that’s as useful to ChatGPT as it is to your human visitors.
A brand that shows up in AI-curated shortlists, not because of flashy visuals, but because your structure made you unmissable.
It’s not about stripping away creativity. It’s about building an invisible foundation that makes your creativity visible in the first place.
Try this this week
Take one vague nav label — Resources, Solutions, Learn More. Rewrite it into something so clear a person smiles in recognition and an agent can categorise it instantly.
Then check the corresponding page: does it have one H1, a logical outline, and the essentials in plain text? If not, fix that too.
It’s a small change. But the ripple effects can be huge.
Next week, I’m kicking off with The Four Shifts in Future UX. It’s the framework I use to explain how AI is reshaping design at every level, from audiences to ethics.
Talk soon,
Fiona
Fiona Burns
Work with me
Alongside writing Beyond the Screen, I help founders and product teams design digital products their users (and AI agents) can’t ignore.
That might mean validating an early idea, shaping the first version of a marketplace, or redesigning a website so it’s easier for both people and machines to understand.
If you’re building something new and need UX/UI support, head over to my website to see how we could work together.