A web developer recently wrote about a pattern that feels painfully familiar: every client used to want a homepage carousel. Now they want an AI chatbot. Not because they use chatbots themselves. Not because users asked for one. Just because everyone else seems to have one. (adele.pages.casa)
The technology changed. The psychology didn’t.
The Feature Arms Race
A decade ago, it was homepage sliders.
Then cookie banners.
Then analytics dashboards nobody opened.
Now it’s the blinking AI assistant in the bottom-right corner.
The request usually arrives the same way:
“Competitor X has one.”
That’s the entire business case.
Not user research. Not support metrics. Not conversion data.
Just fear of being the only website in the room without the shiny thing.
Looking Modern
The interesting part is that most people don’t actually like these features.
Ask someone if they use website chatbots and the answer is usually no. They close them immediately. Some are genuinely useful, but many are just expensive decoration. Adele describes clients laughing about bad chatbot experiences and then immediately asking for one themselves.
The chatbot isn’t always a tool.
Sometimes it’s a status symbol.
A way of signalling that the company is keeping up.
Invisible Work
The irony is that the hardest work on a website is usually invisible.
Fast loading pages.
Clear navigation.
Good copy.
Useful information architecture.
Nobody screenshots those in a client meeting.
A chatbot widget is visible. Restraint isn’t.
That’s why simple websites often lose the first impression contest despite winning the usability contest.
Same Story, New Buzzword
The article resonated because it isn’t really about AI.
It’s about an old pattern the web industry keeps repeating.
A technology becomes culturally important.
Everyone rushes to copy it.
Eventually the feature becomes table stakes, irrelevant, or forgotten.
Then the next thing arrives.
The chatbot may genuinely be useful in the right context.
But if history is any guide, somewhere in 2030 a client will hold up their phone and say:
“See? They have one of those.”
And we’ll all start building whatever replaced the chatbot.