The first article in the IUX Series: Exploring Intelligent User Experience
Let’s Start with the Problem: The Keyword Model Is Broken
For nearly two decades, the digital advertising industry has revolved around a single organizing principle: the keyword.
You know the drill. A user types a query into Google. Advertisers bid on specific keywords, hoping to appear at the top of the search results. The highest bidder wins, and a text ad is shown. This entire ecosystem has generated hundreds of billions in revenue for a handful of tech companies. But it’s a system optimized not for relevance or value, but for monetization. And it's beginning to show its age.
Click-through rates on keyword-based ads have hovered between 4–6% for years. Most users have trained themselves to ignore them. And worse, these ads rarely feel useful. They're cluttered, clumsy, and disconnected from the nuanced intentions that actually drive user behavior.
We are entering a new era—one where AI, not keyword auctions, becomes the foundation for the advertising economy. One where user intent becomes the north star. One where brands finally have a path to deliver relevance at scale. Welcome to the age of Intelligent User Experience.
Now Imagine This: What If We Designed for Intent Instead?
Let’s take a closer look at what this shift looks like in practice.
Imagine I’m considering a trip to Montreal. I go to Google and type “Montreal travel guide.” What I get is familiar: a few sponsored ads (for flights or hotels), a Wikipedia page, a list of suggested activities, and some scattered blue links. It’s a flat, unlayered response to what is actually a multidimensional question. The experience is transactional, not transformational. It’s a click-in, click-out model with no real memory, no context, and very little understanding of my broader intent.
Now contrast that with a query on Perplexity, an AI-based search platform. I type the same thing: “Montreal travel guide.” But instead of blue links and ads, I get a thoughtful summary. It outlines the best time to visit, highlights major attractions, provides a sample itinerary, and even offers links to the source material for deeper reading. It’s like getting a curated briefing from a local expert—refined, elegant, and context-aware.
Now imagine the potential if this same system not only understood my intent but could act on it. If it recognized that my interest in Montreal wasn’t casual but part of a decision-making journey. If it could infer that I’m likely traveling with family, or on business, or exploring Canadian cities for the first time. Imagine the AI layering in personalized offers—flights that match my travel patterns, hotels aligned with my preferences, local experiences that match my vibe.
This isn’t science fiction. This is what’s possible right now when we move from a keyword economy to an intent economy—and when we pair that with AI that is capable of understanding, interpreting, and curating a response.
Here’s the Big Idea: Intelligent User Experience, or IUX
This is what I call Intelligent User Experience, or IUX: a new framework for rethinking how we design digital interactions in an AI-powered world.
IUX isn’t just about personalization—it’s about constructing dynamic, responsive systems that adapt in real time to the user’s goals. It blends AI, UX, and CX principles to create interfaces that feel more like collaborative agents and less like vending machines. In an IUX paradigm, ads don’t interrupt—they enhance. They don’t clutter—they clarify. They don’t guess—they know.
At the heart of this is trust. Users will only engage deeply with a system that feels aligned with their intent. AI can now bridge the gap between passive content and active collaboration. That opens up a future where advertising becomes value-added guidance, where monetization is aligned with usefulness.
So What Does This Mean for Business? A Better Model for Everyone
The implications of this shift are enormous. Platforms that understand intent better will command higher engagement and loyalty. Advertisers who can plug into this intent-aware ecosystem will generate higher conversion rates. Everyone wins.
We’re talking about a future where:
Click-through rates aren’t 4–6%—they’re 40–60% because the offer is exactly what the user is seeking.
Platforms make more per session, not by adding more ads, but by offering fewer, more intelligent ones.
Consumers feel supported rather than sold to—leading to deeper engagement, better brand sentiment, and less fatigue.
The Opportunity Is Real—and It’s Right Now
The platforms that dominate today—Google, Meta, Amazon—have built extraordinary businesses on the backs of intent that was guessed. But AI now enables us to move from guessing to knowing. And that will disrupt everything.
The Perplexity model—AI as guide, curator, and concierge—isn’t a threat to the advertising business. It’s the next evolution of it. But only if we embrace the intent-based model and leave behind the old structures built for a different era.
This is the promise of IUX. This is where AI, UX, and CX converge to create something radically more powerful. Something human-centered and value-aligned. Something that doesn't just monetize attention, but earns it.
The future of advertising isn’t more keywords.
It’s more intelligence.
It’s more intent.
It’s more human.
And it’s already here.
If today’s episode got your wheels turning — if you’re thinking differently about where AI is taking the digital experience — share this one with a colleague, client, or friend in your corner of the creative economy.
You can follow the entire IUX Series on Substack, Apple, or Spotify — and if you’re finding value in these conversations, consider leaving a review. It helps new listeners find us.
Until next time — let go of what no longer serves. Build what the future needs. And remember: intelligence without intent is just noise.
Let’s make it meaningful.
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