Q&A with Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami on Wix's embrace of AI, how the business models of the web can survive AI, Israel-Hamas war content moderation, and more
Nilay Patel / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
Wix had already turned generative AI into a product feature with its chat-prompt site generator, spanning common small-business functions such as commerce and scheduling. This interview places that rollout in a broader discussion of how AI changes both web creation and the economics of operating online.
The company’s later purchase of text-to-app builder Base44 makes this an early marker of Wix’s move from AI-assisted site building toward more capable prompt-driven creation.
First-order effects
- Wix’s AI embrace signals that its customers will increasingly encounter AI inside the platform’s core creation workflow rather than as a separate experimental tool.
- By addressing Israel-Hamas war moderation alongside product strategy, Wix puts its handling of politically sensitive user content under closer scrutiny.
Second-order effects
- Website-building rivals such as GoDaddy face added pressure to match AI-assisted creation while preserving differentiation in their existing customer bases; GoDaddy later discussed its own AI service and competition with Wix in a rival CEO interview.
- If AI lowers the effort needed to launch sites and storefronts, platform value shifts toward distribution, payments, scheduling, support, and the policies that make generated and user-created content manageable.
Third-order effects
- The web-creation market may consolidate around platforms that combine prompt-based production with the operating services businesses need after launch, rather than around standalone site editors.
- As AI changes how information is produced and found, web platforms and publishers will face a persistent negotiation over traffic, monetization, and control—an issue echoed in Google’s discussion of reshaping Search.
The trend: AI is turning website builders from design tools into broader business-creation platforms while intensifying the unresolved tension between automated content supply, distribution, and moderation.