Host: Sean Barber — https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrbarber/ (He/Him)

In this Real Talk With Sean episode, I'm joined by Simon Cox, Andy Strager, Tory Gray and Kristine Schachinger for a wide-ranging discussion on where the web is heading — the future of websites, the agentic web, AI security, how to stay sane in a noisy industry, getting dev work over the line, and the big one: whether we should hit pause on AI at all.

We look at what online companies might look like in three years, why the web will endure but matter differently, the coming wave of agent-driven security problems, how to cut through the daily noise of updates, the real techniques for getting dev tickets prioritised (and winning over the C-level), and a genuinely open debate on AI's environmental, surveillance, jobs and safety trade-offs.

My Guests:

Simon Cox — https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonmcox/

Andy Strager — https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-strager/

Tory Gray — https://www.linkedin.com/in/torygray/

Kristine Schachinger — https://www.linkedin.com/in/kschachinger-seo/

Topics Covered:

- The Web in Three Years: Whether websites survive the AI era, why corporate sites may consolidate, and what's left when retrieval stops being the point

- The Agentic Web & Bot-to-Bot Activity: The infrastructure layer that still needs building, WebMCP, and why some categories of SaaS may actually grow

- Agent Security & the Coming Wave of Hacks: Why agents are fundamentally insecure, real breach examples, and why trust may be the biggest brake on adoption

- Is the Web Still Worth Exploring?: The "samey" templated internet, where the interesting pockets still live (the Fediverse), and whether the Wild West is really over

- Staying Sane in a Noisy Industry: How each guest actually keeps up with Google updates and AI news without drowning — and why "staying in your lane" matters

- Getting Dev Tickets Over the Line: Speaking the dev's language, giving them workable detail, and making their job easier instead of harder

- Winning Buy-In & Beating the C-Level Blocker: Translating SEO into business impact, securing executive sign-off, and why the hardest person to convince is often at the top

- Would You Hit Pause on AI?: An honest panel debate on whether we should stop, slow down, or keep going

- AI, Data Centres & the Environment: Responsible vs cheap data centres, the real local impact, and the energy cost of the AI boom

- Surveillance, Military & AI's Real Revenue: Why the current money is in surveillance and military, cognitive offload, and the case for stronger guardrails

- AI, Jobs & the Missing Juniors: Why pausing could give humans time to retrain — and which jobs actually survive

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