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GammaDX has launched an AI agent experience design practice and published an index on how ready Australian websites are for AI agents. The index found 12 of the 50 websites tested were fully agent-ready.
The study assessed 10 Australian websites across five sectors: retail, banking and insurance, utilities, travel, and government and services. Most could be accessed and understood by AI agents, but none were designed for agents to act on users' behalf.
That gap matters as more consumers use AI tools to research products and services, compare options, fill in forms, and complete transactions. Organisations risk losing sales or transactions if their websites do not work properly when an AI agent is carrying out those tasks.
Banking and insurance sites ranked highest in the index, followed by retail, utilities, and travel. Government and services websites ranked last.
GammaDX used a 100-point scoring method across five areas: discovery and access, content comprehension, navigation and interaction, task completion, and trust and governance. Of the 50 websites examined, 12 were classified as agent-ready, 36 as capable, and two as emerging.
None of the websites blocked the six AI agents tested. Average task readiness across the sites was 74 per cent, while trust and governance was the weakest category in every sector at 56 per cent.
According to the findings, no website in the group published a clear position on AI agents. Only nine of the 50 sites published a security contact.
Shift in design
George Pappas, managing director of GammaDX, said the findings pointed to a shift in how organisations should approach digital experience.
"Most websites were built for people to use directly, but as customers start using AI agents to research products and access services, organisations need to check how their sites perform when an agent is doing the work," Pappas said.
"They need to know whether an agent can use their services reliably and safely. Can it complete a form, request a quote or make a booking, and does it stop when human approval is required? Our findings show that while some of our biggest organisations are on the right track, there is still much work to do. These are experience questions as much as they are technology questions."
The new practice brings together the agency's strategy, experience, platform, and AI teams to assess and improve how authorised agents interact with digital services. Its work will include readiness assessments, design and implementation, and ongoing optimisation for websites and applications.
The practice covers six parts of the agent experience lifecycle: readiness strategy, discoverability, interaction design, integration and engineering, testing and assurance, and ongoing optimisation.
Wider group
The agency launched earlier this year as part of Mercantile Co, a parent company created by George Pappas and George Photios. The pair also founded digital marketing agency G Squared.
Mercantile Co also includes Burrow, a social media monitoring and community management agency, and Wordie, which designs and supports WordPress services for organisations.
Pappas said the new practice applies established digital experience methods to a different type of user.
"Our AXD practice applies the same rigour we have brought to digital experience, but looks at it from an agent's perspective. We can see whether an agent can find the right information, where it struggles to understand what it is seeing, where a journey breaks down, and where the organisation needs to introduce a human decision or approval."