AI in Web Design: Do I Use AI When Building Your Website?

A potential client recently mentioned that her teenager is absolutely against AI. It's not the first time I've heard someone express strong feelings about it, but it got me thinking about how openly I talk about using AI in my own business.

I've previously written about why I'm not afraid of AI, but I've never really explained how I use AI in web design, particularly when I'm working on a client's website. What does it actually mean for the person paying me to build their website, and how much of the work involves AI?

I thought it was time to explain.

How I Use AI in Web Design

I use AI in my business, just as I use plenty of other tools and software to help me do my job. That doesn't mean I'm asking ChatGPT to build your website and then sending you the finished result. AI is simply another tool in my toolkit, alongside Squarespace, Google, Canva and all the other software I use every day.

The important thing is knowing when it's useful and when it isn't.

How AI helps me behind the scenes

One of the ways I use AI is to help me work through ideas. If I'm trying to solve a problem or looking at different ways of approaching something, it can be useful to have another perspective to bounce ideas off. It doesn't necessarily give me the answer, but it can help me think about the problem differently.

I also use it for research and troubleshooting. If I come across something technical that I haven't dealt with before, AI can sometimes help me understand what might be going on or suggest things for me to investigate. I still need to check that information and work out whether the suggested solution is actually appropriate.

Content is another area where it can be useful. I might use AI to help me organise information, explore different ways of structuring a page, sense-check some wording or come up with ideas for headings and SEO. If I'm working with a client's existing content, it can also be useful for helping me make sense of a large amount of information before I start putting a page together.

There are also plenty of smaller, repetitive jobs where using AI can save me time. For me, that's one of the biggest benefits. If a tool can help me spend less time on something mundane, I have more time available for the parts of my work that actually require my experience and judgement.

What AI doesn't do in web design

AI isn't designing your website for me.

When I'm working on a website, I'm thinking about your business, what you offer, who you're trying to reach and what you need the website to achieve. I'm making decisions about the structure, layout, navigation, content and overall design, as well as making sure that the finished site works properly and is something you'll be able to manage afterwards.

AI doesn't know your business or your customers. It doesn't have the conversations I've had with you, and it doesn't have years of experience designing websites and working with small businesses.

That's why I see it as a tool rather than a replacement for the work I do.

What about your website copy?

This is probably one of the areas where people have the most questions about AI, particularly when they're paying someone to create their website.

The reality is that many of my clients are at the start of their business journey, or they're working with a fairly limited budget. In an ideal world, they might love to have a brand designer, professional photographer and copywriter all involved in their website project. For many small businesses, though, that's simply not realistic financially.

So I work with what my clients have.

And quite often, what I'm given isn't quite enough for a website. They might have a few paragraphs of information, some notes they've written themselves or an old website that needs a complete rethink. Sometimes there is plenty of information, but it isn't written in a way that works particularly well for a website. Other times, there are important gaps that we need to fill.

This is where AI can be a really useful tool.

I can use it to help me organise the information I'm given, identify what's missing, explore ways of structuring the content or turn a collection of notes into something I can work with. I can then edit, rewrite and shape that content so that it fits the website and, importantly, still reflects the client's business and voice.

I'm not pretending that this is the same thing as hiring a professional copywriter. If your budget allows for a copywriter and that's something you want to invest in, absolutely do that.

But if you're a small business owner with a limited budget, I'd rather help you create the best website possible with the resources you have available than tell you that you need to spend thousands more before we can get started.

Your knowledge, experience and understanding of your customers are still the starting point. AI is simply one of the tools I can use to help turn all of that into useful website content.

Does using AI make the work less creative?

I don't think it does.

I've always used tools to help me do my work more efficiently. The fact that some of those tools now happen to include AI doesn't change the fact that I'm still the person making the decisions.

Sometimes AI gives me a useful idea. Sometimes it gives me something that is completely wrong. Sometimes it gives me three paragraphs of waffle when I only needed one sentence.

I decide what is useful, what isn't and what gets used.

In fact, one of the reasons I like using AI is that it can take some of the more repetitive work off my plate, leaving me more time to concentrate on the things that need actual thought, experience and creativity.

And what about the concerns around AI?

I completely understand why some people have concerns about AI. There are legitimate questions around privacy, copyright, the impact on creative work and the way AI is being developed and used.

I'm not going to try to convince you that you shouldn't have those concerns.

For me, there's a difference between using AI thoughtfully as one of many tools and handing over all of your thinking to it. I don't want AI to replace the human part of my business, and I don't think it needs to.

So, what are you actually getting when you work with me?

You're getting my experience, my ideas, my design decisions and my knowledge of Squarespace. You're getting someone who takes the time to understand your business and what you need from your website, and who will make the decisions needed to turn all of that into something that works.

AI might help me get there a little faster, help me investigate a problem or give me another perspective along the way. It doesn't replace the work I do for you.

I've previously written about my general approach to AI in Why I'm Not Afraid of AI (And You Don't Need to Be Either), but this post explains what AI in web design looks like in practice, and what it means when you hire me to work on your website.

Because ultimately, you're not hiring AI to build your website.

You're hiring me.

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