AI has made a stamp on the world in the past decade; meanwhile the public are still torn on whether its surge in popularity is for the good or if AI will change our digital eco-system for the worse. 58% of web designers surveyed stated that they use at least some AI to generate imagery or other media for a website project, a staggering number that's only likely to increase. AI has taken over many online spaces, including art, content creation, writing, and now web design. From tools that can whip up a concept in 30 seconds to writing 1000 words in less than a minute, AI can achieve things no human ever could and removes almost all the limits web design once had.
But is this ethical? There's hundreds of opinion pieces discussing AI all over the internet. Some believe future tech is encouraging laziness, others see it as an opportunity to master a new technology and move with the times. AI in web design isn't exempt from this debate. If you're an AI lover or hater, it's here to stay so best to get to grips with the way it works!
AI Uses in Web Design
AI has many uses in web design, from AI content writers and infographics, to tools that can build a homepage faster than you could start up your computer.
Content Writing
ChatGPT took the world by storm when OpenAI released it in 2022. The San Francisco based company knew they were sitting on a powerful tool that would change the way research and content writing was done forever. Now many online content writing tools use OpenAI or algorithms that are similar to produce SEO optimised content for website owners in seconds.
Simply type in a prompt and the AI will spit out a complete article or service page, fully optimised for the term you inputted. If you don't like the writing style, no worries at all! Just tell the AI that you want an informal, education, humorous or any tone you need. What would once take copywriters hours to research, write and optimise is now done in just a few key swipes and clicks.
It almost sounds too good to be true and maybe it is. ChatGPT and other AI content writing tools often get criticism on the repetitive nature of the writing; an almost 'AI-accent' can be detected in pieces that have been produced by these types of bots. Furthermore, it's difficult to know where the AI has researched the content and whether the sources are reliable; even further, whether the AI has plagiarised!
This can often be remedied by using a real human to proof the content before it gets published, as well as using plagiarism tools to check if the content is original. However, in some cases, it might be better to just use a human all together and skip the AI.
User Data Analysis
AI has some really cool abilities aside from ChatGPT, for instance data analysis. Web designers will spend hours analysing user data to find pain points, navigation behaviour and room for improvement on their websites. Then they will spend even more time trying to remedy these issues with manual fixes. AI has completely reshaped how data analysis can happen in web design.
Artificial intelligence now has capabilities to analyse your website visitors and offer you fixes and optimisations right before your eyes. Dynamic content based on user preferences can be implemented to give a personalised experience to every user, which not only enhances user experience but boots conversion.
AI Chatbots
Future tech's first success was customer service chat bots. Almost every website you now visit with a live chat bot will have an AI bot service you before you can get to a human. The benefits of this to businesses are endless; they run 24/7, they learn as they go and they cut down wait times for customer service drastically. The bots can weed out users with easy fixes and leave the human representatives for the more complex issues.
AI chatbots can be hooked up to companies CRM systems to track and store customer data with seamless integrations. The AI does most the work for them in answering the users question and passing the information into a huge storeroom of customer data for humans to analyse. The chatbots collect data that might otherwise be ignored by humans, leading to better optimisation and better customer support.
Like all AI, there are lovers and haters of the chatbots. One 'life hack' found on social media is to type in "speak to human" repeatedly to try and confuse the bots and bypass you to a human representative quicker. Although perhaps if the users attempting this life hack would relay their issues to the chatbots they might find them more helpful...
Branding
It's probably not surprising by now that AI can do a lot, it can even create your logo for you. From AI art tools to branding specific tools, you can have a logo built for you the shake of a lambs tail. AI tools can also generate custom fonts, colour ways, even complete brands. Starting up your own businesses has never been any easier.
It's important to take the images AI produce with a pinch of salt. A few brands have found themselves in hot water after discovering their new logo was actually a carbon copy of another exisiting business, or scarily similar. It's always best to do your research when using these types of tools.
What's Next for AI in Web Design?
The tools that already exist are both scary and really cool. AI is clearly here to stay so becoming an expert is a surefire way to get ahead of the crowds in the web design space. The tools to create a whole website from artificial intelligence already exist, however AI will always need a human behind it, feeding it the information it needs.
We'd love your opinion though, do you think web design could ever become fully automated? Or will we always need web designers there to tame the beast that is AI?
