Sorry, but no. AI can’t build your site for you in 15 Minutes. Not if you want it to work as hard as you do.
I get it, I get it! Everyone is obsessed with AI right now. Every other headline screams:
“Build a Website in 15 Minutes with AI!”
“No Coding Needed—Just Let the Robots Do It!”
“Say Goodbye to Web Designers Forever!”
And, of course, I am biased as your friendly neighborhood web designer that, um, doesn’t want to go away forever. But I’m also someone who spends a lot of time cleaning up quick fixes that end up costing people time, money, and a little sanity.
I’m an expert. And I’ve seen the tides come and go and turn (many times) in the brand-building business. If you want a generic, glitchy, SEO-nightmare of a site that looks like it was assembled by a caffeine-deprived intern in 2008 and also like a bunch of other people in your niche that also took an (attractive!) shortcut…then yes. Go ahead and AI “build” your site in 15 minutes.
However, if you want a website (or brand, or digital footprint, or literally anything that properly represents you) that actually:
- Works (shocking priority, I know)
- Converts visitors into customers (instead of sending them screaming back to what remains of Google these days)
- Doesn’t look like every other AI-generated template out there (because nothing says “I don’t take my business seriously” like a site that screams “I let a robot do this for free”)
…then no, AI can’t do it for you. At least, not yet. And definitely not well.
Here’s What AI Actually Does Well (and Where It Falls Flat)
AI is great at:
- Spitting out generic content
- Suggesting basic layouts (There was a point in liiiiike….2012? Where 70% of my inquiries were people wanting the same layout and it was baffling. I couldn’t figure out why everyone wanted the exact same layout, nearly the same copy, and there wasn’t really a business underneath the fluff. After some digging, I found the source and it was one of those coaches that sells an affiliate program cloaked as a business bootcamp. Imagine that kind copy and paste tactic on steroids…that’s what’s happening now.)
- Automating tedious tasks (like resizing images. That one is actually helpful)
But here’s what AI can’t do:
- Understand your brand’s personality (unless “vaguely corporate jargon” is your vibe)
- Fix broken UX (AI doesn’t know your audience hates pop-ups as much as you do)
- Optimize for conversions (because “maybe people will click this button?” isn’t a strategy)
- Make strategic decisions (like whether your homepage should focus on testimonials or a lead magnet)
And trust me, it will pretend that it can do these things. However…
The Biggest Problem? AI Doesn’t Think—It Guesses
AI tools like ChatGPT, Wix and GoDaddy’s entry into the market, or other AI builders are predictive, not creative. They mash together the most common patterns from existing sites and wham, bam, thank you ma’am.
This is all fine if you want a placeholder site.
But if you’re running a real business, your website isn’t just a digital business card. It’s your best salesperson, your lead generator, and your first (and sometimes only) impression.
Do you really want to trust that to a robot that literally doesn’t know what it’s doing?
So Should You Use AI at All?
If you want. As a helper, not a replacement. And have a (good) think about how your usage aligns with your values. If you’re cool with Grok terrorizing towns in Tennessee because you want to ask under a tweet, “@grok, is this true?” go nuts. But do it with your eyes wide open.
But if you think AI can replace strategy, branding, and human expertise, you’re setting yourself up for a site or a brand identity that…is lacking. To put that in the kindest way possible.
There is no magic wand to a successful business. If you (have AI) build it, your dream audience probably won’t come. If you want a website that actually works (and doesn’t look like a 2005 GeoCities page resurrected by a chatbot), you still need a clear strategy, a serious approach to branding, and smart choices from start to finish.
A note on using your brain:
I am in the middle of redesigning my studio site. I knowwwww the slog of making everything pixel-perfect. I get the temptation to just have an AI tool spit out some copy. But. I am a designer. I am a developer. I’m, frankly, a pretty good writer. Those are cool skills! Those are also skills that will atrophy if I don’t use them. Outsourcing the things that make us us, that help us to produce more than we consume, that keep us sharp and eager and hungry to learn are lost when we don’t appreciate them, nurture them, and give them a chance to shine.
An interesting discourse on design (apologies for platforming blue checks)
There is beauty in the work, and I just happen to think as your totally biased friendly neigbhorhood designer that there is some work still worth doing.
A note on the future:
Not for nothing, but I do think that it’s terribly short-sighted, on multiple fronts, to hollow out and automate entry-level work in the name of “cost saving”. I sat on a round table a few weeks ago with business leaders and HR professionals, and I felt a little out of body when it became clear that nobody was going to ask, “What happens in ten or fifteen years when there are no mid- to heavy-weight [insert whatever job here] to keep companies and expertise alive?” Replacing everyone might seem to work on the surface for now, but the knock on effect of young people being unable to find work and build their skills and careers, companies not being able to promote from within (or from anywhere) in about five years because nobody knows how to do anything, and the demoralizing impact on current staff at being told pretty blatantly that they don’t matter seems like it makes for a pretty bleak future. I don’t think we were put on this earth just to increase shareholder value, so taking a long and wide view on how these tools impact actual people seems like…a compassionate, if not good, idea?
A note on em dashes:
Some of use enjoyed using them before ChatGPT launched and you can pry them from our cold, dead hands.
Okay, bye.