AI & DESIGN · · 6 min read
How to use AI in web design without ending up with a generic website
AI can make a design process faster and better, or it can flatten everything into the same beige result. Where it helps, where it hurts, and the guardrails that matter.
Lucy · Design Lead, UI & UX
The risk isn’t AI, it’s autopilot
AI tools are now part of almost every creative workflow. Used well, they speed up the boring parts and leave more time for thinking. Used on autopilot, they produce websites that look and sound like everyone else’s.
The difference comes down to where you use AI, and who’s making the decisions.
Where AI genuinely helps
Research and synthesis
AI is great at summarising customer reviews, survey answers and competitor sites. It can surface patterns quickly, giving designers a head start on understanding the audience.
Exploring directions
Generating rough layout ideas or mood references can help a team explore more directions early on. The key word is rough. These are starting points to react to, not finished designs.
First drafts of copy
A first draft beats a blank page. AI can produce a starting point for page copy, which a writer then rewrites with the brand’s real voice, specific details and genuine proof.
Production work
Resizing and cropping images, writing alt text drafts, creating variations of a graphic, scaffolding code. AI saves real time on tasks that don’t need creative judgement.
Where AI tends to hurt
- Brand identity: logos and visual identities need to be distinctive and ownable, which is exactly what averaged-out outputs aren’t
- Final copy: generic phrasing, made-up claims and a voice that doesn’t sound like you
- Key imagery: generated people and places can look uncanny, and may not reflect your actual business
- Decisions: what to prioritise, what to cut and what makes you different should come from people who understand your business
The guardrails that matter
A human makes every final call
Use AI to generate options. Have an experienced designer choose, edit and refine. If nobody can explain why a decision was made, it probably shouldn’t have been.
Check every fact
AI can state things confidently that simply aren’t true. Every claim, statistic and detail on your website should be checked by a person.
Protect client information
Don’t paste private client data, unreleased plans or personal information into tools that might store or learn from it. Check the privacy settings of anything you use.
Mind the rights
Make sure you have the rights to use any images, fonts and assets, especially generated ones. Policies vary between tools and change often.
Keep accessibility in the loop
Automated alt text and colour suggestions are a starting point. A person should still check that the site works for everyone.
What to ask your agency
If you’re working with a studio, it’s fair to ask how they use AI. Good answers sound like: we use it to move faster on research and production, and our designers make every creative decision. Be wary of answers that suggest the tool is doing the designing.
The bottom line
AI is a powerful assistant and a poor substitute for judgement. The best websites in the next few years will come from teams who use it to go further, not to go faster towards average.
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WRITTEN BY
Lucy · Design Lead, UI & UX
Turns briefs into interfaces people enjoy using, from wireframes through to polished visual design.