But let’s be honest – while it’s impressive, it’s not the magic button people imagine. I’ve had a lot of people I meet ask me if AI can just “build a site” for them. Spoiler: it can’t. Not one you’d actually be proud to show off, anyway. What it is good for is the behind-the-scenes stuff – helping with the ideas, the scribbles, the drafty bits that get you moving.

Breaking the creative block

One of the trickiest parts of the web design process is getting started. You know your business inside out, but sometimes you stare at a blank page and think… now what?

This is where AI can actually help. Feed it a prompt like “modern site for an indie coffee shop in Leicester” and it’ll give you a handful of ideas: colour palettes, layout vibes, even a few taglines. Are they brilliant? Not always. Some will feel a bit bland. But I’ve found they’re often enough to break that creative block so I can come up with something better.

AI’s not doing the creative heavy lifting here – but it can be a useful spark.

Giving you a helping hand with the content

Websites live or die on words. Headlines, calls to action, product descriptions, blog posts. And most business owners don’t exactly leap out of bed excited to write them.

This is where AI can lend a hand. Give it a brief and it’ll spit out a first draft in seconds. I’ve used it for rough outlines before – like when a client needs blog post ideas and we’re stuck in a loop. It’s quick, but you do need to treat the results as scaffolding, not the final building.

Left untouched, AI copy feels a bit cookie-cutter. The tone’s not you, and your customers will smell that a mile away. The sweet spot is letting AI give you something to edit – then layering your own voice, humour, or expertise on top. That’s the bit AI can’t fake.

Playing about with imagery

AI image tools are fun, no doubt about it. I’ve typed in things like “retro rocket diner logo” just to see what it comes up with, and occasionally you get something genuinely cool.

It’s also brilliant for placeholders. Say you’re mocking up a client’s site and don’t yet have their photography. Instead of chucking in a dull stock photo, you can generate something that fits the mood a bit better.

But when it comes to actual branding, AI falls down. It doesn’t understand subtlety, or the story behind a business. Example, we built a site for a tattoo artist where the studio’s wall art was the brand. AI would never clock that. That’s why real photography and illustration – with a creative human behind it – still beats the robots every time.

Can the robots actually create a website?

Here’s the big one. Can AI build a website? Not really. Or at least, not one worth launching.

Yes, some tools promise it – type in a prompt and watch a site appear. But the results? Generic layouts, clunky navigation, dodgy accessibility. I’ve tested a couple just to see what happens, and it feels like scrolling through a demo from the dawn of the internet. And more importantly, they don’t think.

They don’t know your audience, your goals, or the journey you need to take a visitor on. That’s not something you can automate with a few lines of code. A proper site needs structure, planning, and craft. You wouldn’t build a house by asking a robot to throw some bricks together. Same deal here.

Human skills still rule

Web design isn’t just “pictures and text on a screen.” It’s psychology, communication, creativity, and problem-solving. It’s knowing when to strip things back so a booking form takes 10 seconds, or when to add a feature that really elevates the customer experience.

That sort of judgment doesn’t come from an algorithm. It comes from people. I’ve sat in meetings where a client says, “We just need a simple homepage,” and by the end, we’ve mapped out a whole flow that actually makes their business easier to run. AI wouldn’t have suggested that.

And honestly, that’s the point. Websites should feel human. They should carry your personality, your story, your values. AI can’t do that.

So will AI take over?

Will AI get better? Probably. Will it replace web designers? I doubt it. What’s more likely is that AI will end up like Photoshop or Figma – another tool in the kit. It might handle repetitive jobs like resizing images or testing across devices, which honestly, I wouldn’t complain about. But the creative heart of web design – the story, the vibe, the human connection – that’ll always come from real people.

AI in web design is exciting. It’s a decent brainstorming buddy and a handy assistant for some of the grunt work. But it’s not a replacement for real skills. Not even close.

So by all means, experiment. Play with it, see what ideas you can spark. But when it comes to building a site that actually works – a site that feels alive, that makes people want to stick around – you’ll still need a human designer.

Because at the end of the day, great websites aren’t just built. They’re crafted.