Is AI replacing web design?

Is AI replacing web design?

Not for a business that needs its website to win customers. AI is replacing some of the typing: much of the code can now be written with AI tools, and images can be generated. The parts that decide whether a visitor becomes an enquiry still need a person who has talked to the business: the wording, the fact-checking and the positioning.

That is our view from building client sites.

What AI does well on a small-business site

We use AI tools when we build client sites. They speed up development, mostly the writing of code, which makes delivery smoother for the client. We also use them for image generation, sometimes, when a client has no images and does not want stock photos.

Google describes the same kind of use for content: generative AI can be useful when researching a topic and to add structure to original content.(1)

Where an AI-only website falls short

Some clients have asked us to match an AI-built website, or to replace one. Their reasons were similar: the site looked generic, it was hard to customise, and it lacked proper SEO. They wanted something more professional, flexible and tailored to their business.

We still do the brand and the colour palette by hand with a designer in house, because those choices need human judgement. The other gap is the copy. Writing it, checking the facts and positioning the business so visitors turn into leads depends on talking with the client, and AI does not do that well today.

Accuracy is a separate risk. Google notes that generative models do not retrieve facts; they predict a likely sequence of words based on training data, so outputs may contain inaccuracies. For a local business that can mean a wrong opening hour, a service you do not offer or a price you never set.(1)

What Google says about AI-made content

Google does not ban AI content, and it does not give it a free pass. Its guidance has four points that matter to a small-business owner.

• Review before publishing. Google says it is critical to manually fact-check and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness, including titles, meta descriptions, structured data and image alt text. (1)
• Do not mass-produce. Using generative AI tools to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate Google’s spam policy on scaled content abuse. (1) Using generative AI to produce large amounts of text without manual oversight or curation counts as little to no effort. (2)
• Show real experience. One of Google’s questions is whether the content clearly demonstrates first-hand expertise, such as from having actually used a product or service. (2)
• Do not fake the author. Using AI-generated headshots, made-up names or false credentials to make content look as if human experts wrote it is a form of deception. (2)

Google also says that automation, including AI-generation, used mainly to manipulate search rankings violates its spam policies. Of the qualities it describes as E-E-A-T, it says trust is the most important. And its own SEO guide says there are no secrets that will automatically rank a site first, and that content people find compelling and useful will likely influence presence in search results more than any other suggestion in the guide.(2)(3)

The page speed side is measurable too. Google’s Core Web Vitals targets are for the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) to occur within 2.5 seconds of the page starting to load, for Interaction to Next Paint (INP) to be 200 milliseconds or less, and for Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) to be 0.1 or less. Google recommends measuring at the 75th percentile of page loads, across mobile and desktop. A generated site can miss these targets as easily as any other, so ask whoever builds yours to test them.(4)

DIY AI builder, AI-assisted designer or custom build

These are three ways to get a site. We have not priced any AI builder here, because we have no source for those prices; check the current price of any builder you consider.

A worked cost example from our published prices

These are the prices we publish, in AUD including GST. A Launch website is $1,900 for up to 6 pages built from our design system. A Growth website is $3,800 for up to 10 pages with custom design, full SEO foundations and review-system setup. Launch and Growth sites also need hosting at $39 a month, which comes to $468 over 12 months. The first year of the domain is included.

Care is $149 a month and replaces the hosting fee. It adds monthly maintenance, updates, security checks, support and 2 hours of website work. A written scope confirms the price before work starts.

Common mistakes with an AI-built website

• Publishing generated wording without checking it against what the business really does, charges and offers.
• Skipping the page title, meta description and image alt text, which Google says to review too. (1)
• Never testing speed against the Core Web Vitals targets. (4)
• Using the same generic wording as every other site in the trade, so nothing says why a customer should pick you.
• Leaving out the contact form test: send yourself an enquiry and confirm it arrives.

When not to hire a designer

A designer is not the right call every time. In our view, skip one if:

• You are testing an idea and a simple one-page site is enough for now.
• Your Google Business Profile or social page already does the job, and customers find you there.
• The site is for a short-lived event, and nobody will need it in six months.
• You are happy to write, check and maintain the site yourself, and the stakes of a mistake are low.

If customers will judge your business by the site, and it needs to turn visitors into enquiries, a person who understands your business is worth paying for.

Next step

If you want a site built with AI tools and checked by people, see how our Launch and Growth websites compare, and what each one includes.

Website design for small business: what Launch and Growth include →