“Is AI going to take my job?” is not a question I’m currently concerned with. How AI will change the way I work and how it affects the World Wide Web… now that’s more interesting.

No, I don’t think AI will take over the jobs of web designers and developers any time soon. Just like when easy page-building tools (think Squarespace and Wix) came along, those in the industry recognized there is MUCH more to building a website than finding your way around an easy drag-and-drop interface.

If you are interested in learning more about why the web design industry is currently safe, I really like Paige Brunton’s take. Check it out:

The Exciting Side of AI

I love technology and the advancements humans have made in building and using it over our collective history. That’s partly why I think this is the best time to be alive.

Artificial intelligence (also referred to as machine learning, generative AI, or a large language model) is another exciting technology that will hopefully continue the trend toward a better life for everyone.

So what’s so great about it?

AI Is Changing How I Work — Sort Of

The effect artificial intelligence will have on my work is already underway. I’ve been using it almost daily for a wide variety of tasks. Some are directly related to web design or development, but a whole host of others are general things many of us might use it for.

Optimizing an Email To Be More Professional or Friendly

I’m not a great writer and I never went to a cotillion class. So I’ll take any help I can get writing a friendly or professional email. I sometimes also ask for help making an email more direct and clear as a cure for my persistent case of Minnesota Nice.

Travel Planning Assistance

Hey [AI in a tube], what’s the best way to get from Salt Lake City to Houghton, Michigan? This is an actual question I needed help with. As much as we’ve been able to live without travel agents (Gen Z says what?), trying to get to the upper end of the Upper Peninsula is not as straightforward as you may think.

AI Use in My Day Job

There are also many things I use AI for that DO relate directly to web development.

Troubleshooting WordPress Errors

WordPress support is a big portion of my daily workload through our website support service Cinch. AI has helped me track down issues like fatal errors much quicker by parsing a stack trace and distilling it into a concise summary.

Fixing Outdated Code

As we continue to update websites to the latest software, some bits of code get left behind. Not every change from PHP 7.4 to 8.3 is easy to understand. AI has helped me rewrite code that worked great in older versions but that needed a bit of help to function in a modern environment.

Expanding Development Capabilities

I’ve taught myself a lot of custom web development skills over the years, but at the root, I’m still a designer. In fact, I’m actually a graphic designer turned front-end designer.

I’ve never taken a computer science or programming class. I understand the broad strokes and construction of how WordPress works, but when it comes to building out custom functions, I seek help from sources like Stack Overflow or simply search for answers using Google. AI has helped me write WordPress functions that I would have otherwise skipped or had another developer on our team write for me.

Asking About Best Practices for Submitting a Proposal

Turns out it’s a good idea to include a cover letter when replying to an RFP. It also turns out that a cover letter is different from a cover page. I know this because I asked Claude, who was also kind enough to list a few other best practices that have made me more confident when writing proposals.

Generating Graphic Visuals

AI tools like Midjourney have allowed us to generate accompanying graphics for our blog posts. In the past, we’ve used stock photography from both free and paid sources. AI graphics have been a fun new way to add some splash to what we write.

This is but a short list of the things I use AI for on the regular — all mostly along these same lines. I can say without hesitation that I’ll continue to incorporate it even more as I learn and the technology grows. I’m particularly excited to see Apple’s take and how my phone and Mac will get better.

And Then There Are the Downsides

AI isn’t all awesome, and maybe me saying that is what you’re here for.

What I Don’t Use AI For

Just as AI isn’t taking over my job, it’s not the best tool for a lot of what we do. I mean, I mostly don’t use AI at work or at home.

Designing Websites

Apparently, there are AI tools available that will generate an entire website layout. We don’t do that, have never done that, and never will do that.

If you look at the video from Paige above, you’ll see that what these tools spit out is pretty shitty anyway. Even if they could produce something of quality, it still wouldn’t be the unique, human-generated, creative design that takes into account our research and understanding of each of our client’s specific needs. Nope, nope, nope.

Writing Blog Posts

Besides the great tranche of knowledge that is the Spigot blog, we do SEO copywriting for many of our clients as part of our organic website marketing offerings.

We don’t, never have, and never will use an AI tool to write posts for ourselves or our clients. Equally gross. Equally nope. See, AI would never write those last two sentences. Our actual website content copywriting team wouldn’t write them either, but I let myself get away with whatever this is that I’m calling English.

Branding and Logo Design

You don’t have to look very hard to find an AI logo generator online, but we don’t doubt for a second that branding and logo work is best handled by us awesome humans. Brand identity design and logos are some of the hardest design work to get right, which also makes it the most rewarding. I don’t think AI will throw out 99 bad-to-mediocre ideas before landing on one good one.

Research and Strategy

While most of our clients are interested only in the final product, a massive chunk of the work that goes into creating custom websites takes place in the initial research and strategy phases. The effort we put into wireframing and UI and UX design aspects is what makes our websites better than most. (I’m not even sure how LLMs could churn through these tasks…)

The More Controversial Stuff

Images: That we’ve decided to use AI-generated graphics as headers for our posts isn’t something we decided upon lightly. AI images are made by scraping humans’ work. They are everywhere and have that “look” to them. They will likely be dated in the next few years, and the demand for human-created images will probably take over.

Though we’re using them for now, I think twice every time we post. Even though I try to generate an image that is fitting and enhances the content, there are those who will turn the page the moment they see AI-generated art. We get that and we may change our minds on this before too long.

Code: I’m very comfortable with this one. I’m not taking a job away from any developer when I have AI help me write a few lines of code. If you know me personally, you know I live by the motto, “The more code there is in the world, the better off we’ll all be.” I have it on a T-shirt.

The Most Uncertain Thing

For me, the most scariestest thing of all the things about AI is how it will affect the web, particularly in relation to content creators and the need to have a website at all. I’m less concerned that AI will take over the design and development of websites and more concerned that AI will end the need for websites altogether.

As users turn to AI-powered search, they bypass the original source of the information, which is going to be a problem for every site owner and content creator looking to generate traffic.

My best guess is this will all be sorted out over time. Legal challenges to the way current LLMs are getting trained means important people with important bank accounts are on the task. And these things tend to work themselves out. I’m fairly certain of this.

It Will All Work Out

Many have claimed this or that technology will kill the web. Remember how apps were going to take over? It didn’t happen with apps, and it won’t happen with AI. We adapt, we grow, we change, and everything always works out.

Until the day it doesn’t — but we won’t be here to realize it anyway. Solid way to end it, eh?