Should You Use AI to Build Your Website? A Practical Breakdown

December 1, 2025/Danielle Iera
should you let an AI build your website
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So, should you let an AI tool build your website?

Short answer: maybe
Better answer: only at a very specific stage…and only if you know what you’re trading away.

Below is a quick 5–10 minute mini-guide and some questions people you can ask yourself before jumping on the AI website bandwagon. Our full discussion on this topic is here if you’d rather give it a watch or listen.

Where AI Websites Make Sense

There is a use case.

You just quit your job.
You have almost no budget.
You need something online you can send people to.

Examples:

  • A dog walker who just wants a basic here’s who I am, what I do, and how to contact me site
  • A solo service provider testing an idea
  • Someone who is not a writer, not a designer, and just needs a digital business card

In that situation, an AI site builder can:

  • Get you a one-page site up quickly
  • Cost almost nothing
  • Give you something better than no web presence at all

That’s the “business card” stage. For that, AI is fine as a short-term bridge.

The Hidden Problems Once You Try to Grow

The moment you want anything more than a one-page site, the cracks show.

Real Example:

We tried one of those WordPress AI builders:

  • Brand new WordPress install on Bluehost
  • Clicked the magic button: “Build me a dog walking website with this name and these colors”
  • It generated a surprisingly pretty one-page site

Then came the reality check:

  • Every bit of the page was raw HTML pasted into a WordPress page
  • No reusable templates
  • Creating a new page defaulted to a totally different layout
  • Any change required comfort with HTML

For a non-technical person, that means:

  • You can’t safely tweak anything beyond the most basic edits
  • You can’t easily scale from one page to a real multi-page site
  • You’re locked into whatever the AI spat out on day one

So yes, AI got a page up quickly. But as a long-term foundation, it’s brittle at best.

AI Can’t Do the One Thing Your Site Actually Needs

AI systems generate content by identifying patterns in massive datasets and predicting the most statistically likely next step. The result is not originality, but a remix of what’s already out there. (Sidebar – we don’t actually know how generative AI works, exactly.)

Your website needs something different:

  • Your story
  • Your “why”
  • Your specific customers, their situations, and what they actually care about
  • The subtle emotional and practical cues that make them feel understood

Two big points from our side:

AI does not use websites.

It has no lived experience of landing on a page and thinking,

“Where do I click?”
“Why is this so confusing?”
“Ugh, too many steps, I’m out.”

Humans do. Good designers do. That’s what we think about constantly: things like

  • How many clicks before someone gets what they came for
  • What truly matters to them on that page
  • What will feel like friction vs momentum

AI content is probabilistic, not personal.

It is lining up likely words based on what already exists on the internet, and using your prompts to shape out it comes out the other end. That inherently leans generic. It can mimic tone, but it doesn’t know you, your voice, your history, or the nuance of your market unless a human shapes it.

That doesn’t make AI bad It just means expecting it to replace human judgment, collaboration, and user understanding is unrealistic (for now).

Hype, FOMO, and the “Why” Problem

Part of what’s driving the rush into AI websites is:

  • Everyone is talking about AI
  • No one wants to feel behind
  • There’s a constant promise of productivity and speed and do more with less

Before you spend time rebuilding your site (or your whole marketing stack) around AI, it’s worth asking:

Why do you want to use AI here?

And then keep asking “why?” until you get to the real reason.

“Because everyone else is doing it” is not a strategy.
“Because it will cut real, measurable costs without hurting quality” might be.
“Because it helps me get from rough draft to solid second draft faster” is also a valid reason.

AI for the sake of AI usually leads to:

  • More tools to maintain
  • More generic, less trustworthy content
  • More confusion about what’s actually working

A Simple Ladder: Where AI Fits and When You’ve Outgrown It

Here’s one way to think about it as you grow.

Stage 0: No site, no budget

Focus on:

  1. A strong LinkedIn profile or other primary profile
  2. Clear, human copy about what you do and who you help
  3. A simple way to contact you

Send people there first.

Stage 1: AI-assisted “business card” site

Good for:

  1. Bare-minimum presence
  2. Shared link that feels more official than a profile

If you do this:

  • Use a platform that will still exist in 5 years (Squarespace, Wix, etc.)
  • Make sure the site is editable in a normal editor, not just a wall of code
  • Accept that this is temporary

Stage 2: Freelancer or small studio site

When you have a bit of budget and traction:

  1. Bring in a human who understands messaging and structure
  2. Use AI behind the scenes if you want, but let a person decide what stays
  3. Start thinking more about user journeys, calls to action, and simple funnels

Stage 3: Strategic, custom site

This is where teams like ours come in:

  • You need your site to actually support revenue, not just exist
  • You want to raise prices, enter new markets, or handle more complex journeys
  • You care about UX, SEO, integrations, and how your site fits your entire marketing system

At this stage, AI is a secondary tool, not the foundation.

Questions to Ask Before You Lean on AI for Your Website

Why do I want to use AI for my website?

  1. Write down your first answer.
  2. Ask “why?” again at least three times.
  3. See if the core reason still holds up.

What stage am I in?

  1. Just starting with no budget?
  2. Growing and raising prices?
  3. Scaling and needing more serious infrastructure?

Who is thinking about my users?

  1. Who they are
  2. What they need right now
  3. What success looks like for them, not just for you

What happens in 12–24 months?

  1. Will this AI-generated site still serve you?
  2. Can someone else easily maintain it?
  3. Is the platform likely to still exist?

Where do humans plug in?

  1. Who is challenging your assumptions?
  2. Who is helping translate your “why” into words, structure, and design?
  3. Who is looking at real behavior and adjusting based on that?

If you can’t answer those, you don’t have an AI problem. You have a strategy and collaboration problem.

Our Thoughts on AI

We’re not anti-AI.

We:

  • Have clients whose products use AI thoughtfully
  • Use AI tools ourselves in places where they make sense
  • See it as one more tool in the drawer

AI is a tool, not your business model and not your brand.

If you choose to do so, use it to draft, explore, or speed up some parts of the work. Don’t outsource your voice, your customer understanding, or your long-term web foundation to it.

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