So it finally happened. A client reached out asking me to design her website using AI. And the second I read her message, my stomach did a weird fluttery thing. I felt three conflicting emotions bubbling up inside me:
- I was nervous. I’d never done this before, and with everyone talking about how “AI will take our jobs” in the past few months, a little voice in my head wondered if this would be the moment that proved them right.
- I was curious. There’s a part of me that loves testing new things, and I wanted to know, could AI make my design process smoother or faster, or better?
- And weirdly, I felt relieved. Because, despite all the AI hype, people still want someone to handle things for them. Whether they’re overwhelmed with their own to-do lists, don’t want to deal with the technical side of things, or just prefer to leave it to someone else, they still want to delegate.
What My Client Already Had Ready At the Beginning of the Project
My client, Sanne came prepared. She had all her website copy ready, and she had the images she wanted to use, which both helped.
The Goal Of The Project
The goal was to design a high-converting sales page so that people would sign up for her upcoming retreat. The page needed to feel both professional enough for serious academics (who were her audience) but also warm and inviting, so it didn’t feel like another average retreat for academics.
Instead of tackling things my usual way, I dove straight into AI
I wanted to know how much I could get done with mostly AI. While Wix has some AI features, it doesn’t yet have the ability to design an entire page from top to bottom (though I bet that might change a few months from now).
I mainly used three tools: Relume (which helped me structure the website), ChatGPT (for brainstorming), and Claude (which ended up being the one that really surprised me).
What I Loved About Using AI Tools
One of the things I loved about AI was how it helped me break through creative blocks. Normally, when I hit a wall, it can take me days to figure out how to move forward. But with AI, I could just type out my messy thoughts, get suggestions, and suddenly I had something to work with.
ChatGPT vs. Claude: Which one was the best?
I experimented with both Claude and ChatGPT because I was curious which would perform better as a design assistant. To my surprise, Claude absolutely outshone ChatGPT.
It gave me more creative, usable ideas to work with. The ideas weren’t perfect straight out of the box (I still had to make them better), but I was genuinely impressed.
For example, here’s a mockup Claude created:
Was it amazing? Not really.
But it was way better than I expected. Meanwhile, ChatGPT… well, we fought a lot. It needed way more prompting, way more hand-holding, and still didn’t quite get what I was going for.
What I Ended Up With (That My Client Didn’t Really Like)
Here’s what I ended up with:
The AI-generated design wasn’t terrible. But when I asked for honest feedback, my client admitted she wanted something with more personality. More soul. More vibe. Something that would make her feel something when she looked at it. The AI design was clean and functional, but it felt… generic. Like it could be for any retreat, anywhere, run by anyone.
So I Put on My Creative Hat and Temporarily Removed AI from the Equation
I designed something that felt more like her, a warm, earthy, slightly boho retreat page that actually matched the energy she wanted. This was how a part of the design looked:
She was so much more excited about the final version. And in her own words: “The wix website looks great and I am very proud of it.“
My Unfiltered Thoughts on Using AI for Design
I’ll be completely honest: AI did save me weeks of work. What would’ve been a three-week project took just one. For the boring parts like initial layouts and structure, it was actually amazing. But it wasn’t GREAT. You still have to do a lot of thinking and sprinkle in creativity to end up with something that looks AMAZING rather than just functional but basic.
Which is not a bad thing, AI shouldn’t replace thinking anyway.
That said, when it comes to the topic of AI, I do have mixed feelings because in a society that values profit over people, AI can easily become a tool for companies looking to replace human workers.
Duolingo just recently made headlines for deciding to phase out contractors in favor of AI and I’m sure more companies are headed down the same path. This is capitalism at its finest: using AI to cut costs at the expense of human workers. It’s frustrating, and honestly, it sucks.
But here’s where I’ve landed after this: AI makes a fantastic sidekick when it’s not being used to replace people.
Who AI Will Help the Most
I think there’s a specific group of people who will benefit massively from AI design tools: people just starting out who don’t have a budget to hire a designer or simply want to do it themselves. This is actually great for non-designers because something that might have taken 6 months to figure out can now be done in days.
Where AI Falls Short
After seeing a bunch of AI-generated websites, I’m noticing they all look and sound pretty similar. So it won’t work for people who want something truly unique, bold, or unconventional.
And surprisingly, it also makes the same mistakes beginners do. If you’re not sure what to ask for or what actually makes a design work or convert, AI will give you something that looks nice, but has problems under the surface.
And from my experience, it doesn’t tell you that, so you won’t even know something’s wrong, you’ll just wonder why your website isn’t converting.
How I’ll Be Using AI Going Forward
For projects where AI use is welcomed, I’ll be incorporating it into my process but as an assistant, not a replacement. I’ll use it for the things it’s good at (layouts, getting past creative blocks, doing all the boring stuff) while still bringing my human creativity to the table.
But I’ll also use it cautiously because, with how quickly things are evolving in tech, who knows what the future holds? I’m hopeful that the future is bright, but only time will tell.
For my fellow introverted and highly sensitive women:
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