AI, Art, and the bit where the magic breaks AI is everywhere now. Search, work, warfare, creativity. It’s not knocking at the door - it’s already made a cup of tea and rearranged the furniture. And no, I’m not anti-AI. I use it. I want to make that clear from the start. I use AI like I use a calculator, a thesaurus, or a reference book. It helps. It speeds things up. It takes care of the boring bits. But it doesn’t decide. It doesn’t lead. And it definitely doesn’t get the final say. I don’t design websites using AI. Partly because I genuinely enjoy what I do - talking to people, understanding their business, finding the personality, the quirks, the rhythm. That human stuff matters. AI helps me sense-check ideas, pull stats (which I always verify), or generate FAQ prompts so my brain is free for the good bits. AI is a tool. Not the author. What does worry me is the growing “AI first” mentality. Companies asking, “Can AI do this?” before asking a human to think. Before hiring. Before trusting experience. We’ve all seen the memes: “ChatGPT, should I turn left or right?” “Tea or coffee?” “Do I like this person?” “Should I breathe?” It’s funny - but it’s also revealing. We love shortcuts. We crave validation. Sometimes we’re just… lazy. And while laziness has its place, outsourcing thinking is how you end up with everyone producing the same beige output. And here’s something I’m really starting to notice: AI has a rhythm. A pattern. A cadence. Once you hear it, you can’t unhear it. Scripts that sound suspiciously polished but oddly hollow. Writing that technically works but breaks the magic. It’s like watching a film where every scene hits the beat but none of them land emotionally. I play in a band. Writing music is hard. It’s frustrating. You doubt yourself. You throw things away. You come back to it. And that discomfort is part of the process. I’m not saying artists need to suffer for their art, but a little friction is healthy. It means you’re actually making something. Now I’m bombarded with, “Write a whole song with AI using just a chord progression.” Where’s the fun in that? That’s worse than sitting in a room full of producers and Ed Sheeran writing a pop song by numbers. At least in that room there’s still a pulse. A disagreement. A human moment. And this is where AI conversations often get stuck. People become understandably defensive. The tone shifts to hard no. ' This is all wrong. There’s no place for AI here! '. But that defensiveness can accidentally undermine the very talent people are trying to protect. A stronger position is confidence. ' Look what I can do without AI '. And if I choose to use it, I’ll use it to make me better - not to replace the thinking, the taste, or the craft. This isn’t theoretical either. AI-generated music is already creeping into local radio slots - the traditional stepping stones for new artists. People discover “bands” online now and don’t even realise they don’t exist. No gigs. No rehearsal rooms. No bad soundchecks. Just a neat stack of ones and zeros. A kind of Skynet one-man band. AI can produce good output. Not always. Sometimes it’s a bit off. But “off” can be interesting. Bowie and Burroughs literally cut words up to spark new ideas. AI can do something similar - not as an artist, but as a provocation. A nudge. A different direction. AI isn’t going back in the box. The smart response isn’t fear or blind adoption - it’s discernment. Use it where it makes sense. Ignore it where it doesn’t. Keep humans in charge of taste, judgment, personality, and soul.  AI is a tool. Art is still human. And that’s where the magic lives. One last thing… Yes - I used AI to generate the image for this blog. Ironically, AI doesn’t quite understand the idea of cut-ups and laptops. And is that really William S. Burroughs? He looks far too healthy. Also, it feels less like radical literary experimentation and more like a cosy craft night in for the pair of them. Which, honestly, kind of proves the point. AI is brilliant at approximating ideas, aesthetics, and references - but it smooths the edges. It sanitises the chaos. The human bit is still doing the interpreting, the judging, the laughing, and deciding whether something actually feels right. Tool used. Brain engaged. As it should be.

Why AI websites all look the same (and why that’s a problem) You may have been nudged by a friend who launched a site in an afternoon. You may be watching budgets more carefully. Or you may simply enjoy keeping up with the latest tools and trends. AI promises speed, efficiency and the reassuring feeling that you’re not being left behind. All of that is understandable. But before clicking ‘generate’, it’s worth pausing to ask what you actually need your website to do. Because a website isn’t just something that exists. It needs to be robust. It needs to be findable. And it needs to work long after the initial excitement of a fast build has worn off. Spend five minutes browsing newly launched websites and you’ll start to notice a pattern. Black background. White text. A splash of colourful gradient in the headline. Floating icons. Abstract graphics. Big claims. Very little substance. They look polished. They look modern. And increasingly, they look exactly like each other. These are AI-built websites, and they’re becoming instantly recognisable. The rise of the “AI stylish” website AI website builders are fast, impressive, and genuinely useful tools. In minutes, they can produce a fully formed site with metadata, schema markup, alt tags, responsive layouts and a technically sound structure. On paper, that sounds like the job done. But design is not the same as communication. What AI produces is a statistically safe average of what it has seen before - and right now, that average leans heavily towards a specific SaaS-style aesthetic. Dark, high-contrast, minimalist and emotionally neutral. It isn’t making creative judgements. It’s repeating patterns. Why they all look the same AI doesn’t design the way humans do. It doesn’t begin with your business, your customers or your personality. It begins with data. Most of that data comes from funded startups, SaaS products and software companies - the very spaces where speed, innovation and being seen as ‘ahead of the curve’ are culturally rewarded. It’s no surprise that many marketers and tech teams have embraced these tools enthusiastically. The result is a wave of sites built quickly, proudly and with the best intentions - but all drawing from the same visual and structural playbook. What initially feels innovative starts to look familiar very fast. Safety, speed and trend-awareness are prioritised over specificity. The site looks modern, but it isn’t really speaking to anyone in particular. The copy problem: words without weight This is where many AI-built sites quietly fall apart. The copy is rarely incorrect, but it’s almost never felt. It leans on familiar phrases that sound professional and confident, but don’t reveal any real understanding of the reader. There’s no opinion, no prioritisation and no sense of what actually matters most to the customer. So the design has to work harder, using visual flair to compensate for words that carry very little weight. Technical perfection, emotional emptiness AI sites often arrive with strong technical foundations. SEO basics are in place, heading structures are tidy, contrast levels are accessible and performance is generally solid. But optimisation without meaning is hollow. Alt tags may describe images accurately, but not emotionally. Metadata exists, but doesn’t entice. The structure is there, but the story is missing. As users and search engines get smarter, sites that feel generic don’t just blend in. They quietly disappear. The real risk: they will date very quickly Design trends move fast. When thousands of businesses launch near-identical AI-generated sites, that look stops feeling modern and starts feeling tired. What initially signals ‘up to date’ quickly becomes a marker of when the site was built. Without deeper brand thinking underneath, there’s nothing to carry the site forward once the trend passes. There’s also a more practical risk that’s easy to overlook. Many AI-built sites are tied tightly to the platform that generated them. Some produce abstracted code you’ll never touch. Others lock you into a young SaaS product that may change direction, pricing - or disappear - within months. What feels like freedom at the start can quickly become dependency. The comforting illusion: “I’ve got a site, job done” AI has introduced a tempting mindset: build fast, tick the box, move on. But a website isn’t a checkbox exercise. As your business grows, your site needs to grow with it. That means making changes confidently, not hoping nothing breaks when you click ‘edit’. If you go fully DIY, you also take on questions most people don’t realise they’re signing up for: Will you know how to make structural changes later? Can you add integrations, ecommerce or booking tools when you need them? Do you know how to access and interpret analytics? Who fixes bugs, performance issues or security problems? Are you comfortable managing domains, DNS, hosting and backend admin? What looks like a shortcut to a functioning site can turn into a series of hurdles just as you’re trying to build momentum.  That doesn’t come from prompts or presets. It comes from experience. What experience brings that AI can’t A good web designer isn’t simply arranging sections on a page. They bring business context, an understanding of buyer behaviour and hard-won insight into what actually drives enquiries. They know when to simplify, when to hold back and when clarity matters more than looking clever. AI is excellent at execution. Human judgement is what turns execution into something valuable. So what’s actually better? A website that looks like everyone else, or one that genuinely reflects you? A site that talks at people, or one that understands their concerns before they’ve voiced them? Because most visitors aren’t looking for a stylish website. They’re looking for reassurance, clarity and a sense that they’ve found the right business. That comes from thoughtful design, considered copy and human insight. Final thought AI is a powerful tool, and used well it can support good work. But when everyone uses it in the same way, the outcome isn’t innovation. It’s noise. The brands that stand out in that noise will be the ones that still sound human - and feel like they were built with intent, not speed. Ready to chat?