Wix recently announced the launch of its new AI website builder, adding to its already extensive list of AI-powered tools and features, and helping further secure its position as one of the most complete and best website builders on the market.
But with plenty of competitors launching similar AI tools, you may be wondering what makes Wix one of the best AI website builders on the market.
We caught up with Oz Golan, Senior Product Manager at Wix, to get his thoughts on what the company's new AI website builder offers users, how it differs from others on the market, and how developments in AI could impact the wider website builder market in the coming years.
If you are interested in using the Wix website builder, you can read our full Wix review here.
Oz Golan is a Product Manager in Wix's Editor division, with over 10 years of experience in SaaS B2C and B2B environments catering to millions of end-users. His expertise is in building high-converting, long-retention, and high-CLV products. As one of the early adopters of Generative AI technology, Oz has already released multiple Gen AI products within Wix, leading the Gen AI efforts in the editor.
What does Wix's new AI website builder offer users?
The AI Website Builder offers users the ability to create a fully designed, business-ready website within minutes by leveraging Wix's powerful AI technology.
Users engage in a conversational AI chat experience where they describe their intent and goals. Based on their responses, the AI generates a tailor-made website complete with layout, theme, text, images, and relevant business solutions such as scheduling, eCommerce, event management, and more.
Users can refine and customize their websites by regenerating them or changing their look, feel, structure, and layout. Additionally, the websites created using the AI Website Builder are fully optimized with Wix's reliable infrastructure, including security and performance, and come with built-in marketing, SEO, CRM, and analytic tools. This innovation marks a significant advancement in website creation, empowering users to effortlessly bring their digital presence to life with advanced AI capabilities.
How does Wix's AI website builder differ from the Wix ADI tool?
The AI Website Builder incorporates relevant business solutions such as scheduling, eCommerce, and event management into the generated website.
Launched in 2016, Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI), was Wix’s first AI website builder. The recently launched AI Website Builder builds upon Wix's long-standing relationship with AI, further expanding its AI-powered features for web creation and contributing to its dedication to maximizing the potential of AI in web development. The AI Website Builder differs from Wix ADI greatly, a few examples of this are:
- User Interaction: The AI Website Builder uses a conversational chat experience where users describe their intent and goals, leading to the generation of a tailor-made website. In contrast, the Wix ADI tool analyzed information provided by the user, such as business type and preferences, to automatically generate a website layout.
- Customization Level: The AI Website Builder allows for deeper customization than ADI ever allowed for. Users can refine and customize the generated website by regenerating it or changing its look, feel, structure, and layout. On the other hand, the Wix ADI tool provided a more automated approach with limited customization options.
- Features Integration: While Wix ADI focused primarily on website design and layout generation, the AI Website Builder incorporates relevant business solutions such as scheduling, eCommerce, and event management into the generated website. This integration enables users to have a fully functional and business-ready website within minutes.
- User Experience: The AI Website Builder provides an interactive and conversational experience for users, and, as a result, the generated website is tailored to the user's preferences and requirements. In contrast, Wix ADI was a more automated experience, where users provided initial information and then reviewed the generated website.
What does Wix's new AI website builder offer that competitors don’t?
As a company, we have learned so much about AI and how users interact with it when creating their websites. We use these insights to find opportunities to improve our AI algorithms, integrate with the latest AI models, and create AI-powered solutions across our entire portfolio of website building, business operations, and user support products and experiences.
The key differentiator is that the AI Website Builder connects business solutions based on the user's business intent. This creates websites far beyond simply creating a landing page with design, text, and images. It must include business functionality, backend infrastructure management, payments capabilities, marketing automation, and much more. On top of that, everything has to work together seamlessly - including the databases, CDN, transactions, GDPR, and, of course, complex security mechanisms.
Who is going to benefit most from the new AI website builder? Why?
Small business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs are likely to benefit the most due to their specific needs and resource constraints.
The AI Website Builder is designed to benefit a wide range of users by simplifying the website creation process, offering deep customization options, and seamlessly integrating relevant business solutions.
However, small business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs are likely to benefit the most due to their specific needs and resource constraints. The websites are also already integrated with the relevant business solutions, eliminating the need for users to manually understand which components they need to run their business online.
Check out our guide to the best small business website builders.
Can you tell us about any additions to the AI website builder you are working on at the moment? Anything else you are planning for the future?
The current AI revolution is just beginning to unleash AI’s true potential - and we’re ready to embrace it. We believe AI reduces complexity and creates value for our users, and we will continue to be trailblazers incorporating it into features and solutions on our platform. Over the next few years, new AI technologies will bring many opportunities to improve web creation.
How do you see AI impacting the website builder space as a whole over the next five years?
AI can help to create better website platforms and over the next few years, new AI technologies will bring many opportunities to improve web creation.
For example, AI helps to enhance the Wix platform, bringing many opportunities to help make creating a website easier and users’ websites and businesses better and more creative than ever before.
AI will continue to be an integral part of Wix and the Wix platform. The current AI revolution is just beginning to unleash AI’s true potential - and we’re ready to embrace it. We believe AI reduces complexity and creates value for our users, and we will continue to be trailblazers incorporating it into features and solutions on our platform.
What challenges do you think businesses will face as AI becomes more prevalent in website building?
As AI becomes increasingly prevalent in website building, businesses may encounter some challenges:
- Frauds: As AI technology advances, so do the capabilities of fraudulent actors. Businesses will have to be vigilant in safeguarding their websites and online transactions against increasingly sophisticated AI-driven scams and cyber-attacks.
- Dynamic changes in SEO: AI-generated content may lead to changes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) algorithms. Businesses should keep up with these changes to ensure their websites maintain visibility and ranking in search results.
- Providing unique content and value: While AI can assist in generating content, ensuring that it is unique, valuable, and resonates with the target audience remains a challenge. Businesses will need to focus on curating content that adds genuine value to users, rather than relying solely on automated content creation.
- Changing marketing strategies: The integration of AI in website building will likely necessitate a shift in marketing strategies. Businesses may need to leverage AI-driven analytics and insights to better understand consumer behavior and tailor their marketing efforts accordingly. Personalization and targeted advertising could become more prevalent strategies in this evolving landscape.
Do you think website quality may suffer as a result of AI involvement? If so, what do you think the solution to this may be?
By automating repetitive tasks and offering intelligent suggestions, AI enables users to focus on creativity and strategic decision-making, resulting in high-quality websites.
AI will enhance the quality of websites created. AI serves as a valuable tool to support users in creating high-quality websites by helping users complete content creation and design tasks more efficiently. By facilitating tasks such as creating content - from image editing and creation to text editing and creation - AI empowers users to produce compelling and engaging content without extensive technical skills, resources, and time investment.
Furthermore, AI streamlines the website creation process by assisting users in designing websites quicker and more effectively. By automating repetitive tasks and offering intelligent suggestions, AI enables users to focus on creativity and strategic decision-making, resulting in high-quality websites.
At Wix, we view AI as an advantage in website building, as it augments human capabilities rather than replacing them. AI tools provide valuable assistance and guidance, enabling users to achieve their desired outcomes more efficiently and effectively. However, it's essential to emphasize that AI is a tool to support users, not to take over the process of making websites entirely. Users retain control and autonomy throughout the website creation process, ensuring that the final product reflects their unique vision and objectives.
