Whether you’re a web developer, a no-code enthusiast, or a business owner looking to build their own website — you’re probably no stranger to all the rumors and theories that have been going around on social media and across different outlets.
The best AI website builders have been a real breakthrough for web design. Within minutes, they can generate professionally-designed website layouts, complete with content and images, that you can publish at the click of a button.
But could an AI, once it’s sufficiently advanced, start taking away jobs from human developers? Let’s unpack this, shall we?
How does an AI website builder actually work?
AI website builders rely on technologies like generative AI, machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) to create automatically generated website designs — complete with all the necessary code, content, and images — based on specific user input.
But how do they really work? Understanding that is key to answering our bigger question, so here’s a detailed breakdown:
- It begins with the user providing basic information about their website. This can be done through a series of questions or using a simple prompt for the AI platform.
- AI analyzes the provided input using natural language processing (NLP) to understand the user's requirements. It then taps into a vast repository of website templates, user behavior data, and current web design trends to generate a suitable layout and structure for the website.
- AI tools can generate textual content and images tailored to the website's theme. For instance, AI platforms like Wix and Hostinger come with GPT-powered content creation tools designed to help with this part of the process.
- Then, the platform assembles the website by selecting appropriate design elements, such as color schemes, fonts, and layout structures. It ensures the website is responsive, meaning it will work well on various devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
- After the initial generation, users can further customize their websites using drag-and-drop editors. This allows for adjustments to text, images, and layout without needing to write any code.
- Once satisfied with the design, users can publish their websites directly through the AI platform, which may also offer some of the best website hosting services and domain registration.
As you can see, AI platforms can automate a lot of the unnecessarily complicated tasks associated with building and deploying a website — things that would usually waste a qualified web developer’s time without adding anything new to the project.
Current limitations of AI website builders
AI website building platforms often rely on pre-designed templates and algorithms, which limit their ability to innovate into truly user-centric designs. Since they’re heavily dependent on existing datasets, it’s hard for them to bring anything radically new to the mix. They also lack nuance, making them unsuitable for generating web applications that require complex functionality or rely on extensive data integrations. Here’s a detailed overview of the current limitations of AI website builders:
Lack of creativity
AI platforms can generate aesthetically pleasing and functional websites, but they don’t have the ability to create innovative designs without extensive directions.
Without a human developer at the helm of the project, AI tools will churn out repetitive designs over and over. While this could work for basic websites built on a limited budget, anything truly ambitious would require human supervision.
Customization limits
Even when they come equipped with powerful no-code editors and third-party app ecosystems, AI platforms fail to replicate the creative freedom and functional flexibility of simply coding a website from scratch.
Advanced functionalities, like creating complex integrations to support multi-layered user flows, will still require custom code, making the presence of a human developer crucial.
Technical issues
AI platforms rely on vast amounts of data that has been pre-fed to them. But without good quality datasets to rely on, AI will often falter when asked to design something truly complex. This results in errors, glitches, and bugs that require professional developers to troubleshoot.
Another issue with AI platforms is that while the code they generate does work, it’s often bloated, unclean, and poorly optimized. This makes websites slow to load and more challenging to troubleshoot in the future.
Security and compliance
AI website builders may not prioritize security to the same extent as human developers. This can result in vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cyber attackers. It’s a serious concern especially when you rely on AI models to write custom code, which is prone to vulnerabilities.
AI website builders also rely heavily on user data to refine their products, but the way they collect and use data from different websites isn’t always properly disclosed. This could also lead to potential compliance issues down the line.
Vendor lock-in
Most of the best website builders operate within proprietary ecosystems, which can create issues with portability and vendor lock-in. Transferring a website built with an AI tool to another platform can be especially challenging, often requiring you to clone the website entirely from scratch using the new platform.
This can be a huge issue as specific vendors go out of business or make unexpected changes to their model over time.
Why websites need professional developers
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of web developers and digital designers is projected to grow 16% from 2022 to 2032, much faster than the average for all other occupations.
AI website builders and other DIY tools may have made it easier for non-developers to build functional websites, but they often fall short in delivering the level of customization, performance, and security that professional web developers can provide. They also lack the ability to understand nuance through client communications or create something truly unique to meet specific client needs.
To summarize: We don’t think that AI website builders are going to replace serious web developer jobs anytime soon. But the entry of powerful AI platforms has definitely accelerated the need for developers to upskill into more complex projects, since it is possible that the demand for developers to work on entry-level projects will be quite reduced in the near future.
