Now that the AI hype train seems to be slowing, and with plenty of suggestions that the bubble is about to burst on the AI-ification of, well, everything, we’ve noticed a pattern happening.

When AI was more new and shiny, we saw a portion of SMEs who were opting to go for AI websites and service solutions because the price was right for them. Which is fair, your budget is your budget… but in the last month we’ve seen the majority of that portion come back and ask for human-based services.

These are genuine quotes from emails we’ve received:

“The firm I chose to redesign was cheap and useless.”

“I’ve wasted weeks”

“I’m coming back to you with my tail between my legs!”

“The website went from 160K hits to 2K within in two weeks of launch”

AI-led ‘CRM in a box’ style providers like Framer are nice and shiny and helpful for very basic premises, but increasingly we’re seeing that the core promises of simplicity and speed, don’t quite live up to the hype. 

Client personalisation is awkward, with no real functionality for owners to get under the hood and personalise. Many core features are underbaked, and the focus on AI and plug-ins feels a little like it’s turning into a version of what it claims to be different from – WordPress. The problem here being that it’s not doing it well enough to be WordPress! 

My personal bugbear is that AI-built sites might look fine on the surface but struggle to rank or convert if the fundamentals aren’t there – and even if they are they’re either put behind paywalls, or you have no understanding on how to put them in play. This wouldn’t be an issue with a human to explain.

AI is a tool, something to use as well as, not instead of, existing skills and insights. AI is a computer that will give you exactly what you ask of it. It will not bring in outlier suggestions that could enhance your project. It will not have prior experience of a situation and know that a certain direction would be better to take. It does not have the lived experience and value of humans who do a specific role for a living.

AI is however touted as a solution for most things, but it’s really only on a massive budget that this can be true. The brand Guess recently made headlines for being the first fashion ad in Vogue with an AI model. While that has other problematic implications, the point here is this: if Guess, with billions in annual revenue, can’t make AI look distinctive and interesting beyond the novelty of being AI; what chance does a start-up have at a nominal fee a month?

If you’re serious about growth, it’s worth asking: what’s the real cost of a £60-a-month AI site? Beyond the cookie-cutter design, you’re locking yourself into a platform that may hike prices, pull features, or age poorly. And when the SEO foundations aren’t there to help you get found, those “savings” start looking very expensive within a couple of years.