Will Ai spell the end of the web design freelancer?
AI is rapidly evolving and changing the landscape of many, if not every industry, with its constantly increasing capabilities some experts are predicting that freelancers will soon be replaced by AI-powered tools completely. As somebody who has recently taken a leap of faith and decided to change careers to become a web designer, is this the worst possible time in history to do so?
I explore some of the pros and cons of Ai web design and try to surmise whether or not there is still a living to carve out in this rapidly changing world.
While it’s obvious to practically everyone at this point that AI can automate many of the tasks that we freelancers currently do, I believe there are still many ways in which human designers will always be needed, however as we know, for one to assume is to make an ass out of U and me and it is clear that this issue warrants further investigation.
The ever-growing role of artificial intelligence
Advances in artificial intelligence are enabling machines to be smarter and more capable than ever before. AI can detect, analyse and interpret data, as well as produce useful insights and results. While this is not groundbreaking in itself, the speed and efficiency of these new APIs can simply never be matched by their human counterparts.
AI can now also help optimise websites for their SEO rankings, enabling businesses to rank higher in search engine results without the need for the tedious tasks, once relegated to former SEO experts. They are also now paramount in the automation of processes such as tracking website performance and user behaviour, the streams of data that are not only collected but also analysed and summed up into a neat little package are simply mind-blowing.
There is no doubt that these tools have and will continue to streamline the business of website management, user engagement and online marketing.
Beyond this, AI-powered tools are being used to gather data and insights to help inform or even automate decision-making for the real-time user experience. Ai is allowing businesses to better understand customer preferences, industry trends, and product/service sales and performance. Moreover, AI-powered tools are being used to generate better strategies and marketing campaigns.
So the question remains, will Ai soon get to know us better than we know ourselves?
How Ai is entering the world of web design, and why it’s not the first
Artificial intelligence is beginning to enter the web design market to offer a new set of tools, some of which are easily accessible to the barely computer-literate among us. These new tools are often free or behind a relatively skimpy paywall when compared to the cost of paying a traditional web designer to code a website from scratch. The resounding fear-mongering creeping its way through people’s feeds is that clients will disappear altogether in favour of an entirely automated web design process, on which the customer calls all the shots, and the design industry ‘ist kaputt’.
But this is in many ways is just another case of history repeating itself, when WordPress first entered the market similar conversations were had throughout the industry. Wix, Weebly and Squarespace later again redefined how the general public could create their own websites without the need for thousands of dollars. The simple drag-and-drop interfaces came leaps and bounds from the days of punching in code whilst trying to leap from one new tool like Java to HTML, Python or another.
Two overbearing hurdles have appeared to stop these tools from wiping out the web design industry entirely, the first being time or perhaps motivation.
People are well informed of the abilities of these tools, but as the marketing manager of a tech startup, a busy plumber or the owner of the pub down the road, they simply already have their own business to deal with. In order to eeek out the time to learn a new tool and apply that knowledge into the creation of a website, even if it’s now relatively easily achievable, simply does not make economical sense when they can employ someone to do it at a financial cost that would be considered less then the value of their own time.
I could take the day off work tomorrow to service my car, it would likely take me the entire day, a messy garage and a few bruised knuckles. The final result would be an amateur effort and I would likely be left with a feeling of insecurity as to whether the job was even done correctly.
Conversely, I could have paid a professional to do the job for me, contented in the knowledge that everything was done correctly I can head to work and earn more money than I have saved, doing what I am actually good at.
The second issue that has kept freelancers at work is people’s minds and creativity. Some people are born to play music, create amazing artwork or hang from the ceiling via 67 needles pierced through their skin! Others are much happier to refine their skills and knowledge in a well-defined path such as accounting or becoming an electrician. It is this core human attribute that makes us such diverse weird and wonderful animals, and in my opinion, another reason why there will always be a percentage among us, who do not want to be responsible for creating their own website.
How artificial intelligence might replace the need for freelancers in the future
A consortium of AI-enabled web design tools that are being refined could one day become the final hurdle to be leap-frogged in the time and creativity obstacle, Possibly the last step that currently eliminates the majority from simply creating their own website.
It’s easy to imagine a day in which a person can speak a few words of random thoughts into their phone, Ai will then whip together a perfect-looking website for them in seconds, an eye watering’ly photo-realistic product image and a verbose inspirational description to compliment. Don’t like the colour scheme, need a new logo? Just ask, speech-to-text or image content creation is already mind-blowing, the world in 2033 will likely have access to tools like this and beyond what my puny brain can conceptualise.
Is there even a possibility that the web itself will be dead? The worldwide sharing of knowledge seems here to stay forever, but the interface of staring down at our phones and ‘laboriously’ punching in commands could also become obsolete. Many professionals are more than happy to have the content of entire books, literary greats summed up into a few paragraphs and then spoken to them with an Ai generated voice through their ear-pods on the way to work.
It’s perhaps now easier to imagine a day in which simple questions or prompts will be the order of the day, one sentence answers enough to facilitate the majority of our day-to-day needs. ‘Give me directions to the top-rated coffee shop on this block’, ‘Book me an appointment at a doctor nearby on Tuesday’.
Perhaps Elon’s Neuralink will allow us to just have these thoughts answered internally by this point in time?
The Pro’s and Con’s of Ai in the Industry
AI can offer several advantages for the web design industry, not only for freelancers and agencies but also for our clients.
Firstly, AI can automate repetitive and tedious tasks, allowing designers to focus on more creative and complex functions. For example, AI-powered tools can help generate layout designs, select colour palettes, and even suggest suitable fonts, they can automate the process of image optimisation, create meta-data and automatically categorise and tag content. While these jobs are currently undertaken by trained professionals, is there really a need? Within the same amount of time, we can now use these tools to delegate the boring jobs and spend the majority focused on expanding our creative flow, ultimately leading to a superior, more creative website.
Becoming a professional musician takes not only years of learning an instrument but also countless hours of creating bios, marketing on social media and searching for gigs, realistically these tasks are only taking away from the fundamental objective. It is easy to imagine someone who spends 100% of their time perfecting a craft to quickly become more proficient than someone who can only dedicate half of their time to the true basis of their art form.
Secondly, AI-powered solutions can use data to provide a more personalised user experience. Algorithms can analyse user behaviour and preferences, and provide tailored recommendations or suggestions. This personalisation can help improve user engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately, conversions. For example, AI algorithms can analyse user browsing history to provide personalised product recommendations or customise the layout of a website based on the user’s preferred style. It’s easy to imagine a Web 3.0 that reads like a choose-your-own adventure novel, with each website having millions of individual iterations that are tweaked in real-time to adjust to the age, style and location of the end user. The age of the generic landing page, standard fonts and layout could well be nearing its end.
Finally, The use of AI tools in web design has the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of web development. The obvious advantage of using AI tools is the speed and efficiency with which they can complete tasks that would take humans much longer. A human web developer may take days or even weeks to design a website from scratch, whereas an AI tool can complete the same task in a matter of hours or even minutes. Pragmatically, it must be said that the less time a human is sitting around, breathing, eating, tapping their fingers and thinking, is lower energy consumption and reduced carbon emissions as a whole.
In addition, the passing of data packages around the world can be costly to the environment due to the energy required to transmit and process these large amounts of data. It may come as a shock to many people just how much power is used every time we make a Google search or load a website. The more efficient this data becomes the less is power required to travel these vast distances, optimising a few images and creating a couple of zipped files might seem trivial on the small scale, but as this tech improves and is implemented throughout the entire netscape the savings will be incredible.
Although I have already discussed how tools like Open Ai and the plethora of Ai web design APIs have enabled the public easy access to some incredible features, on the same hand a significant disadvantage to sole traders and smaller firms will soon become apparent. High-tech AI requires a massive capital investment in infrastructure and resources, and smaller businesses may not have the financial capacity to implement the same utilities. This can lead to an uneven playing field, already financially based discrepancies occur all too often on the web. In order to rank now on Google with popular keywords, you will most likely need a serious budget, likewise, if your product is in any way similar to another on Amazon, your chances of being seen organically are slim to none, further widening the gap between the small fries and the big potatoes.
Another disadvantage is the potential for ethical issues due to unintended biases. AI algorithms rely on data sets to make decisions, and if these data sets contain biased or discriminatory information, the algorithm can make some seriously unsavoury recommendations. This can lead to unintended consequences, such as excluding certain groups of users from the design or creating a discriminatory user experience.
Finally, the most talked about issue right now is that AI-powered design solutions may lack creativity. As we have already discussed, AI can automate certain aspects of the design process, but it may not be able to match the level of ingenuity and innovation that even an entry-level human designer might provide. This could lead to cookie-cutter designs and standard templates where AI-generated designs flood the web, ultimately drawing people away from bothering to leave their social media pages at all.
To wrap things up
After researching this article, I think it’s clear to say that the future of Ai in the web design industry is not clear, but certainly here to stay, the only thing left for debate is to what extent?
AI is capable of aiding web designers in various aspects of their work and even their lives, and I for one will be happy to not spend countless hours resizing images or creating meta descriptions. While currently not everybody can do this job, I do not see it as a valuable use of my time, nor my client’s money.
When I travel through S.E Asia and witness people doing tedious tasks that I know can now be automated at the touch of a button, my first thought is how it would be nice to help relieve them of this workload, not how important it is that they should continue to have that particular job.
I thoroughly enjoy the one on one time I have with clients, and I think it’s an art in itself to understand exactly what it is they are looking for in a website, I cannot foresee a day in which this skill could be automated, a simple prompt providing them with the personalised content they may not even themselves realise that they are chasing.
Design and visual appeal will also forever remain a personal preference, there is no one size fits all approach to the user experience, while some may walk past a Picasso and scoff at its unclarity, others can stare for hours in bewilderment at the intricacies, the contemplations behind every stroke. Is there really going to be a day when this phenomenon can be understood within the binary code of an algorithm?
Maybe?
As I sit here in 2023, looking back at my short life on this planet, I could not have fathomed using the tools that I do so nonchalantly on a day-to-day basis, I have personally hit a turning point, in which it is easier to imagine the inconceivable occurring within the next decade, then consider that my thoughts alone can conceptualise the future I will be living in.
The future of the freelance web designer is still valid for a few more years, albeit in a new and exciting form. Like everyone else, I will continue to grapple with the new technology that appears in my feed every single day, and aim to become part of the creative solutions that have powered the evolution of not only the web, but humanity itself.