Let’s start with – what’s the big deal about AI?

AI (Artificial Intelligence) isn’t just for the Sci-Fi movies anymore. In our modern world, this groundbreaking technology is being used for everything from powering search engines to medical diagnostics. It’s changing how we live, work and think. It is able to take a task that would take humans hours to do and complete it in mere seconds.

In short – it’s like having your own personal assistant that can analyse documents and answer questions for you, but can’t make you that much-needed matcha latte.  Not yet, anyway – but I, for one, am eagerly awaiting that day.

AI is nothing new (in theory, anyway)

The term “artificial intelligence” was first introduced in 1956 by computer scientist John McCarthy during the Dartmouth Conference, which is widely accepted as the birthplace of AI as an academic field. The conference brought together researchers who believed that every aspect of learning or intelligence could, in theory, be replicated by machines.

So, while the concept has been around for nearly 70 years, only recently has AI become a powerful and accessible tool for everyday use. Here’s some of our thoughts over here at Star Mountain Design – with a focus on areas like website content creation, design and image generation.

Pros of using AI for website content

In the world of web design, AI is playing an ever-increasing role in the generation of content. From finding the right words for the written parts of your website to creating the perfect subject or setting for an image, AI platforms take some of the labour and cost away from this (often expensive) part of the web design journey for most businesses.

For example, AI tools like DALL·E, Midjourney, Adobe Firefly and ChatGPT can generate:

• Product mockups
• Hero banners
• Illustrations
• Backgrounds

…all tailored to your colour scheme, tone and audience. No more hunting for stock photos and no expensive photoshoots.

You can almost see why people are running to AI to get the visuals they need without the middleman.

A lower cost means more money to budget for other aspects of your website that AI can’t handle

As mentioned above, hiring designers, photographers or buying stock imagery can get pricey.  AI gives you gives you all of these options at a price point that is a lot more accommodating, especially for a new business that is trying to manage startup costs.

With the help of computer generated content, you can get:

• Unlimited images at a fraction of the cost
• Iteration without paying more each time
• Quick testing of concepts before committing to a full shoot or design

Speed and efficiency

We’ve had many clients come to us over the years completely stumped on what kind of content they should send us for their website. We’ve said it a million times – the number one issue that holds up the launch of our websites is obtaining the written and image content from the client.

So, what if there was an easier way to obtain these essential items to ensure that projects are completed in time for their scheduled launch dates?

Being able to generate multiple options instantly and create images that match the content sound like the entrepreneur’s dream come true. In some cases, it really can be.

Creative freedom without limits

You’re not limited to what already exists. Let your imagination soar!

These powerful tools can create:

• Imaginary scenes or surreal effects
• Wild, maybe even impossible combinations (e.g., “a French bulldog in space wearing a prom dress”)
• Stylised versions of real people, products or places

This is perfect for making your site stand out or telling a unique story.

Since we have a French bulldog in the family, I wanted to put my wacky imagination to the test with that whole prom dress in space scenario, using a reference photo of said Frenchie (her name is Bellatrix).

The results were even more stunning than I could have imagined after just one round on ChatGPT. There is little doubt in my mind that my sister-in-law will be running to turn this into a life-size portrait for the house, because it’s just that good and our family is just that bonkers (in a fun way, not in the padded cell version… not yet anyway).

A great tool for localisation

Want to test how different visual styles resonate in different markets?

AI can quickly produce culturally relevant or language-specific imagery. This is especially essential for global businesses who want to get their feet wet in different parts of the world, but don’t have the local knowledge of these areas and their culture.

Easy edits and versioning

Need to change an image’s background, lighting, facial expression or product colour?

AI tools let you:

• Edit images with simple text prompts (but buyer beware on this one – it’s not always as easy as it seems – we’ll get to that)
• Remove, replace or add elements
• Create multiple versions for different platforms (mobile vs desktop, etc.)

Accessibility & inclusivity

AI can help you represent a wider range of people and contexts

If you are looking to show inclusivity in your website but don’t have the means or the models to create this content yourself, AI tools give you the freedom to do this without relying on limited (and often costly) stock libraries.  You are able to represent various skin tones, body types, abilities or cultural scenarios without doing much more than entering a specific prompt in an image generator.

Cons and limitations

Lack of authenticity

Sometimes you just know when you’re looking at something that was created with AI, even if the subject matter itself is realistic. I’m not talking about wild “Weekly World News”-style images of Elvis, alive and well in 2025, performing at Madison Square Garden. Instead, I’m referring to the random photo you’ll see of a famous (alive) person doing something they might be doing ordinarily – and yet everything in the photo looks a bit too smooth and too glossy.

And then there’s the videos of recently-deceased celebrities that start to make the rounds within 5 minutes of TMZ breaking the story that say “I know I am going to die soon and this is what I want my legacy to be.” Recently, following the death of Ozzy Osbourne, I saw an AI video of his widow Sharon talking about the moment he passed, which at this point in time (September 2025) is not an interview she has given.

So we’re constantly on the lookout now for content that doesn’t seem quite right.

AI images and videos can feel generic or fabricated, especially in industries where trust matters (e.g., healthcare, education).  Be careful how you use utilise these. You don’t want your viewers wondering: Is this a real product? Real team? Real experience?

We see that “real team” one a lot in our line of work, because you will find companies don’t want to tell you who really works for them, due to them potentially not being in the country of business (outsourced to Asia) or the real team showing a lack of ethnic and gender diversity on any level – something some consumers might care about.

When should you be careful? On about pages, testimonials, product photos or anything where realness builds credibility.  Don’t blow your chances before your business even has a chance to take off.

AI can’t replace real product photography

One thing that should be stated right away: AI doesn’t “know” your product. It guesses about it based on patterns in training data.  Therefore, product details, textures, packaging and/or branding may be inaccurate or inconsistent. It simply cannot guarantee accuracy in these things. Most importantly (at least in my mind), is compliance: the legal labeling requirements of certain products. This is one reason why real photos are irreplaceable for eCommerce.

Which brings me to this:

Weird or uncanny details in your generation

Even great AI tools can make mistakes like:

• Strange hands, distorted faces, incorrect spelling or text
• Inconsistent lighting or shadows
• Objects that “float” or overlap incorrectly

You might not notice them at first, but visitors often do.

If you got caught up in the AI doll craze a few months ago, you’ll have seen how certain products in peoples’ packaging didn’t look like the real deal.  In many cases, the people (sorry “dolls”) also didn’t look quite right.

I, of course, can’t ignore a good craze, so I did the doll thing too and here was my result. You can see right off the bat that the passport is a hot mess. And that Diet Coke? It’s missing the “Diet.”  The Star Mountain Design logo is off and the Duolingo owl looks as though he took a bong hit before his image was captured. I’ll give a +1 for the iced matcha latte though; that was 100%.  For what it’s worth, I doubt AI is going to replace real photography when it comes to providing images that convey accuracy.

So where should you use AI when you need something fast to make your life or workflow a little easier?  Moodboards, mockups or placeholders are great shouts.

Definitely not final product shots.

Limited contextual understanding

Another con of AI is that it may not fully understand your brand voice or cultural nuance, so visuals might:

• Clash with your tone
• Miss emotional cues
• Feel off-brand

You’ll still need human review and direction every step of the way – don’t ever let anyone try to convince you otherwise.  This is really important to understand before you jump into using these content creation tools.

Ethical and legal grey areas

In a litigious world, this is one that is important to mention. You really don’t want to end up in hot water because ChatGPT created something a little dodgy for you. So what are some grey area scenarios?

For one, you could accidentally generate an image that resembles a real person or copyrighted material. Believe me, that’s a no-go zone.  Not only that, but some AI tools retain rights over the images they generate – especially free or trial versions.  It is worth noting however, that some AI tools (for example, Adobe Firefly) now train on licensed stock images to reduce copyright risks.

Many AI generators will not create exact likenesses of children, even if these are old photos and the “children” in these photos are now booking appointments for their first colonoscopy.

I know because I tried.

At the end of the day, this is all still pretty new and licensing can be murky. Laws are evolving.

Hot Tip: Always check the usage rights for each tool before you use it, and especially before you associate a creation with your business or brand (future you will thank you!).

Challenges in SEO and accessibility

• AI images may lack proper metadata or alt text unless you manually add it. Bear this in mind if accessibility is high on your priority list (it should be!)

• These images don’t always compress well for web performance. We ourselves have had several issues with images that were created this way – and the time consumed by trying to fix the problems in a few cases probably wasn’t worth it.

Heavy images can significantly slow a website down, and this is further complicated by users of your website who may be in low cellular coverage areas or lack satisfactory WiFi.

Risk of overuse / generic look

Everyone and their brother is jumping on the AI bandwagon. I mean, my dad (Baby Boomer generation) knows how to use Chat GPT, and while he has learned how to do that, he still isn’t sure how to change the wallpaper on his phone.

It’s important to realise that AI has a lot of “tells.”

Recently, I saw a post on LinkedIn by someone I know, who – while very intelligent – is not exactly a wordsmith. Imagine my shock to see a post that was so polished and professional that I questioned whether I was judging this person too harshly before.

But then I saw it – the ultimate tell of content that was written by a machine rather a person. The em dash. It looks like this: —

If you were doing it yourself, it would be shift + option + hyphen on a Mac. I don’t know about you, but I very rarely utilise any shortcut that requires more than two keys together.  ChatGPT, for one, loves these short lines. Seeing them heavily present in something that looks beautifully written otherwise is, unfortunately, a big “AI” tell.

It also must be said that websites relying too heavily on AI visuals and written content will lack a certain warmth, originality and genuineness.

Hot Tip: It’s okay to use these tools, but make sure there are still real life elements in what you’re doing.  It’s really important to build trust in your business or brand.

The Ducky Files

If you follow our social media, you will have noticed a cute little yellow duck started appearing last autumn.  He was an AI creation courtesy of Canva, which now has an image generation application.

And while he is super cute (in our opinion!) generating him for our own use came with many drawbacks.

For one, the version we created was the version.  It has been impossible to duplicate that original using AI (especially because his shirt isn’t perfect), so seeing him with different bodies and expressions are nothing less than something good ol’ Frankensteining. We managed to get similar-looking duck faces with different expressions, but if you look closely you will notice they are not the same – for example, the eye colour may be different between two yellow Duckys.

Now, we could go and use our graphic design skills to fix this all – but Ducky was just supposed to be a fun addition to our social media; a character if you will, who gave some personality (err duckality?) to our socials. His presence was not supposed to be time-consuming or require hardcore graphic skills – because the reality is, AI image creation is supposed to appeal most to people who do not possess such skills.  Not only that, the Ducky we loved came as a PNG file, which means it’s nearly impossible to edit him – even after trying to (unsuccessfully) make the file a more editing-friendly SVG (scalable vector graphic).

I enlisted the help of people I know who are much more versed in these tools and generators than I am and they all found it impossible to recreate Ducky in the image you see on your screens – the original Ducky that popped out of the AI image generator.  No matter how many prompts were delivered or how specific they were, creating this particular yellow duck in any way other than you see him was impossible.

I even asked Chat GPT to make one simple change – just have his eyes looking left. The output? A mallard duck. I only wish someone had a video of my reaction when I saw that pop up!

So Ducky will always be a work in progress. We don’t have any more patience left for fixing him with image generation tools.

Since we love his cute little duck face, we do the best we can with him!

Final point on this – if you’re building a brand mascot or relying on AI for consistent visuals, this inconsistency can be a nightmare. Please learn from our experience!

Can AI build a website?

You might have seen ads for “AI website builders” that promise a complete website in minutes. Yes, it is possible – because tools like Wix, Framer and 10Web can now generate the most basic of websites from just a short description of your business.

While that might sound amazing, here’s the reality of that:

Where AI builders shine

AI builders have some solid positives for a small business that needs something fast and affordable. For one, they allow you to get something up the same day, even if it is just a simple one-page website.  And in that, to do it is cheap as chips. Their final product can be enough for a test project, an event page or even a brand-new side hustle.

…and where they fall short:

The websites that AI builders create tend to all look the same.  If you’re looking to stand out from your competitors (something that’s crucial in the beginning), a website like this isn’t going to meet that challenge.  Why?  Because these kinds of websites appear generic and won’t reflect a brand voice or sound like you.

Other shortcomings with AI builders are a lack of attention to the behind-the-scenes stuff. Remember, they’re not the ones who have a lot at stake or an end goal – that’s you.  Ultimately, they miss the important aspects like SEO strategy, accessibility and performance. Those builders are just there to slap it all together for you.

And in that, it is harder to grow with them. You don’t know that down the line, you won’t want some more complex functionality in your site such as eCommerce, memberships or other integrations.

In a nutshell: an AI site is fine if you need a digital placeholder; a place to get your presence online quickly. However, if you want a website that attracts the right customers, builds trust and grows with your business, you’re still going to need that human touch.

Here at Star Mountain Design, we sometimes use AI tools behind the scenes for brainstorming graphics or creating relevant placeholder content in our mockups. But the real magic – be it the strategy, design, SEO and/or customisation – is 100% human, tailored to your brand and your mission.

Striking the right balance

The main takeaway here is this: AI is a great supplement, but not a total replacement. It’s helpful with some of the heavy lifting. It’s best used to speed up creative work, explore concepts and assist when your mind is at a loss. For anything involving trust, detail or real-world accuracy, it’s smart to pair it with real assets or human oversight.

You’re dying to know… did I use AI to write this article?

The answer is no, but with a couple of caveats – I practice what I preach, after all.  I did ask ChatGPT to help me come up with sections so that I covered all the important points.  I did ask it to look at my article and make some suggestions: anything that was an inaccurate, anything I should have mentioned and anything I needed to expand upon.

It made a few small suggestions, but the one glaring inaccuracy it came up with was that ChatGPT, bless its little heart, believed Ozzy Osbourne was still alive, and I was wrong in the earlier part of this article where I said that he had died.  I had to tell the poor robot that it was mistaken – and it corrected itself. So – in close I say this: take all this AI business with a grain of salt.

The world of AI offers endless possibilities to make the process of getting your website online a little smoother and a lot less scary. Just like a movie star’s personal assistant can’t do the acting for them, but can manage a whole bunch of other things – you still need to be the star of your own show – or in this case, your own hustle.