While website builders can streamline the web development process and offer cost savings, they often fall short when it comes to the strategic guidance, custom solutions, and technical expertise that an experienced agency provides. But with the entry of the best AI website builders, you wouldn’t be blamed for wondering if there’s still a need for a professional design agency.
Before you think about ditching your design partner for an AI alternative, it’s necessary to perform a thorough assessment of what the agency offers to you. You need to understand their functions, analyze overall performance, and decide if automation can solve those pain points.
Here’s how to do just that.
Should you use AI to replace your design agency?
Generally, the answer is “no”. Web design agencies offer a range of services that differ significantly from the best website builders.
Agencies provide custom designs tailored to each client's unique needs, along with strategic guidance, expertise in complex functionality, personalized support, ongoing maintenance, and the ability to adapt based on market trends. In contrast, AI builders typically offer template-based designs with limited customization, basic functionality for standard sites, and automated processes that lack a personal touch.
When it comes to cost, hiring an agency is a more significant investment, with prices ranging from $3,000 to over $100,000 depending on the project scope. For this price, you can expect custom branding, in-depth search optimization, comprehensive project management, responsive customer service, and post-launch support.
AI website builders are much cheaper, often costing between $10 to $500/year. But they provide more basic templates, limited support, less flexibility, and automated SEO. While some of them feature cutting-edge AI tools that can offer intelligent design or content suggestions, the result is still hardly comparable to custom agency services.
But while they cannot match the depth of advantages offered by a specialized firm, AI tools can easily replace entry-level agency capabilities at a much smaller price tag. To determine if an AI builder can effectively replace your design agency, consider evaluating the following aspects:
- Examine the creativity, originality, and visual appeal of the designs your agency delivers. Do they capture your brand essence and engage your target audience?
- What about your agency's communication, availability, and willingness to address your concerns or make revisions?
- Consider the level of strategic guidance your agency provides. Do they offer valuable insights into your industry, target market, and competitive landscape?
- Review your agency's ability to manage projects efficiently, meet deadlines, and communicate progress with key stakeholders in your business.
- Ultimately, compare the benefits you receive from hiring an agency with the added cost of their retainer. Do they offer enough to justify the price tag?
Which agency capabilities can AI replace?
AI design tools leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate and streamline various aspects of the design process. These tools analyze vast amounts of structured data, generate ideas, and create content based on specific parameters and user input.
By training on extensive datasets and learning from patterns, AI algorithms can produce designs, suggest improvements, and even adapt to individual preferences. Here are a few entry-level agency functions that AI can replace:
Rapid prototyping
By inputting basic parameters such as color schemes, layout preferences, and desired features, AI algorithms can create multiple iterations of a website design in a matter of minutes. This allows businesses to explore different ideas, gather feedback, and refine their designs without the need for external engagements, saving both time and resources.
Asset creation
AI-powered tools can also assist in generating creative design ideas and imagery for websites. By analyzing a vast database of existing designs and images, these tools can suggest visually appealing layouts, color palettes, and graphical elements that align with a business's brand identity and target audience.
Content development
Content creation is another area where AI can replace entry-level agency functions. Advanced natural language processing (NLP) algorithms can analyze existing content, understand its tone and style, and generate new content that matches its brand voice. While this will never be as good as the work of a professional copywriter, it’s still better than low-quality content mills.
Routine maintenance
Maintaining a website involves various routine tasks such as updating content, optimizing images, and ensuring proper formatting across devices. AI tools can automate many of these tasks, reducing the workload on internal or agency teams. For example, AI algorithms can compress images, fix broken links, and suggest improvements for SEO.
Data-driven analytics
Since agencies often repurpose reports from various analytics software anyway, AI tools can replace the reporting capabilities of entry-level agencies with their own insights. However, they will lack the strategic vision to make sense of this analytics data, making it harder to turn the insights into actionable tasks that improve design performance.
Don’t replace your agency with AI, augment it instead
AI tools can streamline certain aspects of the web design process, but they lack the strategic guidance, creative expertise, and personalized touch that experienced agencies provide.
However, this doesn't mean you should dismiss these tools altogether. Instead, use them to augment your agency partner’s capabilities, selectively replacing functions where they add the least amount of value.
Used in conjunction with agency services, AI can help reduce costs and improve outcomes. When evaluating how to integrate AI into your web design process, consider the following:
- Identify areas where AI can automate routine tasks to improve efficiency
- Discuss with your agency how they can leverage AI to enhance services
- Establish clear goals and metrics to determine AI rollout success
- Continuously assess and adjust your approach based on data and insights
By working closely with your agency to incorporate AI strategically, you can optimize your web design process, reduce costs, and achieve better outcomes for your business. However, note that this is a collaborative undertaking, which is why your external partners should be involved in every stage of the decision-making process.
