AI platforms like Lovable and Vercel follow best practices, include commonly accepted design patterns, and deliver modern, mobile-friendly layouts. At times it even looks like a seasoned creative team has done the work.
Lovable.ai delivers surprisingly good designs. We have seen examples of clean, clear, and on-brand websites being produced by very basic prompts. Vercel, comes with hosting features. Developers prefer for deploying front-end apps, because it includes modern stacks like Next.js. Next to these two, it seems like every day a new shiny toy emerges.
AI is great, especially in the early stages. It helps you to get started. You can move from idea to prototype without getting bogged down by design decisions, endless discussions about colors or worrying about code. In a very short time span, you can review concepts and ideas and present them to friends, colleagues or clients. In many situations that is you what you are looking for.
It is only half the story though.
Once you’ve got your AI-generated site, and you like or get approval, the real work begins. Putting it live, connecting your custom domain, configuring DNS settings... that’s where things get tricky. Most AI tools aren’t built to walk you through domain registration or explain how to update DNS records. And if you've never touched a domain registrar before, this part can be challenging. No matter how many ChatGPT prompts or Youtube videos you throw at it. Why does your site not appear under your chosen URL can often be a mystery.
And then there’s content management. Sure, AI can create a static site. But what happens when you want to update a blog post, change a product price, or add a new page? Most AI platforms aren’t equipped to set up a CMS properly because CMS best practices aren’t baked into their LLM training models. They are not suited to figure out things like custom content models, user permissions, workflows, and clean URLs? This is still very much human territory.
So...
AI is an amazing co-pilot. It gives you momentum, helps you explore ideas visually, and gets you going quickly. But turning that into a live, editable, and scalable website, that’s where people like us come in.
Think of it like building a house. AI can procuce the 3D renderings, blueprints and pick the colors. But laying the foundation, wiring the electricity, and making sure the door actually opens? You still need real builders.
AI website builders are great but don't underestimate the go-live and maintenance parts.