How will AI affect website development?

Nowadays, AI (artificial intelligence) has become part of every customer’s journey into making a purchase, contacting a business or requesting a quotation on a website. When it comes to website development – through bespoke website design, eCommerce web design or your pay monthly website – it is recommended that you investigate implementing AI. For example, the ability to live chat with a chatbot as a first point of contact from a customer to your business is now an expected function on a website – in short, it can feel unusual for AI not to feature on a site. 

If you are looking at ways you can use artificial intelligence on your website, you must first identify your intentions and ultimately the goals you wish to achieve. For example, you might want to provide a better user experience, increase customer satisfaction, or you could be looking to improve your website from a developmental point of view.

Three ways to integrate AI into your website

1. Through Your User Experience

More and more, customers are expecting a personalised experience from the moment they enter a site. This sounds like a lot of work - but this isn’t something to be afraid of. With a few small changes, you can use AI in your website to make your business more memorable and bring customers back to your site time and time again.

How can I use a chatbot on my website?

One of the most common features on a website nowadays is a chatbot. A chatbot is a form of customer service, meaning users can open a live chat and have their questions answered by AI before or without needing to contact your team directly.

This can solve two potential pain points in your customer’s journey: firstly, it can answer your user’s questions easily, freeing up your customer service team from resolving the same, simple queries and helping your customer get to the product or service they need.

Secondly, it can improve your customer satisfaction if their query is resolved quickly, without the wait for an available representative.

Our bespoke website development team can help you integrate a chatbot onto your site, whether that is through a widget or building one custom to your requirements.

2. Discover Your Demographic

If you’re an eCommerce business, artificial intelligence on your site is essential for learning about your customers, so you can make your customer journey smarter and more efficient.

While your goal is to help your customers reach the checkout, there is an even more important goal you must reach before doing this: reaching the right audience. Perhaps you sell sunglasses – this kind of audience is broad. However, you might sell sunglasses for children, adults and older adults. You might sell designer brands or prescription frames. Moreover, you might be offering your products with UK-wide shipping – plus, there’s that obvious factor that sunglasses are primarily needed in British summertime or for holidaygoers. This forms your target demographic. 

But how do you find out if this is the audience you are reaching and how does this affect your website development?

This is where artificial intelligence comes in. Through the software integrated with your website, you will be able to make use of AI-driven insights to learn more about your specific audience to make proactive rather than reactive changes to your site. 

For example, you might discover that a higher proportion of your older audience prefer to enquire about your sunglasses before making a purchase. Or, that your younger audience tend to enter the site through social media but then drop off and abandon at the checkout because the process is too long, and they cannot pay easily. It’s these kinds of insights that can help you make changes to your website – like adding a quick pay option or guiding senior users towards a live chatbot.

Our team can help you manage these insights and guide you towards the next best step for your eCommerce business.

3. Be Proactive Towards Accessibility

Accessibility is often overlooked on websites, with too many sites being held back by poor load speeds or high contrast issues. This in turn can have a massive impact on your SEO rankings, with Google prioritising sites with good performance and great user experience.

Accessibility tools like Lighthouse use generative AI to provide you with insights to improve your website performance.

Moreover, AI technology is becoming more and more involved in improving the readability of your text through Natural Language Processing for users with age-related cognitive decline or learning difficulties. It’s worth noting the use of AI functionality in your website so you can make your site accessible to all.

Will AI replace web development?

AI is created to learn more and more and in turn, become better and better. However, at the end of the day, there is no replacement for human decision-making in website design and development.

There are numerous debates over the relevance and profitability of AI-generated content on the market, with most agreeing that this leaves copy lacking nuance and human personality – and this is the perfect way to summarise AI in website development. AI will never replace human input yet can be used to enhance it and ultimately optimise your website, be that through user experience, background coding, machine learning or accessibility. Read four more reasons why AI will not replace humans in tech here.

In conclusion...
AI is only going to become more commonly used in website development, becoming a crucial part of the customer experience. However, AI will never provide the same value as having a dedicated website development team. Through using AI on your website intelligently and intentionally, then testing and tweaking repeatedly, you can make positive changes that will impact your customers and your business.

Are you ready for your bespoke website build?

If you’re interested in how AI can be used to make your website accessible, personable and intelligent, our team of bespoke website specialists can help you integrate all the features and functionality you need in your website. Contact us in Norfolk & Cambridge on 01603704020 or enquire below for your free consultation.