In 2023, the expectations for website builders are evolving due to the influence of generative AI. Both startups and established companies are grappling with questions about the relevance of no-code drag-and-drop interfaces in a world where prompts and media-generating models are gaining traction. Striking the right level of abstraction to cater to both basic and advanced users is a key challenge.
Wix, a well-known player in the web building domain, believes that modern customers no longer desire to spend excessive time customizing every aspect of their website’s appearance. To address this, the company has introduced its latest innovation, the AI Site Generator tool. This tool enables Wix users to describe their requirements and generate a complete website, including a homepage, inner pages, text, images, and specialized sections like events and bookings. Avishai Abrahami, Wix’s co-founder and CEO, emphasizes that the goal is to provide customers with genuine value as they create and grow their businesses.
While the AI Site Generator represents Wix’s most ambitious AI experiment to date, it’s not their first foray into AI. Wix already utilizes AI in various other ways, such as the text creator powered by ChatGPT, which generates personalized content for different sections of a website, as well as AI domain generation, AI image editing, and creation tools.
Abrahami contends that Wix is embracing AI not simply as a trendy tech trend but as a practical means to streamline and simplify the process of building backend business functionality, infrastructure, and payment capabilities for customers’ websites. This is particularly valuable for small businesses that often struggle with launching and maintaining their sites, leading to potential missed revenue opportunities.
The AI Site Generator works by taking multiple prompts describing desired sites and employing a combination of in-house and third-party AI systems to craft the envisioned site. Wix’s AI is responsible for generating the site’s design and images, while ChatGPT generates the textual content. Unlike traditional templates, the AI Site Generator adapts the design to fit the content, creating a unique website tailored to the specific needs of the user.
Despite the capabilities of AI, Wix acknowledges that human designers still have a role to play. Therefore, customers using the AI Site Generator can freely utilize the full suite of editing tools, including both manual and AI-driven options, to make adjustments to the generated website.
Wix has plans to introduce further editing capabilities alongside the AI Site Generator, including an AI page and section creator, object eraser, and AI assistant tool for suggesting improvements and personalized strategies based on analytics and site trends.
However, there are concerns regarding generative AI’s impact on the web economy, as it can lead to the proliferation of low-quality, generic content that might clog up search engines and bury legitimate sites. Additionally, generative AI models can sometimes produce misleading or offensive content, and issues of plagiarism have been raised.
Regarding combating potential problems, Wix did not provide specific details but emphasized that they employ a range of tools to manage spam and abuse. They claim to leverage large-scale quality data and possess various models, including AI, to prevent and detect model abuse, aiming to create a safe digital space where users’ fundamental rights are safeguarded. Wix also plans to use OpenAI’s moderation features to address content-related concerns.
Only time will reveal the success of Wix’s approach in addressing these challenges associated with the AI-powered website building landscape.