If you work with a development partner, there is a good chance they use AI tools. The useful question is not whether they do. It is how they use it, and who checks the result. This guide explains where AI genuinely helps in web development, where people still need to decide, and what to ask any partner.
Where AI genuinely helps
- Repetitive code. Drafting standard pieces such as form handling, templates and settings, which a developer then reviews.
- Spotting mistakes. A fast second pair of eyes on code, accessibility and consistency.
- Tidying and structure. Organising files, naming things clearly and writing comments.
- Checking at scale. Looking through lots of pages for broken links, missing alt text or inconsistent titles.
- First drafts. Outlines and rough text that a person rewrites in your voice.
These are jobs where a fast assistant saves effort without changing what the website is meant to do.
Where people still need to decide
AI can produce confident-looking mistakes, so someone has to check. People should still own:
- Understanding the brief and what the client actually needs
- Choosing how something should be built
- Protecting confidential client material
- Reviewing the finished work in a real browser, on a real phone
- Anything involving accuracy: prices, legal wording and factual claims
The risks to manage
- Wrong but plausible output. Code that looks right and fails in one case.
- Security. Generated code can include weak patterns that a reviewer must catch.
- Confidentiality. Pasting client material into a tool can expose it. A partner should have rules about what is and is not shared.
- Generic work. Unchecked AI output often reads as bland and the same as everyone else’s.
- Honesty. Clients deserve to know when AI was involved.
A sensible review process
- A person plans the work and writes or approves the approach.
- AI helps with the repetitive parts.
- A person reviews every change, tests it and fixes what is wrong.
- The work is checked on staging, on phones and in real browsers.
- A final check covers speed, forms, links and search basics before launch.
Four questions to ask your partner
- Who reviews the work before it reaches me?
- Who is responsible if something is wrong?
- How is confidential client material handled?
- Will you tell me when AI is involved?
Using AI inside your own agency
The same rules apply if your own team uses AI. Write down what is allowed, what is never pasted into a tool, and who signs off on client-facing work. Your clients are trusting your judgement, not a tool’s.
What we do
We use AI as an assistant and say so openly. People make the decisions and review the result. If you would rather we did not use AI on a project, tell us before we start and we will explain what that means for the work. Our approach is set out on our page about how we use AI, and our white label web development service describes how the team works with agencies.