A colleague recently wrote about the uncertainty that agencies such as Say Hello face as more people turn to AI tools. These tools have introduced real changes to my processes, but adapting to change has been a constant throughout my 30-year career.
One comment on the post intrigues me, as it highlights how some people believe they are only able to get mediocre results without big budgets. This is certainly not true of work which Say Hello delivers. Every piece of project work I carry out is scoped to get the maximum possible quality from the time and budget which the client has available.
“Good enough” is not good enough for me.
AI can produce work to my satisfaction. Yes, I might still need someone on my team to operate, maintain, and further develop the work. But I certainly don’t need a team of employees creating content every single day. Flyers, social media posts, blog posts, documents, dossiers, downloads… it all comes from [the specific AI tool]. Not super-original, not super-creative, not super-unique. But let’s be honest: it hasn’t always been that way either. And for most consumers, it’s enough…
A recent comment on a third-party blog post about AI usage in agency work
From hand-coded websites to AI
Over more than 30 years of building websites, I have seen the work move from entirely hand-coded pages to increasingly capable tools, frameworks, content management systems and collaborative workflows. Every stage has made certain tasks quicker and more accessible. AI is another important step in that progression, but not a complete break from it.
I remember the early debate around digital photography. Many passionate photographers saw it as a threat to the craft; today, digital cameras are simply the normal tool for most kinds of photography. The value of the photographer has not disappeared. Good results still depend on judgement: deciding what to photograph, how to frame it, how to use the available equipment, and when an image is good enough.
AI is useful, but it needs direction
The same is true in web design and development. AI can generate text, code, images and ideas very quickly. It can be genuinely useful for research, early drafts, repetitive tasks and exploring options. Used well, it helps reduce time spent on routine work and can make a project more affordable. It can help clients to mock up a preview of basic design ideas, which helps to optimise the exploration phase of a new project.
But AI cannot, by itself, define the right problem to solve or create the best end result which an experienced professional can achieve. It does not understand a client’s business, their customers, internal processes, priorities or long-term responsibilities: someone with experience needs to provide that context and evaluate the output. AI cannot fully explore the communication requirements which the clients have, or understand the unique communication challenges which their customers encounter.
A prospective client created a detailed project concept using AI, but had not stepped back to question whether the underlying direction was sound. Once we examined the assumptions behind it, it became clear that the proposed approach had repeatedly failed in comparable situations. AI had helped them develop an idea quickly; it had not tested the premise of that idea. My contribution was to provide the strategic and practical perspective needed to challenge the brief before time and money were invested in building the wrong solution.
The human element
That is where the human element matters. At Say Hello, AI can be part of the process, but it is not the entire process. My role is to define the scope with the client, identify what will make the greatest difference within the available budget, choose suitable technology, and ensure that the finished work is coherent, robust and maintainable.
This approach often reduces overall cost. The savings created by efficient tools can be invested where they matter: better planning, better decisions, more careful implementation and a result that remains useful for longer. A smaller budget may mean prioritising the most valuable features and delivering others later; it never means accepting poor-quality work as inevitable.
Choosing the right solution and making the budget count
There has never been one technical solution for every project. Even WordPress, which I have used successfully for many years, is not always the right answer. Its flexibility and extensibility make it an excellent choice for many clients, but selecting and shaping the right solution remains part of the work.
The question should not be whether a business can afford quality. The better question is: how can the available budget be used to achieve the best possible outcome? AI is a valuable tool in answering that question, but the quality, longevity and maintainability of the result still depend on the people who plan, guide and take responsibility for it.
Lead image by Vanishing Point Images on Unsplash.
