Yea or Nay: AI in Web Design?

Web professionals are quite familiar with the algorithms in use by social media networks and search engines, but this type of rule-based decision making can also be applied to all kinds of processes - even Web design - as well as take into account user behavior.

Wix announced earlier this month that it will roll out ADI, artifical design intelligence, which works in a similar fashion. After a prospective website owner answers a few questions, ADI chooses from billions of combinations and possibilities (images, content) to create a website in minutes.

Even though no two sites will ever look the same, elements can be customized and the process will prove to be quite helpful for novice site owners, it all appears to be a little basic (even if the technology is anything but that). There is already a tendency for sites to look the same, but it will be interesting to see just how different algorithm-based Web design can be - even with machine learning. That said, the ability to get a site automatically created that takes into account best practices within an industry is pretty remarkable. 

It will be interesting to see what other types of services AI impacts, as it has already touched customer service (not all live chat agents are people), analytics (with sentiment-based key performance indicators), navigation ("Siri tell me where the nearest Starbucks is") and even retail (Stitch Fix, for instance, works very similar to ADI in that it asks customers questions, learns from their purchases and delivers unique combinations of clothing).