Using AI is controversial. Some people love it! But many people hate it and are worried that it’s going to replace many jobs as more and more people and businesses embrace it.

My view of AI is that it is a useful tool. But it IS just a tool. And it can never replace human creativity and expertise.

There are many concerns about AI, and one of mine is how people view it as an expert. It is not.

You are the expert on your field, community and niche. Don’t forget that.

So the trick is finding a balance between giving away too much of your creative endeavors to AI and ignoring it completely.

I think I’m finding a good balance. And if you’ve been wondering if AI is right for you and your faith-based business. maybe this post will help.

Here is how I use AI in my web design business.

To Help With Blog Posts

I admit I used ChatGPT to write a few posts when I first started playing around with it. But now.. I’ve decided I don’t want to do that. I love writing! So why give that joy away to AI?

What I do now is, write my blog post, then run it through AI. I don’t ask it to rewrite the post instead I prompt, “I’d like your thoughts on this blog post. Is there anything I’m missing or can add to it?”

Note: I’ve been working with my ChatGPT for a while so it already knows me and my business well. So if you have just started using ChatGPT you may need to add more to your prompt than this.

ChatGPT will then point out any typos, tell me where I can tighten my writing, and point out what I might be missing. For me, that is usually a strong closing or a CTA. It will offer suggestions on what I can add to the post and I can then choose to use it or not.

I will often go with the suggestions of what to add but write it myself versus using what AI wrote. I also don’t always take its suggestions on how to tighten certain sentences. It just depends.

For example, in a recent post I had this H2 heading, “What if something happens to me… or, you know, it’s just the weekend?” ChatGPT wanted me to change that because Chat felt the last part was too light hearted compared to the first part. I told Chat that was how it was meant to be and I kept the line. Though I did take Chat’s suggestion on adding the commas.

To Help Refresh Old Blog Posts

This is similar to the above. I’m not asking Chat to rewrite it. Instead I want to know what I can do to improve the post or if there are any new helpful points I can add to it. I might also ask for some new title suggestions as I do struggle with titles. And Chat has also helped me rewrite Meta Descriptions for older blog posts to help improve SEO.

Help with Emails and Social Media

For this I simply feed a blog post to Chat and ask it to create an email or social media post for me. Super simple.

Again I may change what it wrote, but it’s helpful in giving me a starting point. Which is often the hard part anyway, just getting started.

To Write How-tos for Clients

I often help my clients’ clients with tech issues. One thing I often walk people through is how to clear their browser’s cache and clear cookies. So I had Chat write some very simple instructions for me to share when I need to do this.

To Write Code

I used to be able to write HTML and CSS from scratch! But I’m out of practice, so to save myself time, I ask Chat to do it for me.

For example, I needed to create a PDF with custom fillable fields for a client. One of those fields needed to run a calculation. So I had Chat write the JavaScript for me. It worked perfectly and saved me so much time!

I’ve also had Chat check my code, when I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. One time I was writing custom code for a Gravity Form and I could not get it to work correctly. I ran it through Chat and it found my typo right away.

Now, to be clear, I’m not asking AI to design or build an entire website for me. I can do that my own and LOVE doing it. I have played with those tools out of curiosity. And I’m not going to lie, what they created looked really nice. But it also looked just like every website you see out there and it completely lacked personality.

I can see using AI to create wireframes for websites though. So this may be something I add to my process in the future.

Troubleshooting Tech Issues

Instead of going to Google or YouTube, like I used to, I now go to ChatGPT to troubleshoot when I have tech issues. I get more thorough answers than with Google and I don’t have to watch a whole video to find the answer I’m looking for.

I’ve used it to help troubleshoot WordPress plugin conflicts, fix issues with my computer and more!

Font Pairings & Icon Ideas for Client Brands

It is so hard for me to narrow down font choices when I’m creating a brand look for a client. There are so many and it just gets a bit overwhelming.

So I’ve started using chat to help me narrow it down. I tell him about the brand, the target audience, and vibe I want to have. Then I ask for 5 font pairing choices. This gives me a starting point. Sometimes I need more pairings and often I will mix and match the pairing to get one that feels just right.

I also use AI to brainstorm good icon ideas for client projects. This can be a struggle for me at times so getting some ideas from Chat takes the stress out. I don’t ask Chat to create the icons though as there are lots of great sources out there for icons.

To Extract Text from Images

When a client has an old flyer or social media image that they would like rebranded, I’ll have Chat extract the text for me. I’m a terrible typist, so this saves me a ton of time. (I only need to do this, of course, if all they have is the image file and not the original template.)

What I Don’t Use AI For

Since I’m sharing how I use AI I thought it might be good to also include some things I don’t use AI for.

• To build client websites – this is what I love! I don’t want to outsource it.
• To create images for my own website. If clients use it to create images for their business and ask me to use those images for their work I will.
• To create illustrations, art work, or icons to use on my website or client projects. Again if clients choose to and ask me to use it I will. It’s their business after all.
• I don’t publish AI written content on my website as is and strive to make it more my own. And as I mentioned above, I’m now writing the posts and just have AI giving pointers and fixing my typos.

If you’ve been on the fence about AI or were unsure about how to use it, I hope that this post has given you some ideas about how to use AI into your business. Also, I hope you see that you don’t have to go ALL in and use AI for everything. Use AI to make your work flow better and to do things you don’t really enjoy and keep the fun creative things for yourself!

AI is a wonderful and helpful tool that can help you get a lot more done in your business. But just remember, you’re the expert!

Did you enjoy this post? Pin it to share it with others!