You've probably seen "no AI slop" somewhere on my site. It might read like I'm anti-AI. I'm not. I use AI every single day to build websites, and I'd have a hard time going back.
So let me explain what I actually mean, because the tool was never the problem.
What "AI slop" actually is
Slop is the generic stuff. The site that looks like a thousand other sites, says nothing specific, and falls apart the moment you look closely. Copy that sounds like a robot being polite. A layout that technically works but doesn't help anyone decide anything. Buttons that lead nowhere. Images that have nothing to do with the business.
You can feel it. Something is off, even when you can't name it. That feeling is slop.
You can make slop with AI in about twenty minutes, which is why there's suddenly so much of it around.
Where AI helps me
I'm not going to pretend AI isn't a big part of how I work. It speeds up the parts that used to take hours. Drafting a first version to react to. Catching my own mistakes. Trying five directions before lunch instead of one. Writing the repetitive code that has to be right but isn't interesting.
Used this way, AI doesn't turn my work into slop. It clears the boring parts so I can focus on the decisions it can't make, and the engineering that keeps a site from breaking.
What AI can't do
AI can generate a page. It can't decide whether that page is right for your brand.
It doesn't know your customers are nervous first-timers who need a little reassurance before they see a price. It doesn't know your competitor already uses the exact word you were about to lead with. It doesn't know when a design is technically fine but emotionally flat. That's taste, and judgment, and paying attention to one specific business instead of businesses in general.
That's the job. AI is a very good assistant for it. It isn't a replacement for it.
What worries me, as someone who builds these
I'm a software engineer, so I don't just look at whether a site looks nice. I look at what's underneath, and slop tends to hide the same problems there:
- Security. A rushed site can leak personal data or expose the keys to your payment system. Your customers trust you with their details, and that trust is the first thing slop breaks.
- Accessibility. A lot of people can't use a site that ignores them: on a screen reader, with a keyboard, with low vision. Slop leaves them out without ever meaning to.
- Speed. Generated sites are often heavy and slow, and a slow site quietly loses the people you worked hard to bring in.
- The things that break later. Code no one understands, no safe way to update it, one small change and the whole thing falls over.
None of this shows up in a screenshot. It shows up a few months later, when something goes wrong and there's nobody who knows how the thing was built.
What "no slop" means for you
When I say no AI slop, I'm making a promise. Not that I avoided AI, but that I didn't take the shortcut.
Your site will say something specific about your brand. It'll be fast, safe, and usable by everyone. It'll be built to do a real job, not just to exist. And it'll feel like you, because a person who cares about your business made every real decision, with a very capable assistant handling the busywork.
That's the whole difference. The tool is the same one everyone has. What you do with it isn't.
If that's the kind of site you want, take a look at how I work.
This is my first post here, by the way. There's a lot more coming: more on building websites, more on the brands I love, and more on making sense of all the AI noise. Come back for those. 🐾