What AI features in website builders actually do

An AI button in a website builder does one thing. It asks a language model for a draft, then hands the draft back. Everything after that, the checking and the publishing, is still your job.

The kinds of button you'll meet

Builders put AI in a handful of places. Wix lists a site builder that works by chat, a text generator, page sections, images, logos, product descriptions, emails and database collections¹. Squarespace covers text, images, search text and email drafts². WordPress.com builds new sites, helps in the editor and takes chat messages through one tool called the WordPress Agent³.

Names differ by maker. The jobs are much the same. Each page on this site takes one job in turn:

• Whole-site drafts: AI site generators explained
• Page text: AI text writers inside site builders
• Pictures: AI image and photo tools
• Titles, descriptions and alt text: AI helpers for search text

What's under the button

Most of these buttons talk to a large language model. It's a program trained on a huge pile of text. One common type is trained to predict the next word, then tuned to follow instructions like an assistant⁴.

That explains why the output reads so smoothly. It's picking likely words. It isn't looking facts up. Google's advice for site owners says generative AI outputs may contain inaccuracies, often called hallucinations⁵.

Builders don't always make the model themselves. Squarespace names three outside AI companies it works with². So your prompt may travel to another company. A separate page on where your prompts go covers that.

What stays with you

Squarespace tells users to review all generated content carefully, and says the owner is responsible for what they use or publish². Google's guidance asks for a manual fact-check of AI content before publishing, including page titles, descriptions and image alt text⁵.

In practice that means you check:

• Facts, such as opening hours, prices, names and service areas
• Claims about what your business can do
• Tone, so the page sounds like you
• Anything that mentions a law or a rule, which differs by country

The builder doesn't know your business. It knows what you typed and what it was trained on.

You can usually say no

The tools are mostly optional. WordPress.com says its AI tools are entirely opt-in, and you can switch individual features on or off in a site's settings³. Wix says you keep full control of AI-built sections and can fine-tune them in the editor¹.

Some AI features cost extra, and the rules change, so look up the cost first. This page shows how.