Most people think AI will do all the work for them.
But in reality, AI only gets you 80% of the way.
The final 20% requires real skill. Without it, the project completely stalls.
I just rebuilt my website using lovable.dev.
Lovable is an AI-powered tool that scaffolds websites in minutes.
I used it to make my new website ali-ismail.com which felt like it was made in an instant!
It sounds magical until you realize that AI is a lazy builder that seldom finishes the job.
The Github and Beehiiv integrations were broken
The mobile menu didn't work
The color palette was ugly
What I received was a shell of a website. But within 24 hours I was able to custom build out the data fetching for the two integrations, correct the mobile menu, and make the color scheme visually appealing.
Compared to my previous site https://aliismailcom.vercel.app/ which was hand coded, took 10x longer to make, and was not as flexible or easy to update, this is nothing short of a miracle.
This experience reveals what many AI users are noticing:
As our eyes adjust to the higher quality output AI releases, it's becoming apparent that most AI results look about the same. Besides the shortcomings in functionality, there's a cookie cutter element aesthetic which makes our souls crave the human touch more than ever.
Now that everyone can produce something decent instantly, the real question is:
Can you pair AI with craftsmanship?
It's not just about using AI, but knowing when to take over and add your human judgement to it.