AI, or artificial intelligence, has brought about significant improvements in the world of web development recently. By automating repetitive and mundane tasks, as well as finding solutions more efficiently, AI can help developers save time and effort, allowing them to focus on more creative and complex aspects of web development.
Overall, AI has the potential to transform web development and make it faster, more efficient, and more user-friendly. As the technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative use cases of AI in web development. However, it’s important to note that AI is not a substitute for human creativity and expertise. While AI can automate or speed up many tasks, it cannot replace the creativity and insight that human developers bring to the table. AI should be seen as a tool that can assist developers, rather than a replacement for them.
In this post, we’re going to explore some of the ways that AI (specifically ChatGPT) can be used right now in your web development workflow.
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1. Coding
This is one of the primary benefits of AI that we’ve found to date: using ChatGPT to write actual code for your project. It’s been demonstrated that the tool can correctly create an entire WordPress plugin or custom block in a matter of minutes! We’ve put this to the test several times over the past couple months with varied results, depending on how complex the task. Most of the time it took several adjustments in our prompts, as well as some back and forth, trial and error, before ending up with something that was a viable solution, and yet it still took significantly less time than if we were to start from scratch and code it ourselves. In short, our experiments left us impressed!
We’ve also used the same tool to write JavaScript, jQuery, and other code snippets that have worked pretty well – again, most of the time. One major caveat to keep in mind is that the data that ChatGPT is relying on is dated back to 2021, so anything that requires newer properties or functions will likely not work, or need adjustments to be made to whatever solutions it provides. Still, a lot of time can be saved here.
2. Troubleshooting and Debugging
In a similar vein to the previous point, ChatGPT can help you out when you get stuck. We’ve found ourselves choosing it as our go to now rather than searching for a solution on the various dev forums. Drop your troubled code in, explain the error or problem you’re having, and get some solid guidance quickly.
3. Placeholder Content
Move on from using nonsensical placeholder content while waiting for your client to provide the real thing. Instead, you can ask ChatGPT to write up some About or Contact page copy, or even a series of blog posts that, while they would not suffice in a production environment, they will at least give a more realistic feel and presentation to the project than lipsum. Note that we don’t recommend using AI for actual content production, as it lacks the human tone needed for a genuinely authentic website.
4. Client Communications
Any time your communications with a client start heading in a potentially heated direction, you can use ChatGPT to help you compose a professional, objective, and rational response. Simply explaining the situation and asking how you should respond will give you some insight into how clearer heads may prevail, and therefore keep your relationship with your client moving in a positive and lasting direction.
5. Content Creation and SEO
Again, we don’t recommend using ChatGPT to actually write content for your projects, but it can definitely provide you with topics, outlines, and ideas. It can also be really useful to provide keywords, meta descriptions, and other SEO elements for your pages.
How Are You Using AI in Web Development?
Are you currently incorporating AI into your web development workflow? Are you using it in ways other than what we’ve shared here? Hit us up on Twitter or send us a message and let us know – we’d love to hear how it’s making your job easier, and we’re excited to see where we go next with this exciting technology!
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