“I’ll just do it with ChatGPT”

We hear this at least once a week. “Oh, we’ll just use ChatGPT for that.”

And sometimes that’s completely right, and we tell people so. But sometimes it’s a bit like saying “we’ll just use Excel” when what you actually need is an accounting system. Excel is great. It’s just not the same thing.

Honestly, go ahead with these

Use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, whatever you like, for first drafts of emails, posts and blogs. For rewording a page that’s a bit clunky. For brainstorming the questions your customers might ask. For summarising a long document or your meeting notes. For explaining a techy problem in normal language. You really don’t need an agency for any of that. Just please read and edit what it gives you before it goes out.

Where it runs out

The trouble starts when you need AI to be part of how your business works, rather than something you open in another tab.

A chatbot in ChatGPT isn’t on your website. It doesn’t know your prices and it won’t send you leads. Setting one up that’s accurate, safe and connected to your business takes proper work.

Uploading photos one at a time and asking for descriptions isn’t a system. A searchable library needs a fixed set of tags, a connection to where the photos live, and a way for someone to review them. We’ve written about how that works.

ChatGPT can’t log your clients in, produce branded documents, rename files and archive last month’s version. Your website can, but it has to be built to. That’s this story.

And asking it to “optimise my website” gets you a list of suggestions. It doesn’t add schema, fix the technical problems or measure whether anything improved. That’s AEO.

Unedited AI writing sounds like everybody else’s unedited AI writing.

A few warnings, as a friend

AI will sometimes tell you something completely wrong with total confidence. Check facts, figures and anything you’d be embarrassed to get wrong.

Think twice before pasting client information, contracts or financials into a public AI tool.

And unedited AI writing sounds like everybody else’s unedited AI writing. Your customers notice. We’d argue they notice more than search engines do.

The sensible middle

Use AI tools every day for the everyday stuff. Get help when you want AI working inside your website or your processes, where it has to be connected, reliable and checked. If you’re not sure which side of the line something sits on, just ask us. If it’s a DIY job, we’ll tell you.