Today, there’s no excuse for not creating a website, especially when using an AI website builder to speed up the process. What used to take weeks now takes days or minutes.
In fact, between 2025 and 2026, the average time to publish a website dropped 50%, from eight days to four, according to Wix’s State of Websites report. Before that, it dropped 43%, from 14 days in 2022 to eight days in 2025.
Even the pros are tapping into AI as a tool: A whopping 93% of web designers report having used AI, according to a Hubspot report, with half using it specifically to design their websites.
That said, when you’re learning how to design a website with AI, keep in mind that your artificial assistant should get you about 80% of the way there; the remaining 20% is all you.
“AI usually nails the structure and the general aesthetic you're looking for,” says Oded Nachshon, head of Wix Editor at Wix, who helped build Wix’s AI agent. “But the moment you try to fine-tune that last 20% to your brand, you enter what I call ‘prompt purgatory.’" Plan to spend real time on that final 20%. It's where your site stops looking generic.
In this guide, the team behind Wix’s AI website builder breaks down how AI website creation works and highlights the key steps to getting online fast, no matter which platform you use.
So, how can you get started? Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of how to build a website with AI.
Often, the quality of an AI output depends on the quality of the information that you input. A full dossier of information about your brand can point your AI solution in the right direction. While you don’t need to have a full style guide in hand, you do need to know basic details like:
Why does this matter? Let’s say that you want to build an e-commerce site that sells ring lights. Your site will look different if you’re primarily targeting Gen Z shoppers who seek your lights for personal projects, versus corporate clients who’d use your lights for professional projects. To limit the amount of back and forth in the web design process, you’ll want to decide which audiences matter most to your brand.
On that note, vague prompts produce generic sites. "Build me a coffee shop website" gives you the mathematical average of every coffee shop online. "Build me a coffee shop website for a specialty roaster in Brooklyn focused on single-origin beans, with a subscription page and a story-driven About section" is a real brief. The more specific you are at the start, the less time you spend correcting later.
There are many AI-powered tools to consider, ranging from all-in-one platforms to single-task apps. Start by choosing from the best AI website builders.
You might also want to consider a template as a starting point.
"When choosing between AI versus a template, you're essentially choosing between placing your trust in an AI model, which is trained on web design principles through an abundance of information and examples, or placing your trust in the curation and consideration done by an experienced web designer," says Sapir Ziv, a graphic designer at Wix who works on template creation.
Make sure to weigh your options carefully. You’ll want to assess things like:
AI builders and templates aren't either-or, by the way. Ashley Reckdenwald, founder of Land of Lovies, a U.S. charity she launched after the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, likes to start with a template, then go from there. "I always tend to go rogue from the template,” she says. “But it gives me a good skeleton. It allows me to take a look at what I have and then customize it."
Working from a template, Ashley built her charity site herself and attracted media attention within days of launch. Her experience captures what AI builders do well at the moment: They remove the blank-page problem, which then lets you spend your energy on the parts that actually need your judgment.
Then, it’s time for the fun part: designing your site. The specifics will depend on the platform you choose, but here are some best practices to keep in mind for any AI website builder.
Remember that 20% that makes your site stand out? Now’s the time. Any attention-grabbing website includes imagery and elements that not only look good but also reflect your brand well.
If you’re feeling stuck, use AI to generate copy that you can edit later. When you think you’re done, read every paragraph aloud and rewrite any sentence that doesn't sound like you would say it. A 10-minute editing pass on AI-generated text is what turns a competent page into one that converts.
Next up, choosing a domain name and hosting your site. Your domain is your address on the internet, so pick something short, easy to spell and close to your brand name. If your first choice is taken, a domain name generator can help, or you can consider alternate suggestions.
Hosting is the other half of the equation. Hosting is the website infrastructure that keeps your site fast, secure and online around the clock. Look for a plan with SSL included, solid uptime and room to grow as your traffic does.
AI can get you online fast. Growing and scaling is where the work really begins.
This story was produced by Wix and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.