Will generative AI tools help people build better websites, or will they just fill the web with spam? With the recent release of Design Intelligence, a new website builder packed with generative AI tools, Squarespace is betting on the former.
We spoke with Chief Product Officer Paul Gubbay about Design Intelligence and Squarespace's broader AI strategy. Our conversation echoes what other (unspecified) AI-powered website builders offer when asked to create a typical spa website: a confusing and ugly website. It started with a glimpse of.
Of course, this was a demo setup for Design Intelligence, which started with a few prompts that allowed Gubbay to specify things like the type of website he wanted to build and the brand personality that would be featured. The resulting website featured AI-generated design, text, and images, but looked, for lack of a better word, like a “real” site, with options for further customization. It was plentiful.
Gubbay said that while other website builders are working “very quickly” to introduce AI features, these competitors are “looking at how they can take advantage of this technology and make it stand out to their customers. “Is it true?”, he claimed to have doubts. Squarespace, on the other hand, thinks a little differently. “How can we take all of these latest technologies and really leverage them to help our customers stand out?”
Read the transcript of the conversation below, edited for length and clarity.
When I imagine an AI website generation product, I imagine something like a prompt, similar to the one at the beginning of the demo. However, you can customize every step here. In some ways, it's similar to Squarespace today. So the question is, how did you decide where to let AI step in to generate website elements, and where humans could still customize them?
We've spent some time and thought hard about how these things fit together. So when building things like websites or anything visual, there's a principle of “I know it when I see it.” I think this applies to everyone, not just professionals.
Trying to build a website using a chatbot is extremely difficult. It's like getting in a car and typing “turn left” or “turn right.” You want your system to be able to show you something, and when you see something you like, you want to think, “Okay, this is it.” But you don't have to be limited by that. We want to be able to continue playing. We want it to feel like a playground.
And for us, it was really taking this “I know it when I see it” concept. And every time the team came, I said, “Why don't we add chat?” What if we did what everyone else is doing? ''We were like, “I don't think that's what people really want to do.'' Once that became a model for us and everyone adopted it, it became very natural for all of us to think through that ideology.
It was also very important to us that we treat the information you provide to us with the utmost respect. You are telling us something about who you are and entrusting us to take it and use it effectively for you. Therefore, we wanted to make sure that the concept shown in the blueprint was reflected in the system, so that customers would feel that the choices they made in advance were not in vain.
Image credit: Squarespace
We also talked about the concepts of curation and technology. These are often at odds with each other, but it seems like they're really trying to incorporate curation into technology. You also mentioned that there is a curation engine. Can you tell us a little more about what that looks like?
Our CEO sometimes says: I think that's true. The fact that you have a text generator within your website tools is great. But you can also go to Open AI and ChatGPT and type something and get the text and copy and paste it. [into Squarespace]that's fine too. The challenge many people have is knowing how to run the engine in the right way to actually get the right power out of it.
We have a very specific and unique perspective on how we prompt the engine and how we curate the content that comes out of it. This allows us to give you the look and feel and view that you truly value. Our experience based on their stories and our preferences.
AI imagery is a great example. We've built an entire library that shows how to provide prompts [AI models] Specifically, to get the type of images that we want to put out and that are exactly Squarespace and that we feel are very appropriate for our customers. We tag and curate those things and feed them back into the system.
We do that when we look at the color palette. Do that when thinking about switching layouts. That's the curation element. Our design and creative teams spend a lot of time thinking about: “How do these elements fit together?” How do we prompt the engine? How do we choose what comes out of here and what we don't want to come out of here? Will I throw it away? We're getting better and better so you don't have to. The biggest point that comes to us is that you don't have to do it.
It sounds like part of your approach is not necessarily trying to build all these models yourself. The focus is on how to present it, make it accessible, and organize it.
As you know, we are not experts at LLM creating all these different types of content. we take advantage of them. We're powered by Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. We have a great partnership. But the secret sauce for us is how we encourage and control the content that gets published, and make sure it's consistent with what we know about our customers.
Obviously, Squarespace already makes it easy to create and customize websites. How do you think that ecosystem will change as we bring more generative AI into the process? Will Squarespace websites look different than they do now?
I think it will look even better. It's very important to us and always incredibly important that design is always at the forefront. People come to Squarespace because we believe design makes a difference. And a big part of the difference is not just capturing their brand and who they are, but whether something pre-built ends up feeling like it's bespoke.
Asking a question like this may imply that they all look the same in some way. And that's not what we want, right? So we're going to give people the tools to get better results faster, but we're always going to make sure that it adheres to the vision that people want.
Squarespace works very closely with designers. We just finished an entire event with our design partners. How do you think designers, especially Squarespace partners, should view tools like AI? To what extent should they see this as a threat rather than an opportunity?
I think it's important to see it as an opportunity. AI technology is clearly a big part of our future, and like any new technology, leveraging it and learning how to use it correctly will enhance what we can do. I don't a million percent believe it will replace design. This is to strengthen it. We will continue to do our part to ensure the best interests of our customers and creators.
I just spent Circle Day with a lot of people. [design] expert. And when you think about things like design intelligence, to me, it just helps them realize their vision faster and share it with their customers. But of course, [customers are coming to us] Then implement whatever they want. It would be great if we could give them some options and inspire them to change and go deeper. We intend to make their jobs faster and perhaps easier, but we will never replace them.