Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming part of everyday digital life. Not just behind the scenes, but in the way audiences search, discover and interact online.
That was the focus of our recent HDK webinar, AI tools for your website, where we explored practical uses of AI alongside some of the strategic questions organisations are starting to face.
The session brought together perspectives from across HDK alongside guest speaker Ben Meyer of SynapTix, covering everything from AI-assisted content workflows through to conversational search, customer experience and accessibility.
One of the recurring themes throughout the session was that AI is not simply changing internal workflows. It is starting to change what audiences expect from digital experiences more broadly.
Key takeaways from the session
- AI is not just changing internal workflows. It is starting to change how audiences search, discover and expect to interact with websites and digital experiences.
- The fundamentals of a good website still matter enormously: clear content structure, accessibility, strong user journeys and understanding audience intent.
- There are already simple, low-risk ways to use AI in website workflows today, including drafting copy, generating FAQs, creating metadata and repurposing event content.
- Human judgement, personality and oversight remain critical. AI works best as a drafting and support tool rather than a replacement for expertise, creativity or strategic thinking.
- Organisations reviewing or redesigning their websites over the next few years should already be thinking about conversational search, discoverability beyond the homepage, and how audience expectations may continue to evolve.
Best practice for arts organisations
Throughout the webinar, we tried to keep the conversation grounded in practical and thoughtful use rather than hype.
A few themes came up repeatedly:
- Start with a real problem, not the technology
- The most useful AI implementations are usually the ones improving a genuine audience or workflow challenge rather than adding AI for novelty.
- Treat AI as a drafting partner, not a final approver
- AI can save significant time getting to a first draft, but organisations still need human review for tone, accuracy, accessibility and context.
- Keep experimenting small and practical
Many of the examples discussed in the webinar were low-risk and achievable without major investment, such as FAQs, metadata, alt text and content repurposing.
As conversational search and AI-assisted discovery grow, organisations should focus on clearer content structure, stronger metadata and answering audience questions more directly.
Topics from the live chat box:
Is AI environmentally sustainable?
This sparked a lot of discussion during the webinar. It was suggested that concerns around energy use, water consumption and data centres are absolutely valid, but that organisations should avoid seeing AI as either completely good or completely bad. The more useful question is probably: where does AI genuinely save time, reduce waste or improve access in meaningful ways, and where is it simply being added because it’s fashionable?
How do you maintain tone of voice across different audiences?
We discussed the idea that organisations don’t necessarily need multiple completely different tones of voice. Instead, the aim is usually to adapt emphasis and messaging for different audience groups while still retaining a consistent personality and identity once someone lands on the website.
AI can help explore variations quickly, but human judgement is still essential to make sure things feel coherent and authentic rather than generic. Claude was mentioned as getting tone particularly well at the moment.
What should organisations think about around accessibility, ethics and governance?
A recurring theme throughout the webinar was that just because something can be automated does not necessarily mean it should be. Accessibility, copyright, transparency, bias and privacy responsibilities still exist when using AI tools, and organisations should think carefully about governance and internal guidance rather than relying blindly on outputs.
Are paid AI tools much better than free ones?
The feeling in the webinar was that free tools are now surprisingly capable and more than enough for experimentation and everyday workflow support. Paid tools become more useful when organisations need stronger privacy controls, better integrations, larger context windows or more reliable outputs at scale.
One point Ben made strongly was not to assume the default tool provided by your organisation is automatically the best one. Curiosity and experimentation still matter. Hans notes that the platforms are constantly changing what’s included in free and paid versions.
What is AI search optimisation (AISO)?
As people increasingly discover information through conversational search and AI assistants, websites may need to become clearer, more structured and easier for systems to interpret. Interestingly, several speakers noted that this often brings us back to the fundamentals of good websites: strong content structure, accessible information and understanding what audiences need quickly.
If we’re planning a website redesign in the next few years, what should we already be thinking about?
Ben suggested organisations should already be thinking about discoverability beyond the homepage, conversational search, audience intent and structured content. Hans added that flexibility and adaptability are becoming increasingly important because audience expectations are changing quickly and nobody fully knows yet what digital experiences may look like in three or four years’ time. Hans noted that good structure, clear user journeys, and sound thinking around the end user can all be planned better with the assistance of AI
Where can AI genuinely improve audience experience?
Some of the strongest examples discussed during the webinar included improved accessibility, faster customer support, clearer information and helping audiences get answers more quickly. Ben also highlighted that around a quarter of conversations handled by Karo are access-related, suggesting that natural-language interfaces may have genuine potential to improve usability and inclusivity for audiences.
Hans de Kretser - Director and Founder
Hans de KretserDirector & Founder
