Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term covering a number of different but related technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, robotics, and other advanced algorithms and machines.
Its capacity to automate repetitive tasks and complete them significantly faster than humans do as well as enhance and personalize user experience is something that web development can greatly benefit from.
Given that it takes people only 50 milliseconds to form an opinion about a website and decide whether they want to stay or not, it’s clear that web developers have to try hard in order to create user-friendly experiences.
Every single element counts, including loading speed, navigation, visual appeal, and ease of use, to name just a few, and artificial intelligence offers different solutions that can be used to build websites that are fast, secure, and without bugs.
Facilitating the Coding Process
Writing code is one of the most challenging and time-consuming parts of web development projects.
Self-learning AI algorithms can be of great help when it comes to updating and editing database records or predicting the types of code that can be leveraged for solving a particular problem so that developers can adopt them.
There are several ways AI helps developers to write code efficiently.
- Smart code autocomplete suggestions. Kite, for example, is one such tool, and it can generate entire sequences composed of “tokens” in Python. What’s even better is that developers don’t have to manually define a sentence in advance. The tool is even capable of imitating every developer’s unique coding style. Similarly, when it comes to Java, Codota is a tool that can complete lines of code based on the analysis of millions of examples, thus helping developers work faster and eliminating errors.
- Automatic analytics and error handling. Intelligent programming assistants can be used to look for bugs and errors during the development phase, and automatically flag them. After the launch, machine learning can be leveraged for analyzing system logs and efficiently identifying errors.
- Automatic code refactoring. Having clean code is essential for its regular scaling and maintenance. In other words, code refactoring is the process of restructuring the current code, which allows developers to upgrade website functionalities without making a mess. With AI, it’s possible to automatically analyze and optimize code, so that its performance and user experience are improved.
- Accurate project estimates. Web development requires planning a budget and deadlines, and that’s a challenging task. However, AI takes every individual web development process into consideration, analyzes it, and comes up with pretty accurate estimates. By leveraging the historical data from previous projects, such as customer feedback, estimates, and final outcomes, machine learning will be able to calculate the deadlines and costs for every future project. When it comes to managing a development team, an effective solution can be learning how to build a team management app.
Automating the Website Building Process
AI can help business owners build a website even if they’re not experts in the field of development.
For example, Wix is a website-building platform backed by AI, which allows even non-specialists to create a website without any coding expertise. Easy-to-use drag-and-drop features make it possible to create a well-designed and functional website in no time.
However, the fact that it’s a DIY platform doesn’t mean that the final result will be generic or shabby-looking. This platform allows for customizing a website based on its purpose. In other words, it’s possible to pick among types of sites – e-commerce, business, portfolio, or blog. With the help of different questions, this AI-based platform will personalize every website and make it fit its function.
For those who already have a website that they would like to improve and polish, Impressly.com is another useful AI-powered solution. It scans the existing website, analyzes its performance, and suggests improvements. However, it’s also capable of building an entirely new website from scratch.
With these tools and platforms, even those who aren’t well-versed when it comes to coding and web development can build decent and yet cost-effective websites.
Streamlining Repetitive Tasks
Good communication between designers and web developers is crucial for the success of the entire project.
However, this requires a lot of red-lining, so that the specs such as spacing, margin, and similar elements are properly executed. If it weren’t for this process, developers would find it difficult to interpret the intended output of the design.
And all this takes a lot of time and energy. Not to mention that these repetitive, tedious tasks don’t allow designers to focus on their creative work
AI can come in handy by making it possible for designers to transform their design documents into code and the other way round easily. Neural networks enable them to turn their design mockups into HTML or CSS.
For example, certain tools, such as Sketch2Code, can be tasked with converting whiteboard sketches into working code effortlessly. All it takes is uploading an image of design, and Sketch2Code will generate an
Improving User Experience With Intelligent Chatbots
Chatbots are gathering momentum.
Although they have been around for quite a long time, the latest developments in AI have turned them from algorithms that leverage only pre-written scripts and answers to customers’ questions into machines that can genuinely engage website visitors.
Besides being available 24/7/365, unlike human customer support reps, these conversational chatbots offer much more than that. Namely, they are capable of helping website visitors solve any product or service issues and push them towards registering or making a purchase.
Their purpose is to personalize user interactions with a brand, and they do that by collecting and processing all the information during a contact with a particular customer. Thanks to big data analytics, these intelligent chatbots will interpret vast amounts of customer information and make sense of them, thus being able to take a tailored, customer-centric approach.
According to some studies, machines are expected to become more intelligent than humans by 2029, and this fact will completely change the way people interact with them.
There are numerous ways artificial intelligence affects web development, and these are just a couple of examples. It’s worth noting that in the future we’ll see an even greater impact of this technology on the entire IT landscape.
