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Smart Design + Smart Code

How We Use AI: Understanding AI In Digital Solutions

The field of artificial intelligence has evolved significantly since its academic beginnings in the 1950s. What started as hypotheses about how computers might learn and solve problems has grown into practical tools that most of us use daily — often without realizing it.

Many of these AI applications have been quietly improving our digital experiences for years, while others represent more recent developments that are transforming how we approach digital design and development. We believe in being transparent about how we use these tools to serve you better, which is why we’ve created this comprehensive overview of AI usage in our work.

AI That Has Been Part of Daily Life for Years

We don’t seek your approval for these uses of AI due to their ubiquity.

  • Autocomplete, autocorrect, and autocapitalize
  • Grammar checkers
  • Email spam filters
  • Product and content recommendation systems
  • Search engines (search engines have used AI for over a decade)
  • Marketing personalization products and services like CDPs (customer data platform)
  • Speech recognition (used in speech-to-text and voice assistants)
  • Visual recognition (used to recognize items in images and for facial recognition)
  • Handwriting recognition (used in handwriting-to-text, document digitization, check processing, postal and parcel delivery services)
  • Predictive models that help forecast everything from stock prices to the weather
  • Assistants like Siri
  • Chatbot technology that predates the 2020s introduction of modern AI like OpenAI’s ChatGPT

Modern AI Use That We Don’t Ask Your Approval For

  • Removing image backgrounds
  • Removing unwanted objects from images
  • Improving the quality of low-resolution images
  • Brainstorming
  • Assistance with proofreading (all proposed changes are reviewed by a human proofreader)
  • Assistance with creating prototypes
  • Assistance with creating concept designs that help you pick a design direction
  • Code autocomplete
  • Creating test data for software development
  • Creating placeholder content for designs or software development
  • Extracting information from free-form text and placing it in a structured data format like CSV or JSON
  • Analyzing sentiment from customer feedback
  • Assistance with creating research plans
  • Taking notes and summarizing long documents
  • Our own internal administrative, project management, and support ticket system use

Modern AI Use That We Ask Your Approval For

  • Generating images or video that will be used in the final design or product
  • Generating code that will be used in the final website or software
  • Generating copy that will be used in the final deliverable
  • 2020s AI technology that will be integrated with your website or other software product, including LLM-powered chatbots

Modern AI Use We Won’t Agree To

  • Generating work that extends, alters, or creates derivative of work you don’t have appropriate usage rights to
  • Generating code without checking for and fixing security vulnerabilities and other problems that could make it unsafe
  • AI use that violates any platform or other party’s terms of service, acceptable use policy, or other terms
  • Aiding you in attempting to pass off AI generated work that isn’t eligible for copyright or trademark protection as being eligible for such
  • Transferring “copyright” ownership to AI generated work that isn’t eligible for copyright protection (US copyright laws require sufficient levels of human authorship for copyright eligibility)
  • Anything illegal that wasn’t already listed
  • Any other usage we don’t approve on a case-by-case basis and in our sole discretion

Looking to the Future

Our approach to AI reflects our broader commitment to combining technical excellence with thoughtful design. We evaluate each AI tool we use, selecting and implementing them to enhance, not replace, human abilities. For certain applications, particularly those that directly affect your final deliverables, we believe in maintaining clear communication and seeking your approval before proceeding.

We view AI as just one of many tools in our arsenal, alongside human creativity and expertise. Our goal remains unchanged: to help you succeed in the digital landscape while maintaining the trust you’ve placed in us as your digital partner.

By being transparent about our AI usage, we aim to demystify these tools and ensure you understand how they contribute to delivering the high-quality solutions you expect. As AI continues to evolve, we remain committed to evaluating and implementing these tools with your best interests at the forefront of our decisions.

This article does not constitute a legally binding agreement. Nothing in this article should be construed as legal advice. You are advised to consult a legal professional with appropriate credentials in intellectual property law for issues regarding AI and IP.