How to fix an AI-generated website

To fix an AI-generated website: rewrite the hero and tagline, replace stock imagery with real photography or bespoke illustration, tighten the typography to a specific hierarchy, remove the obvious AI design tropes (gradient blobs, three-column feature strips, generic testimonial cards), and repoint the site around one clear outcome. Most of the work is judgement, not craft.

You built the first version in Framer AI, Lovable, or Bolt. It works. It also feels generic and does not convert. Here is what to actually change, in order.

Step 1: rewrite the hero

The hero is 60% of the value on any marketing site. If yours has a bland tagline, an unspecific subheading, and a stock hero image, none of the rest matters yet. Do this first.

• Tagline: one sentence that says what specifically you sell to whom, and why they pick you over the obvious alternative
• Subheading: the concrete outcome your buyer gets, not a rephrasing of the tagline
• Hero image or video: something from your actual world, not stock. Screenshot of the real product. Photo of the real founder. Not another abstract gradient.

Step 2: kill the obvious AI tropes

Every AI-generated site has some of these. Remove:

• Abstract gradient blob backgrounds
• The "trusted by" logo strip when you have three clients
• Generic three-column feature card grid
• Stock testimonials from "Jane, Marketing Director"
• The dark-mode toggle nobody uses
• A 50-item FAQ where 40 items should be deleted

Step 3: tighten the typography

Typography does more than any other single element to make a site feel expensive or cheap. Pick two typefaces total. Set clear sizes for h1, h2, h3, body, small. Ruthlessly delete any font weights you are not using. If you cannot articulate why a heading is 32px instead of 40px, revisit the whole scale.

Step 4: real imagery or none

If you cannot afford proper photography or illustration, use no imagery. A well-typeset site with no images looks intentional. A site with three stock photos looks cheap. This is the counterintuitive part most founders miss.

Step 5: repoint the site around one outcome

The AI probably built you a site that tries to serve everyone. Pick the single outcome that matters most (demo booking, download, purchase, contact) and remove or demote everything that does not lead to it. If your homepage has five different calls to action, you have four too many.

When to hire a studio instead

If steps 1 to 5 feel like too much work, or the site is in the conversion path for enterprise buyers, or the brand needs to look expensive to justify your pricing, hire a studio to do the AI-to-real transition in one go. Cost: £8,000 to £25,000 depending on scope.

See also: When AI website builders fail, Migrating from an AI-built site to a real one, Why your website feels cheap.