3 Practical Ways I Use AI

For a long time, I avoided writing anything about AI.

Not because I wasn’t using it, but because it felt like every conversation online was either extreme hype or extreme skepticism. I didn’t want to add to the noise.

But over the past two years, AI has quietly become part of my daily workflow in a way that has genuinely improved how I deliver work to clients.

Three years ago, when I started Maguire Web Solutions, none of this existed in the way it does today. Most of what I knew about building websites, solving technical problems, and running projects came from learning things the hard way.

I was fortunate in a strange way to grow up in a generation where things didn’t “just work.” If something broke, you had to dig in and figure out why. If you didn’t know how to do something, you read documentation, experimented, broke things, and eventually (hopefully) solved it.

We all come with our strengths and weaknesses. I know mine.

For years, working as a solo freelancer sometimes meant saying “no” when something was just enough outside my scope. But lately I’ve started approaching those moments a little differently.

Instead of immediately passing on the opportunity, I now ask myself:

With a little AI support, can I learn something new and deliver something of quality?

Oftentimes, the answer has been yes.

Most of what I’ve been reading about AI lately focuses on the big-picture implications: business transformation, automation, and how entire industries may change.

Those conversations are interesting, but I thought it might be refreshing to share something more practical. In this article, I’ll walk through a few real examples of how I’m already using AI in my day-to-day freelance work.

‍

1. The Once “Too Techy” Things

One of the biggest advantages AI has brought to my work is helping me move faster through technical problems that used to feel intimidating.

Recently I was working on a website that had multiple issues happening at once. The site had been hacked with malware, and on top of that there were severe caching conflicts and plugin issues that were breaking parts of the site.

Anyone who has worked inside WordPress knows that once caching layers, plugins, and hosting environments start interacting incorrectly, diagnosing the problem can become a maze.

And when a situation like this happens, the client usually doesn’t care how you fix it. They just want their website back online as quickly as possible.

This is when I shift into “by any means possible” mode.

As a natural problem solver, I know that if I stay with the issue long enough, I’ll figure it out. AI has simply helped accelerate the research and debugging process.

Working through the problem step by step, I was able to clean up the hacked files and stabilize the site. But the bigger opportunity was realizing that the hosting environment itself was part of the issue.

Using AI alongside hosting documentation, I mapped out the safest way to migrate the site to a new hosting environment and resolve the caching conflicts at the same time.

The entire process, from investigation to migration, was completed in under six hours.

AI didn’t magically fix the problem. But it helped me move faster through the technical maze.

And the more I work through situations like this, the more comfortable I’ve become with technologies that once felt intimidating.

Learning, building, and debugging issues with languages like PHP and JavaScript are things I was once a novice at. Today, I’m far more comfortable working through them.

‍

2. Me to the Client: “This Is Where I Need You to Write It”

Another place AI has changed my workflow is in copywriting.

To be honest, writing has never been my strongest skill.

Even going back to school, I remember a clear pattern: I could get A’s in math without studying much, but English and writing always required real effort just to earn a B. I’ve always known where my strengths lie.

When I started building websites earlier in my career, I would typically deliver layouts filled with placeholder text that helped guide the client toward the type of content we would need for each section of the page, sometimes with a bit of Lorem Ipsum where appropriate.

The structure was there, but the messaging still had to come from the client.

Today that process has improved significantly.

For example, when designing a homepage, there’s usually a familiar structure guiding the experience. Something like:

• A Hero section explaining what the company does
• A short About section introducing the business
• A section highlighting key differentiators
• A breakdown of services
• A testimonial or client logo section
• A clear call to action

In the past I would design the layout and then say something like:

"This is where I’ll need you to write the content."

Now I can feed the business context, industry, and positioning into AI and after a few passthroughs I can generate a strong first draft of the messaging.

That draft isn’t the final version. But it gives the client something incredibly valuable: a starting point.

Instead of staring at a blank page wondering what to write, we now have ideas on the page that we can refine together.

The result is usually faster progress and stronger messaging.

‍

3. The Dreaded Repeated Work

The third way AI helps is simpler, but just as valuable.

It helps eliminate the dreaded repeated work.

This is usually what my internal thought process looks like now.

"I need to style a Gravity Form, but I’ve already written the CSS on this other website."

"Can I copy that code into AI, tell it what I need to alter, and get something back that’s about 90% there so I can make the final tweaks?"

Yes.

Okay… that just saved me an hour.

Or maybe it’s a proposal.

"I’ve already written a proposal for a 10-page Shopify B2C site."

"This new prospect wants something very similar and wants to start by the end of the week."

"Can I drop that proposal structure into AI, tweak the scope, and get a solid draft ready in an hour instead of three?"

Yes.

Let’s do that.

Or maybe I’m starting a new website and need to think through the layout.

"Instead of digging through dozens of themes for inspiration… can I brainstorm some UX section ideas with AI before I even open a design tool?"

Yes.

That gives me direction immediately.

None of this replaces the actual work.

But it removes the slow, repetitive parts that I’ve already done dozens of times.

Which means I can spend more of my time on the parts that actually matter: strategy and solving real problems for clients.

‍

Final Thoughts

I truly believe I’m fortunate to have started my career before AI truly existed.

Learning everything the hard way forced me to understand the fundamentals—how websites are built, how hosting environments work, how code behaves, and how all the pieces fit together.

Because of that, I never treat AI as something to blindly trust.

Whenever it gives me an answer, I’m constantly asking myself questions like:

Would I write code like this on my own?
Is this written in my voice and how I conduct business?
If I present this to a client, will it resonate on a human level?

If the answer is no to any of those questions, then the work isn’t finished.

Every single thing I deliver to a client needs to be something I stand behind with confidence.

I’m not using AI to cut corners. In fact, I’m doing just the opposite.

I’m using it to learn new things, challenge myself, and ultimately deliver better work for my clients.

Not by replacing experience—but by amplifying it.

As mentioned, these are just a few practical examples of how I’m using AI today as a tool in my workflow.

In a future article, I’ll go deeper into something I’ve been thinking about more and more: how AI is becoming a layer that sits on top of many parts of our work and decision-making.

‍