Deterministic or freeform: two ways AI tools generate output
Some generators let the model produce everything; others let it fill slots in a fixed structure. The choice decides how often output breaks.
Topic
AI tools
12 articles.
A one-page site in ten minutes: what the workflow really looks like
Timed, step by step: from a CV and a photo to a live one-page site, including the parts the marketing pages leave out.
CV-to-website tools compared on one résumé
Four tools that turn a CV into a web page, given the same résumé. What each parser understood, invented, or silently dropped.
AI website generators, tested on the same brief
We gave six AI website generators one brief and counted the minutes to something publishable. Most needed a rebuild. Two did not.
Use AI to edit, not to draft
A working method: write the bad first draft yourself, then use the model on the pass where it is genuinely better than you are.
AI image generators for people who are not designers
Four image generators tested on the images real work needs: a header, an illustration, a headshot background and a diagram. One category failed.
AI slide deck generators tested on a real presentation
Four deck generators given the same content brief. All produced slides; only one produced a deck we could stand in front of.
AI meeting notes tools tested on meetings that mattered
Four AI notetakers across six weeks of real meetings. Summary quality varied less than the trust and consent problems they created.
AI transcription tools compared on difficult audio
Five transcription tools on accented speech, crosstalk and bad microphones. Accuracy claims collapse the moment the audio is real.
AI writing tools tested on work we had to ship
Five AI writing tools used on real deliverables for a fortnight each. Which produced text we kept, and which produced text we rewrote.
AI writing in real work, not in demos
Where AI writing tools earn their place in actual working documents, where they cost more time than they save, and how to tell in advance.
AI generators that produce something you can actually use
Most AI generators produce a draft you then rebuild by hand. A framework for telling the useful ones from the demos, with the tools that pass.