First published: Wednesday 28th January 2026
Last updated: Wednesday 28th January 2026
Hey reader – Aime here, founder of Studio Cotton.
I’m publishing this AI policy that’s not really a policy – maybe a disclosure? – and I’m writing it in the first person because I’m genuinely not sure what to put. So by approaching this task more like a blog post, I’m hoping the words come easier.
Or ya know what would make the words come event easier? Using AI; amirite?
Except I would never ever use AI to generate content and put it under my name, which leads me nicely into this AI-not-quite-a-policy.
The short version
We do not use AI to generate creative work, communication, or content. We keep all other AI uses to a minimum.
What do we mean by AI?
Fluff a duck, I’m still not quite sure what counts as AI and what doesn’t.
A couple of nights ago I was playing Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (with Yuri’s Revenge) – a computer game from 2001 that still slaps* – and a game where I have to decide if I fancy setting my 7 enemies “AI” to ‘Easy’, so I can challenge myself to win a war without losing a single infantry fella OR going for ‘Brutal’ and building my epic battalion of battle fortresses.
That’s not super important to this story though, but I bet you won’t be able to find any other website with an RA2-themed section in their policies.
Anyway, for the purposes of this disclosure, when I’m referring to AI, I mean those based on LLMs (or Large Language Models). Or to put it in other words – stuff like ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, Claude et al.
*I’ve never used “slaps” before in my life, but I think I might roll with it from now on.
Why we’re disclosing our AI use
As a small independent website design company, we sit in a bit of a 3-way crossroads of industries with generally quite disparate opinions and adoptions of AI.
Obviously, the tech industry is obsessed with AI. Obsessed. Can’t stop loving it.
The design industry? Understandable reluctance and commonly, disdain. After all, AI is literally trained on decades of designers’ ideas, talents, and labour – and nobody got to consent and nobody got compensated.
And then there’s the small business world, where founders like me are CONSTANTLY barraged with emails, ads, promotions, and content telling us how much richer and more popular we’ll be if we just use this AI or that AI or his magic prompt or her magic AI course.
And because there are so many opinions on AI and so many opinions on people and organisations that use AI, I wanted to share how we use AI here at Studio Cotton.
Ways we never plan on using AI
- To generate:
- ideas;
- designs;
- websites;
- photography;
- illustrations;
- videography;
- our blogs;
- client blogs;
- our content;
- my content;
- client content;
- marketing emails;
- event descriptions;
- regular emails
- Proofreading
- Copy/content editing
- To process any personal data
- either ours or our clients’
- As a virtual agent
Ways we regularly use AI
- Automated meeting summaries & transcriptions
Ways we might use AI (but aren’t currently)
- Very simple code writing and testing/editing
- We’ve done a bit of experimenting but it wasn’t that useful or up to our standards, but I don’t want to rule it out
Ways we occasionally use AI
- Removing stuff from images using generative fill functions
- Expanding blank areas of images using generative expand functions
- To provide example copy for clients when requested
- Our preference will always be a combo of my own suggestions and trusty ol’ lorem ipsum
- AI-powered search, e.g. Google’s AI mode
- Rubber ducking (using an LLM as a soundboard)
- This one is very rare
- To find instructions and formulas
- Like how to use a specific system or Google Sheets shortcut
We’re probably using AI in some ways and just don’t know
We rely on a lot of technologies and apps to build our websites and run Studio Cotton and – as I’m sure you’ve experienced – every single one ’em seems to come packed with great new AI features.
And no matter how much we don’t wanna use them or see them, AI features seem to pop up faster than I can be bothered to Google how to turn them off. Also when I do turn them off, it’s usually Google’s AI Overview that’s told me how to do it.
I just wanted to add this in to say that I’m sure I’m already using AI in some ways without being conscious of it, and I’m also sure that some tasks my team and I do now (happily AI-free) will in the future become impossible without AI.
And ya know what, I’m sure that one day I’ll accidentally post an AI-generated image that I downloaded from a previously trustworthy stock image website. And I’m sure someone could think that’s hypocritical, but I’m just trying my best.
