Lab · 1
Can AI replace a CMS?
Dr. Paul tested what happened when AI took over much of the traditional website production workflow.
Hypothesis
AI can eliminate much of the production layer when given the right constraints.
Finding
Execution wasn’t the constraint. Judgment was — this page is itself the evidence.
Single-subject test, concluded — not a controlled study. Read this as one practitioner’s evidence, not a general claim.
Method
Brief
What should exist, and why.
AI
Built it — code, copy, and design.
Human judgment
Reviewed, edited, decided what shipped.
Live
Deployed automatically, in about a minute.
Tech
The experiment
The artifact isn’t a writeup — it’s this site, live right now. Every page was produced through the pipeline above.
AI handled
- Code
- Iteration
- Troubleshooting
- Deployment
Dr. Paul handled
- Direction
- Judgment
- Taste
- Final decisions
Worked: AI handled the implementation surprisingly well.
Constraint: Context mattered — without enough of it, AI drifted.
Finding
Execution wasn’t the constraint.
Judgment was.
AI can quickly build what’s requested. The harder question is whether it’s worth building.
Yes — AI can replace a CMS. What made that possible wasn’t the tooling; it was reimagining the ways of working around AI from the start.
Implication
AI doesn’t replace the marketer. It changes where the marketer adds value.
Don’t just add AI to the workflow. Redesign the workflow around AI.
Next Question · 2
If AI replaced the CMS, what stops the site from drifting?
Replacing the CMS turned out to be the easy part. A CMS also quietly keeps a site consistent — something still has to do that job now that it’s gone.
Read Experiment 2 →