Lately I have been getting a lot of comments about my use of AI. Some kind and curious, quite a few a good deal less so. And I do understand it, honestly I do. AI is a big, loaded subject, and there are real worries tangled up in it. So rather than fire back in the comments every single time, I thought I would sit down and tell you the whole truth in one place: where a bit of AI helps me, where it absolutely does not, and why none of it changes the thing that matters most.
A fairly average week, then.
First, the bit that matters most
Every single collar, lead, halter and browband is handmade by me. By hand, one at a time, at my own bench. That has never changed, and it never will. When you see a photograph of a product on my site, it is a real photograph of a real, handmade piece, the actual thing that will arrive at your door. AI does not make anything I sell. It could not if it tried. The craft is entirely mine.
So where does AI actually come in?
Honestly, in the parts of running a business that have nothing to do with making things and everything to do with staying afloat on my own.
With my words. I am a maker, not a marketer, and being found online these days is almost a full-time job in itself. So I use AI as a writing helper, to draft and tidy blog posts, product descriptions and emails, so my gear actually reaches the people searching for it. But the voice, the knowledge and the stories are always mine. Every piece is written in my own words, reviewed and rewritten by me, and grounded in what I genuinely know about my craft. AI helps me keep up. It does not put words in my mouth.
With the odd cartoon. Sometimes a post just wants a fun little drawing rather than a photo, so I use AI to help make illustrations and characters. They are always, obviously drawings, never dressed up to look like a real product, and never a stand-in for one. Real products are always shown in real photos. It also lets me add a bit of colour and character without putting myself in front of the camera every time.
With a couple of things in my photos. The product is always the real, handmade piece. But I do sometimes change the background, mostly so nobody can work out where I live and my home stays private, and because a clean backdrop lets the colours sing. And because I offer well over 300,000 colour combinations, I physically cannot make and photograph every single one, so now and then I will recolour the rope or BioThane in a photo to show you an option. Only ever the colour changes, never the build, and if you would like to see the genuine shade before you buy, just ask and I will send you a real photo of the actual material there and then.
And with the unglamorous back-office bits. Making sense of my sales figures and stock, tidying spreadsheets, keeping the website healthy, and working out where best to spend my very limited time. The things that keep a business ticking but never touch the products themselves. And never anything careless with your details, my own behind-the-scenes reporting is deliberately set up to use no more than a first name.
The thing people keep getting wrong
Here is the part that stings a little, so I want to be really honest about it. The worry I hear most is that using AI takes work away from real, creative people. And I understand why that matters to people, I do. But here is my actual reality. I am one person. I hand-make everything myself, I am raising two children, and I am running this whole business alone while trying to make ends meet. I do not have the money to hire a marketer, a copywriter, a photographer or an admin team. The only person AI is standing in for is the assistant I could never have afforded to employ in the first place. It is not taking a job from anyone. If anything, it is part of the reason a tiny handmade business like mine can survive at all.
Doing the monthly maths. You can probably see where the marketing budget went.
The only person AI is taking a job from is me, and I could never have afforded to hire her anyway.
Why I am telling you all this
Because I would far rather be open than leave you wondering. AI is everywhere now, and the platforms have started putting a little label on anything it has touched, even a tidied sentence or a swapped-out background, which makes it look far more dramatic than it actually is. So I wanted you to have the full picture from me, in plain English. You deserve to know exactly what is real, which is everything that matters, and where a bit of help quietly creeps in, which is the boring, behind-the-scenes stuff. If you would like the longer, formal version, it has lived on my How I Use AI page for a good while now. I have nothing to hide.
Every product is handmade by me, every real photo is genuine, every word is written and rewritten in my own voice, and I stand behind every single thing that goes out under my name. Thank you for supporting a small, handmade business. It means more than you know.