How AI Fits Into What We Make

Being straight about this matters. Here's exactly where AI is part of InkSmithery, where it isn't, and why we've written it out like this.

Where AI is used

Design generation

Every piece in the shop starts as an AI-generated image, produced by a pipeline I built and direct. I set the aesthetic — mid-century modern, geometric, palette-controlled, single-subject where possible — then run candidates through generation. Each result is reviewed by hand: anything that doesn't earn its place gets sent back. The ones that make it are colour-matched against their production print before going live.

The models we use are OpenAI's image family (currently gpt-image-2). The creative direction — palette, subject, composition, style — is entirely mine.

Product photography / lifestyle mockups

The primary product photos on each listing page come from our production partner Printful — these are their standard mockup images. Some of the additional lifestyle scenes on Instagram (framed prints on real-looking walls, mugs on desks) are AI-composited: the print is real, the room around it is generated. We use them because commissioning photography for every single design isn't realistic for a one-person shop. When a scene is AI-generated we intend to keep that clear in the caption.

Marketing copy

Product descriptions, seasonal keyword phrases, and some Instagram captions are drafted with LLM assistance and then edited by hand. The voice, framing, and any factual claim is mine.

Tips articles

The articles at /tips are AI-drafted from editorial direction I've set (topics, angle, tone). They're intended as practical guidance on things like caring for a ceramic mug or hanging a canvas without cracking the wall. I read each one before it publishes.

FAQ answer feature

The "ask a question" box on our FAQ page uses an LLM answering from our own FAQ text as ground truth. Each answer is labelled "AI-generated answer" and points back to the binding policies (Terms, Privacy, Shipping, Returns) for anything material.

Instagram "Jenny" curator reels

Some of our Instagram reels feature a narrator called Jenny — an AI-generated presenter with an AI-generated voice, delivering scripts written under editorial direction from me. Jenny isn't a real employee; she's a synthetic curator character built to give the reels a consistent voice. We'll caption these clearly.

Where AI is NOT used

• The final quality bar. I look at every design before it becomes available. If it doesn't earn a place, it doesn't ship.
• Customer emails. When you email orders@inksmithery.com, a person (me) reads and replies. No auto-responder writing on my behalf.
• Order fulfilment. Orders flow to Printful via a deterministic pipeline. No AI is making decisions about what to print, where to ship it, or what to refund.
• Refund and returns decisions. These are handled by me, case by case.
• Anything about you. We don't run AI over your browsing behaviour, purchase history, or personal data. See our Privacy Policy for the full stance — short version: no trackers, no retargeting, no profiling.

Why we're telling you this

Two reasons.

The first is the EU AI Act's transparency provisions (Article 50), which take effect in August 2026. They require honesty about synthetic media and about interacting with AI systems. This page discharges that.

The second reason is that we'd rather tell you plainly than have you find out sideways. A lot of independent shops in 2026 are using AI in similar ways and quietly implying they aren't. That doesn't sit right. If we're going to run a small honest shop, "small honest" has to mean this too.

Last updated: 6 September 2026. If any of this changes materially, we'll update the page and note it here.