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

Slogans

The lines on our designs are drafted in batches by AI writing models (from Anthropic and DeepSeek), working to a brief I've set for each group of people we make things for. Most drafts don't survive: I read every one and only the ones that make me laugh go forward. Every line that goes on sale is also checked against the UK, EU and US trade mark registers first.

Drawings

Each drawing is made by an AI image model (Qwen-Image), guided by a small style model trained on our own house line-art style so the range looks like one hand drew it. A second AI checks that the drawing actually shows the joke, and redraws it if not. The lettering is never drawn by AI: it's set in real fonts by our own code, so it's always spelled right and prints crisply. I look at every finished design and approve it, send it back, or drop it.

Product pictures

The mug and t-shirt photos come from our production partner Printful's standard mockups, with the actual design on them. The print pictures and close-ups are put together by our own code from the real print file. They show the product as it will be printed; there are no AI-generated rooms or models.

Product text

Titles and descriptions are drafted by AI from the design and checked at the same review, where I can rewrite them.

Tips articles

The articles at /tips are written by AI from topics and rules I've set: practical advice for people buying gifts, no sales pitch, and no invented personal stories. They publish automatically twice a week. If you spot something wrong, tell us and it gets fixed.

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 and Pinterest

Our reels are short animations of the designs and products, made by our own code. The background music is AI-generated. Pins use the same product pictures as the shop.

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: advertising cookies only with your consent, your data is never sold, your name and address never go to advertisers, and your email only goes to them scrambled (hashed), with your consent, when you order.

Why we're telling you this

Two reasons.

The first is the EU AI Act's transparency provisions (Article 50), in force since August 2026, which ask for honesty about AI-generated content and about interacting with AI systems.

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: 3 November 2026. If any of this changes materially, we'll update the page and note it here.