AI-Assisted Rebuilds Risk Overlooking Hidden Website Capability, Warns Dan Frost
AI-powered website rebuilds may promise speed, but they can also obscure the operational complexity embedded in mature platforms, according to Dan Frost, Managing Director at Adaptive.
Drawing on years of onboarding established Drupal systems, Frost argues that beyond visible pages and templates sit integrations, automations, reporting logic, access controls, and governance workflows that have evolved through sustained use. Because these capabilities function reliably, organisations often forget they exist until a rebuild strips them away.
While acknowledging that AI-assisted tools are valuable for prototyping and smaller projects, he cautions that replacing a mature platform requires first surfacing and documenting the institutional knowledge embedded within it. Speed, he suggests, must be matched by structured auditing and governance, ensuring that rebuilding does not quietly erode the capabilities organisations depend on.

