Should your website have an AI assistant in 2025? A practical, GDPR-safe plan for UK SMEs (Wix-ready)

Scott Conroy
Aug 22
2 min read

Meta title: AI Website Assistants for SMEs (2025): A Practical, GDPR-Safe GuideMeta description: UK-focused, step-by-step plan to add an AI assistant to your Wix or custom site in a day—covering benefits, tools, data prep, and GDPR basics.

Why now?

Consumer comfort with AI assistants keeps climbing — a recent study shows the UK is the most likely market to use brand chatbots (57%), with overall consumer likelihood at 54% and higher adoption among under-50s (Attest 2025 Consumer AI report). Google Search is also shifting toward AI Overviews that answer more complex questions directly in results; separate research finds users click fewer links when an AI summary appears (Pew Research, July 2025). Attest Google Help Pew Research Center

What an AI assistant can (and shouldn’t) do

Good fits

Instant answers from your FAQs, services, and policy pages
Lead capture (name, email, enquiry), booked calls, “request a quote”
Basic triage (sales vs. support), opening hours, simple status checks

Avoid asking it to

Give regulated/sensitive advice without human review
Process payments directly (unless using a vetted, compliant flow)
Store personal data without consent and clear retention rules

One-day setup plan (Wix or custom)

1) Define the job (30 minutes)Pick one primary goal: more qualified leads or lower support load. List 3–5 must-answer questions.

2) Gather a clean knowledge base (60 minutes)Home, Services, Pricing, About, FAQs, Returns/Refunds, Privacy/Terms + any approved PDFs. Keep it current.

3) Choose an approach (30–60 minutes)

Wix sites: Add Wix AI Site Chat or a vetted App Market chatbot (e.g. Propane Chat, ChatBot AI Assistant for Inbox). These connect quickly and let you restrict the bot to your content. Wix Help Centerwix.com +1
Custom sites: Embed a vendor widget or wire a lightweight chatbot to your CMS data via an AI API (with strict guardrails).

4) Guardrails & privacy (45 minutes)Restrict the bot to “allowed” URLs/PDFs; turn off vendor training on chat logs if possible; add a brief privacy note beside the launcher; set retention limits.

5) Lead capture & hand-off (30 minutes)When unsure, the bot should admit it and offer a human hand-off. During office hours, route to live chat or a simple web form.

6) Launch checklist (15 minutes)Mobile test, accessibility (focus states, labels), and performance (don’t block main render).

Metrics that matter

Leads/bookings from the assistant, containment rate (% solved without humans), CSAT, and time-to-answer (<3s first response).

Copy/paste rules for your bot

“If unsure, say you’re unsure and offer a human hand-off.”
“Never invent prices—link to /pricing.”
“For returns, summarise and link to /returns.”
“Collect name + email only for quotes or bookings.”

Pitfalls to dodge

Hallucinations: Keep sources small and authoritative; prefer bots that can show citations.
Over-automation: Surveys consistently show many customers still prefer humans for complex issues; design a clear “Talk to a human” path (example summary). No Jitter