Identifying AI Apps

Created 2026-05-14

Since the mainstream adoption of AI there's been a considerable increase in the number of visibly AI generated cross-stitch patterns on marketplaces such as Etsy.

Why is this bad? From a purely Stitcher perspective, it is highly likely that these patterns have not been tested at all, resulting in either a confetti mess or a completely different pattern altogether. It's essentially a scam product.

Unfortunately, it's not just patterns that are negatively affected. We're also seeing a rise in pattern generation apps, both from hobby developers and seemingly popular social media accounts.

With AI, the skill floor for creating an app has lowered dramatically. This write-up will hopefully better equip you in spotting what makes an AI app.

Main Features

Below are some real-life examples of common features found on AI generated cross-stitch apps.

  1. A variation of "Created with ❤" in the footer

    A cross-stitch website with 'Made with ❤ for makers' in the footer.

  2. The common mistake of heavily using em dashes (—)

    Some descriptions on a cross-stitch website that heavily use em dashes.

  3. Heavy use of pastel colours (especially backgrounds)

  4. Heavy use of emojis as icons

    You can highlight it like text to check if it's an emoji

    Some descriptions on a cross-stitch website that use emojis as icons.

  5. Rounded pill at top of main page

    A rounded pill with a short description of the website.

  6. References to AI apps in the source code

    In this example, the website includes assets on the "Lovable" domain. This is a well known vibe coding app.

    To check the source code of a website type this in your browser's url bar: "view-source:https://example-website.com".

    A website referencing Lovable, a vibe coding app.

  7. Created since AI went mainstream

    You can check how long the website has been around by looking at the Whois information on the domain.

    This can be done at lookup.icann.org.

    The below image compares a known AI generated cross-stitch website with ClickStitch.

    A website referencing Lovable, a vibe coding app.

Example AI generated website:

Colourful translucent boxes are a common theme choice. You'll also notice quite a few of the above examples are featured in this screenshot.

A website referencing Lovable, a vibe coding app.

(Not a cross-stitch website, but a good example of an AI generated website)

ClickStitch has not been created nor is maintained using AI. You can track cross-stitch progress for free, check out the links in the sidebar!