As AI technology continues to advance and enhance human capabilities, WordPress contributors are exploring ways to integrate AI into the platform. Failure to do so could potentially lead to AI-powered website creation becoming a threat to WordPress’s existence. To address this issue, a new discussion on the Core developer’s blog is asking how WordPress can better enable AI innovation.
WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg is optimistic about the prospect of integrating AI into open source development. He believes that AI and open source are the two mega-trends of the next 30 years and that they complement each other. Mullenweg encourages WordPress professionals to consider how AI and open source can work together.
StellarWP-sponsored contributor Matt Cromwell suggests that AI innovation is better left to plugin developers. He believes that all AI options currently require integration with a third-party system, making it plugin territory. Bluehost-sponsored contributor Jonathan Desrosiers clarifies that the intention of the discussion is to “fuel discussion around what AI looks like in the WordPress ecosystem and how that may be blocked currently.”
Rob Glidden proposes that contributors consider having AI chatbots as a user type for the future collaboration workflow inside WordPress. He suggests that AI chatbots could be assigned and perform tasks within a workflow, similar to human users.
CodeWP-sponsored contributor James LePage echoes Cromwell’s concerns that focusing too much on integrating AI might make WordPress less competitive on the features that have already been identified for Gutenberg’s Phase 3 roadmap. LePage believes that a strong focus on the existing Phase 3 roadmap items would make WordPress more valuable and competitive to other tools out there.
Although WordPress contributors are currently spread thin across the project’s current Gutenberg roadmap of goals and improvements, they cannot ignore the impact of new technology on their industry. The WordPress community has built a robust plugin ecosystem, but leaving it all to third-party integrations may not be enough to keep the software relevant in the coming years. Ensuring that WordPress is compatible with the future of AI-powered innovation is critical if contributors want the platform to continue to be the best CMS and website builder available on the web.
