WordPress in 2026 - CourtneyR.dev's 2nd Brain

WordPress in 2026 ![rw-book-cover](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YCU6LI0F-u8/maxresdefault.jpg) 🔗 **Source:** [WordPress in 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCU6LI0F-u8&t=4s) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: #wordpress #artificial-intelligence #cms #agentic-workflows #enterprise #seo #content-management > author: Human Made > source: YouTube > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCU6LI0F-u8 > date created: 2025-01-15 10:30 > > # 🏷️ Title: WordPress in 2026: The Future of Agentic CMS and AI-Powered Content Management >  ## 🧰 Action Inbox - [H1] Explore WordPress AI primitives implementation — MCP adapter, abilities API, workflows API #artificial-intelligence - [H2] Set up Accelerate plugin with abilities API for AI integration — enable in settings, connect to Claude #seo - [H3] Develop multilingual AI workflow for content translation and brand tone adaptation #content-management ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [[#📝 Summary]] - [[#📖 Main Content]] - [[#🗒️ Notes]] - [[#📚 References]] - [[#🗣️ Paraphrase]] - [[#📰 Newsletter]] - [[#✅ Action Items]] - [[#🧪 Hypotheses]] - [[#📊 Methodology]] - [[#❓ Questions]] - [[#🔮 Future Research]] - [[#💡 Implications]] - [[#🧠 Learning Styles Assessment]] - [[#📊 Accessibility Assessment]] - [[#🌍 DEIB Assessment]] - [[#✅ Logical Validity]] - [[#🛡️ DARVO Analysis]] - [[#🎯 Conclusion]] ### 🔗 References - [Human Made](https://humanmade.com/) - [WordPress Abilities API Documentation](https://developer.wordpress.org/) ## 📝 Summary - Human Made's WP26 event focused on WordPress's future with AI and agentic workflows in 2026 - WordPress is positioning itself with four key AI primitives: MCP adapter, abilities API, workflows API, and WP AI client - Enterprise AI budgets have graduated from experimental to production-ready with short ROI expectations - WordPress's open foundation gives it advantages over proprietary CMS solutions in AI implementation - Current WordPress installations can leverage sync patterns, block bindings, and AI capabilities immediately ## 📖 Main Content Human Made's Chief Growth Officer presented WordPress's strategic positioning for 2026, emphasizing how the platform is evolving into an "agentic CMS" powered by artificial intelligence. The presentation, delivered from Singapore during a martech conference, revealed insights from enterprise stakeholders about AI budget allocation and implementation expectations. The core argument centers on WordPress's foundational approach to AI integration versus proprietary competitors' point solutions. While vendors like Adobe Experience Manager, Sitecore, and Contentful ship finished AI products, WordPress provides open building blocks that enterprise teams can customize for specific requirements. WordPress's AI strategy revolves around four technical primitives: the MCP (Model Context Protocol) adapter for connecting agents to external APIs, the abilities API as an "agentic evolution of the REST API," the workflows API for chaining multiple abilities, and the WordPress AI client for running agents within WordPress installations. The presentation demonstrated practical applications through multilingual content workflows and self-optimization scenarios, showing how these primitives enable complex automated processes while maintaining full visibility and control. ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=0) — [H1] WP26 Event Introduction and AI Focus - Key idea: Second annual event focusing on WordPress's future direction in 2026 - Evidence: "This event is not a retrospective... but it's a focused honest conversation about where it is going right now in 2026" #### ⏱️ [03:45](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=225) — [H2] Enterprise AI Budget Evolution - Key idea: AI budgets have shifted from experimental to production-focused with short ROI expectations - Evidence: "The entire concept around AI budgets has really just graduated... now it's really about how do we get ROI in production" #### ⏱️ [06:30](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=390) — [H1] WordPress Content Layer Foundations - Key idea: Sync patterns and block bindings create programmatic content capabilities - Evidence: "Block bindings allow you to inject dynamic content into the design from your database... this scales to thousands of pages" #### ⏱️ [09:15](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=555) — [H1] Four WordPress AI Primitives Overview - Key idea: WordPress has four core AI components that will transform its future - Evidence: "WordPress has essentially four things... that together will change the future of WordPress" #### ⏱️ [10:30](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=630) — [H2] MCP Adapter Functionality - Key idea: MCP adapter enables agent connections to external APIs and data sources - Evidence: "The MCP adapter... allows your agent, your AI harness to connect to external APIs, data sources" #### ⏱️ [11:45](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=705) — [H2] Abilities API as Agentic REST Evolution - Key idea: Abilities API defines inputs, outputs, and permissions for agent capabilities - Evidence: "I sort of look at the abilities API as an agentic evolution of the REST API" #### ⏱️ [12:30](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=750) — [H2] Workflows API for Chained Operations - Key idea: Workflows API connects multiple abilities in sequences with agentic nodes - Evidence: "What that essentially allows you to do is connect multiple abilities in a sequence as well as having agentic nodes between them" #### ⏱️ [13:15](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=795) — [H3] WordPress AI Client for Internal Agents - Key idea: WP AI client enables running agents from within WordPress installations - Evidence: "You can run your agents from your own WordPress installation... that allows you to connect your own keys, connect your own models" #### ⏱️ [15:00](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=900) — [H1] Multilingual Content Workflow Example - Key idea: AI workflows can automate translation, brand tone adaptation, and SEO optimization - Evidence: "137 posts... need to be translated to German, French and Dutch... 411 posts that then need to be reviewed for brand tone" #### ⏱️ [18:30](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=1110) — [H2] Self-Optimization Workflow Demonstration - Key idea: Agents can identify high-traffic blocks, create variants, and automatically select winners - Evidence: "Identifying blocks that have a lot of traffic... potentially creating multiple variants... automatically select the winner" #### ⏱️ [21:00](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=1260) — [H1] WordPress vs Proprietary CMS Comparison - Key idea: WordPress builds foundational blocks while proprietary CMSs ship finished products - Evidence: "The difference is in the assembly... WordPress ships the building blocks for enterprise teams with very specific requirements" #### ⏱️ [24:15](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=1455) — [H2] Proprietary CMS Limitations - Key idea: Proprietary solutions limit model choice, increase costs, and reduce flexibility - Evidence: "They may enforce their own model... you don't have a choice of model, which I would personally struggle with" #### ⏱️ [26:45](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=1605) — [H1] WordPress Flexibility Advantages - Key idea: WordPress allows custom abilities, model selection, and full debugging visibility - Evidence: "WordPress gives you the ability to choose yours and that's a huge difference" #### ⏱️ [28:30](https://youtu.be/YCU6LI0F-u8?t=1710) — [H3] Getting Started Recommendation - Key idea: Begin with one ability focused on self-healing SEO audits - Evidence: "Just pick one ability to try and exploit... an agent just works through your website to augment your SEO" ## 📚 References - [WordPress Developer Documentation](https://developer.wordpress.org/) - [Accelerate Plugin Documentation](https://humanmade.com/) - [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - WordPress is evolving into an "agentic CMS" where AI agents can perform complex content operations through open APIs and structured workflows - Enterprise organizations are shifting AI investments from experimental projects to production systems with measurable ROI requirements within months - WordPress's foundational approach with four key primitives (MCP adapter, abilities API, workflows API, AI client) provides more flexibility than proprietary CMS point solutions ## 📰 Newsletter WordPress is positioning itself as the leading platform for AI-powered content management in 2026. With four new technical primitives now available or coming soon, WordPress sites can implement sophisticated AI workflows that rival expensive proprietary solutions. Key developments include the abilities API (already released) that lets AI agents interact with WordPress data, and upcoming workflows API for chaining complex operations. Real-world applications include automated multilingual content creation, self-optimizing A/B testing, and intelligent SEO auditing. Unlike proprietary competitors that lock you into specific AI models and workflows, WordPress's open approach lets you choose your own AI providers, customize workflows, and maintain full control over your implementation. Resources: [Learn WordPress](https://learn.wordpress.org/), [Developer Docs](https://developer.wordpress.org/), [WP-CLI](https://wp-cli.org/) ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Developer advocacy: Create tutorials for WordPress AI primitives implementation, showcase enterprise use cases - Education: Develop workshop curriculum on agentic workflows, abilities API integration - Developer experience: Improve documentation for MCP adapter setup, AI client configuration - Developer marketing: Position WordPress AI advantages over proprietary CMS solutions - Community management: Foster AI plugin ecosystem, coordinate with Yoast and other plugin developers #### WordPress - Core: Prioritize workflows API completion, ensure AI client stability - Core AI: Establish model evaluation standards, create governance frameworks for AI capabilities - Documentation: Create comprehensive guides for abilities API, agentic workflow patterns - Community: Support AI-focused WordCamps, enable developer collaboration on AI plugins ## 🧪 Hypotheses - WordPress's open AI primitives will outpace proprietary CMS AI features within 12 months due to ecosystem participation - Enterprise adoption of WordPress AI workflows will accelerate as abilities API reaches plugin ecosystem maturity - Self-healing content optimization will become a standard WordPress capability by end of 2026 - Multi-model AI strategies will favor WordPress over single-vendor proprietary solutions ### 📊 Methodology - Track plugin ecosystem adoption of abilities API integration - Measure enterprise WordPress AI implementation ROI compared to proprietary alternatives - Monitor WordPress market share in AI-first content management scenarios ### ❓ Questions - How will WordPress handle AI governance and content provenance at scale? - What safeguards exist for autonomous content modification workflows? - How will smaller WordPress sites access enterprise-grade AI capabilities? ### 🔮 Future Research - WordPress AI workflow security frameworks and audit requirements - Integration patterns between WordPress abilities API and major AI platforms - Performance optimization strategies for AI-heavy WordPress installations ### 💡 Implications - Practice: WordPress developers need to learn agentic workflow design and AI model integration - Policy: Organizations require new governance frameworks for autonomous content operations - Security: AI-powered WordPress sites need enhanced monitoring and audit trails - Education: WordPress training programs must incorporate AI workflow development - Funding: AI-capable WordPress development requires investment in model access and infrastructure ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment Reading level estimate: 12th grade (technical content with domain-specific terminology) #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: Workflow diagrams showing AI primitive interactions, architecture slides - Improve: Add visual comparisons of proprietary vs open source approaches, data flow charts #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: Live presentation format with Q&A discussion - Improve: Provide audio-only version, add spoken explanations of technical concepts #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: Clear definitions of technical terms (MCP, abilities API), concrete examples - Improve: Add glossary, provide analogies for complex AI concepts #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: Step-by-step workflow examples, hands-on implementation guidance - Improve: Create interactive tutorials, provide sandbox environments for testing #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: Structured comparison tables, clear cause-effect relationships in AI workflows - Improve: Add decision trees for choosing AI approaches, quantitative ROI models #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: Q&A session, community event format - Improve: Add discussion forums, collaborative implementation guides #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: Self-paced video content, downloadable resources - Improve: Provide written transcripts, self-assessment tools #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: Ecosystem thinking about WordPress plugin interactions - Improve: Explore sustainability implications of AI-powered content management ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: Video has spoken content, structured presentation format - Improve: Provide detailed slide descriptions, transcript with heading structure #### Keyboard navigation - Present: Standard video controls available - Improve: Ensure all interactive elements are keyboard accessible #### Contrast and readability - Present: Professional presentation design - Improve: Verify slide text meets contrast requirements, provide high-contrast alternatives #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: Video format scales with player - Improve: Ensure transcript text is resizable, provide mobile-optimized viewing #### Media and captions - Present: Full transcript available - Improve: Add professional captions to video, provide downloadable transcript #### Forms and interactions - Present: Basic Q&A interaction - Improve: Ensure chat and Q&A tools are accessible, provide alternative submission methods ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: Singapore-based presentation with global perspective - Improve: Include examples from diverse regions, acknowledge different implementation contexts #### Inclusive language - Present: Professional technical language, gender-neutral terms - Improve: Define technical jargon more clearly, avoid assumptions about technical background #### Neurodiversity support - Present: Structured presentation with clear sections - Improve: Add content warnings for rapid technical changes, provide processing time indicators #### Representation - Present: Technical focus with enterprise perspective - Improve: Include voices from different organization sizes, diverse implementation scenarios #### Psychological safety - Present: Professional, respectful presentation tone - Improve: Acknowledge different comfort levels with AI adoption, provide gradual implementation paths ### ✅ Logical Validity #### Strong reasoning - Deductive strength: WordPress primitives → flexible AI implementation (strong logical connection) - Inductive strength: Singapore enterprise feedback → global AI budget trends (limited sample size) - Causal reasoning: Open architecture → faster innovation (plausible but unproven) - Analogical strength: Abilities API as "agentic REST API" (helpful but imperfect analogy) #### Fallacies - Appeal to novelty: Assumption that newer AI approaches are automatically better, needs cost-benefit analysis - False dilemma: Oversimplified proprietary vs open source comparison, hybrid approaches exist #### Tone of voice - Overall tone: Professional, enthusiastic, technically confident with appropriate caveats about emerging technology ### 🛡️ DARVO Analysis - Deny: No defensive patterns detected - Attack: No attacks on critics identified - Reverse victim/offender: No victimization narratives present - Emotional cues and rhetoric: Enthusiastic but professional tone focused on technical capabilities ## 🎯 Conclusion WordPress is strategically positioning itself for an AI-powered future through foundational primitives rather than point solutions. The platform's open architecture approach provides enterprises with flexibility and control that proprietary competitors cannot match. Current WordPress installations can immediately begin leveraging these capabilities, with the most significant opportunities in automated content workflows and self-optimizing systems. Success will depend on ecosystem adoption of the abilities API and development of robust governance frameworks for autonomous content operations. ## 🧱 Refactor Appendix ### 📚 Literature Split Pad ### [H1] WordPress AI primitives enable flexible enterprise implementation > [!quote] [WordPress in 2026](https://youtu.be/YCU6L --- ## Full Transcript [00:06] Hello everyone and uh welcome. We are [00:10] live from WP26 [00:13] most recent uh humanmade event. Um thank [00:17] you so much for being here today [00:19] wherever in the world you're uh joining [00:23] from. Um my name is Petia and it's my [00:26] absolute pleasure to be your host for [00:28] today. We're going to go through all the [00:30] sessions together. Um, this is the [00:33] second year we're staging uh this event [00:36] and last year was really really good. [00:39] Um, it was a blast, but this year's [00:42] lineup I think might be one of the best [00:44] that we've ever put together at the [00:46] humanmade event. So, I'm really excited [00:48] for you to be meeting uh everybody. So, [00:52] what is this event about? Um, this event [00:56] is not a retrospective. It's uh um also [01:00] not a celebration of where WordPress has [01:02] been, but it's a focused honest [01:05] conversation about where it is going [01:08] right now in 2026 and what that means [01:10] for the teams and organizations building [01:13] on the platform every day. So we're [01:17] living as you all know in unprecedented [01:20] really volatile times both in our jobs [01:23] in tech and in a wider sense in the [01:26] world and with what's happening [01:28] everywhere. Things are uncertain and [01:31] they're changing very quickly. Um it's [01:36] exciting to an extent but also quite [01:38] overwhelming isn't it? So today we're [01:42] going to lean into both sides of all of [01:46] this change. There are sessions designed [01:49] to paint a vision of where we're headed [01:52] and there are sessions designed to offer [01:54] guidance and advice about how to react [01:56] and plan for the future. Also fair [02:00] warning, [02:02] we're going to be discussing everything [02:05] in the context of artificial [02:08] intelligence. There are going to be [02:09] quite a lot of discussions. If you're [02:11] here and hoping for not another AI [02:15] discussion topics, you might be a little [02:17] bit disappointed, but I really hope [02:19] you're not going to be. Um, okay. So, a [02:22] few themes for today. Um, [02:25] what are we going to be focusing on? The [02:27] agentic CMS and some amazing new ways of [02:31] using WordPress. It's definitely one [02:32] theme. uh the new frontier of search and [02:37] how we all need to adapt with AI [02:39] transforming how people discover [02:41] content. Um another big topic is going [02:44] to be accessibility and how [02:46] accessibility is affected by change and [02:49] uh how the wider internet might be [02:51] affected. Um we'll be hearing from some [02:54] amazing brands and what they're plotting [02:57] and how they're plotting their way [02:58] through the confusing picture in our uh [03:01] panel discussion at the end as well. So [03:03] stay tuned until the end. Right, [03:06] speaking of amazing brands and really [03:08] cool people, uh who are you going to be [03:11] hearing from today? Um we have an [03:15] extraordinary group uh of voices joining [03:19] us today from companies uh running ahead [03:21] of the curve and paving the new ways of [03:24] working in our industry. You'll be [03:27] hearing from the teams at News UK uh and [03:31] PMC Turn WordPress VIP [03:35] uh all of whom are making serious and [03:38] considered uh bets on WordPress in 2026. [03:43] Um [03:45] Yellow Pantheon and of course Human Made [03:48] are also going to be prominently [03:50] featured. Uh not entirely sure what [03:53] happened here. Let's do it this way. Um, [03:57] so a little bit of housekeeping before [04:01] we move on to our first session. Um, we [04:05] love audience interaction. You're all [04:08] already chatting. Uh, so please use the [04:10] chat uh for any questions that you might [04:13] want to ask our speakers. We're going to [04:15] make sure that we uh keep some time for [04:18] questions at the end of each session. [04:20] Um, [04:22] so the Q&A tab is a better is a better [04:25] one to use for that. You can also post [04:27] questions in the chat. We're going to be [04:28] monitoring that as well. Uh, between [04:31] each session, there will be a quick [04:33] pause. Um, but there's absolutely [04:35] nothing that you need to do. We'll be [04:38] pulling you automatically into the next [04:40] session starting. Uh, so you know, you [04:43] don't have to jump across sessions. If [04:47] for any uh reason you experience some [04:50] connectivity issues, um a like quick [04:54] word of advice, a refresh of the [04:56] Crowdcast uh tab is likely going to [04:59] solve uh solve the confusion. Um [05:04] what else? Um, oh, if you accidentally [05:08] navigate away from a session, you can [05:10] find relevant links links to each talk [05:12] on the left side of the screen in the [05:14] event. [05:16] And finally, um, all these sessions are [05:19] being recorded and, uh, for everybody [05:22] that is attending, we're going to be [05:24] sending sessions to the links tomorrow. [05:27] Um, all right, I think that is it for [05:32] uh, the time being from me. Uh I'm going [05:35] to pass uh torch to null uh no talk our [05:41] keynote speaker for today our chief uh [05:44] growth officer here at humanmade is [05:47] going to be setting out how we see the [05:50] future of WordPress. [05:53] Um no um over to you. [05:59] >> Hey do you hear me? [06:01] >> Yes we do. [06:02] >> Amazing. Cool. Uh I feel like every talk [06:05] is a keynote talk. Um so I'm quite [06:08] excited about everything that's uh [06:10] coming today. Uh let me just get my [06:12] screen up [06:15] and I'm going to share this window here [06:19] and that should work. Very cool. [06:23] Okay. [06:25] Cool. So um I have uh had the the great [06:29] joy of spending the entire week in [06:32] Singapore uh between meeting our clients [06:35] uh between uh two-day martekch [06:38] conference which is right down the CMS [06:41] alley um and really just a lot of just [06:45] interacting with I don't know just as [06:47] many enterprise stakeholders and buyers [06:50] as I could imagine about CMS AI and all [06:53] the topics and it has been quite eye [06:56] opening. Um you know some of these [06:57] things are assumptions that you may have [07:00] uh but then to have them confirmed also [07:02] sets the tone uh in many ways. Um, one [07:06] of the sort of larger things I've seen [07:10] in the last couple days is that the [07:12] entire concept around AI budgets has [07:15] really just graduated, right? It has [07:17] moved from this experimental phase to [07:22] previously to this kind of proof of [07:23] concept one and now it's really about [07:26] how do we get ROI in production and the [07:30] expected payback period is relatively [07:32] short. uh that can be really just months [07:35] which is a very different uh posture [07:38] than I'd say last year when you saw a [07:41] lot of experiments and a lot of small [07:43] projects here and there but now the [07:46] budget is really dominating that and [07:49] second there's you can really feel this [07:52] tension around or rather this demand [07:56] this need for things that just work from [08:00] an AI perspective uh and that you really [08:03] is packaged, governed, ready to deploy, [08:06] which again is very different than [08:10] the AI conversation [08:12] two years ago, 3 years ago where [08:15] anything that was even promoted as semi [08:18] package was still 90% consulting. And [08:21] now we're seeing vendors trying to flip [08:24] that on its head and have as much out of [08:27] the box as they can. And this sort of [08:29] off-the-shelf approach and instant ROI [08:32] don't usually go hand in hand, but maybe [08:35] there are some windows of opportunity [08:37] while various companies are at different [08:40] stages of adoption. Um, so some [08:42] companies may be trying to [08:46] exploit that advantage and just be first [08:49] to market within certain features or [08:52] categories. But today I want to show you [08:55] that WordPress [08:57] is probably to your surprise better [09:00] positioned for this than you may think [09:02] and that the beauty of this is that your [09:05] current WordPress installations can get [09:07] a significant bump from what's shipping [09:09] right now. Also interesting is that [09:12] WordPress may actually have an edge on [09:15] other CMS's here and not because it [09:18] ships the most polished AI features out [09:21] of the box. quite the opposite actually. [09:24] Uh it's because it ships some of the [09:25] most comprehensive foundations out [09:27] there. Open models, open abilities, open [09:30] protocols. Uh but we'll get to that. [09:35] So let me start with the the content [09:39] layer just to have um a bit of [09:42] background because this is a WordPress [09:44] in 2026 uh event. uh it's not mandatory [09:48] on the agentic side of things but [09:50] because we're talking about WordPress in [09:51] 2026 um they are worth noting. So the [09:55] first thing that I want to highlight is [09:58] sync patterns and sync patterns are not [10:00] new to to this year. Um but they are in [10:04] combination with other things very [10:07] important and they do control design [10:09] right uh and uh and and once you add a [10:13] or you turn a block into a sync pattern [10:16] uh you use it everywhere you edit it [10:18] once and it's instance uh updates across [10:20] your site which is great but the real [10:24] gamecher I think in connection with this [10:27] is a relatively new feature called block [10:29] bindings uh and that is what you can [10:32] almost imagine as the counterpart to [10:35] design and that's data. So block [10:37] bindings allow you to inject dynamic [10:40] content into the design from your [10:42] database um [10:46] uh Google sheets whatever it is just [10:48] external APIs doesn't really matter uh [10:50] wherever your source of truth lives can [10:53] be connected into blocks um so you have [10:56] one design template you have data [10:58] injected dynamically um this scales to [11:02] thousands of pages and when combined It [11:06] essentially creates programmatic content [11:09] which I think is [11:12] not necessarily the first thing we [11:14] should all be building but that you can [11:16] go to that extent very quickly is very [11:20] powerful in my opinion and when AI [11:24] generates content validates content or [11:27] translates a block it it's operating on [11:29] this structured bindable surface um and [11:33] having that available will make some of [11:36] our lives easier when it comes to [11:38] Agentic. [11:39] And if you already use the block editor [11:42] today, this is already accessible to [11:44] you. Um, so it's really just a [11:47] incremental change as opposed to some [11:49] kind of huge revamp. [11:51] Now, uh, the fun stuff. Let's talk about [11:53] the AI layer. WordPress has essentially [11:57] four things that you need to keep in the [11:59] back of your mind, um, that in my [12:02] opinion together will change the future [12:04] of WordPress. And even if that's not [12:06] visible today, I'm quite sure it will [12:08] become a lot more apparent over the [12:10] coming weeks. I wrote a newsletter [12:13] edition maybe 2 months ago where I was [12:15] trying to predict the future in like [12:17] 2030 and the exact workflows I sort of [12:21] predicted then are now achievable. So [12:25] the the rate of change is um rather [12:28] stunning. Um, but let's let's dive in to [12:30] these primitives. Uh, because I think um [12:34] once you're able to grasp these, it will [12:37] make your lives a lot easier in trying [12:39] to [12:40] understand how you're going to solve [12:42] certain pain points or build entirely [12:44] new value. [12:47] Now, the first one is something that's [12:50] quite universal in the agentic space, [12:51] and that is the MCP adapter. And that [12:54] essentially allows your agent, your uh [12:56] AI harness to connect uh to external uh [13:01] APIs, data sources, uh whatever that may [13:04] be. Uh so in this case you may have an [13:07] MCP adapter inside of uh claw code um or [13:12] any other sort of solution and that [13:15] allows you if you use the WordPress MC [13:17] adapter uh MCP adapter to connect to [13:21] your WordPress site and then have uh [13:25] various abilities avail uh available to [13:28] you and that is the second piece here [13:32] that is the abilities API. I sort of [13:35] look at the abilities API as a [13:39] a gentic evolution of the REST API. Um, [13:42] that's probably the best way I think [13:44] about it. And it's it you're you're [13:48] essentially registering the inputs, [13:51] outputs, permissions of [13:54] what sort of capabilities or rather I [13:57] mean as the name uh implies uh abilities [14:01] are available to agents uh working with [14:04] your website. So [14:07] something like um [14:10] a very simple one would be uh you use [14:13] the MCP to connect from Slack uh to or [14:17] you connect your agent from Slack to [14:19] your WordPress site. You send a command [14:21] through to edit content. Uh I'm not [14:24] saying this is an exact use case you [14:25] would use, but that editing content [14:27] would then be calling an abil uh an [14:29] ability endpoint. [14:34] The third one is an extension of the [14:38] abilities API and this is the workflows [14:40] API. And what that essentially allows [14:42] you to do is connect multiple abilities [14:46] in a sequence as well as having agentic [14:51] nodes between them. [14:53] And if you want to pack or package all [14:57] of that into a single ability, you can [15:00] do that, too. [15:02] Now [15:03] that is uh not yet in um WordPress. So [15:08] the MCP adapter um and abilities API are [15:11] already released. Uh but the workflows [15:13] API and then the um fourth piece the uh [15:18] WordPress AI client are things that are [15:22] um coming very soon. And this last piece [15:25] uh as you can see I've changed the color [15:26] a bit is is not mandatory by any means [15:30] but essentially means that you can run [15:34] your [15:36] agents from your own WordPress [15:38] installation. So instead of um accessing [15:41] your WordPress site from an external [15:44] point like cloud code um you access it [15:48] from within uh the WordPress site and [15:50] that may be like your chron jobs your uh [15:53] your workflows that run on a on a on uh [15:56] a certain schedule. Uh but all of that [15:59] runs through uh the WPAI client and that [16:02] allows you to uh connect your own keys, [16:04] connect your own models. uh and that is [16:07] as we love it completely open. [16:11] Now to give you some examples of how [16:13] these things tie together [16:16] um a good example I'd like to look at um [16:20] for one which I think you know happens [16:22] quite often is we see a lot of our [16:25] clients that have multilingual [16:26] multi-reion will have a lot of content [16:29] and it's quite painful to go through the [16:31] entire process of creating translations [16:34] for example. So here if we were to try [16:38] and break this out into the agentic [16:39] workflow um which is basically possible [16:43] today already if I'm not mistaken um you [16:46] may run your own model or run you know [16:49] you may have open AAI set up uh through [16:52] uh your own uh website uh you may then [16:56] run a schedule to identify posts that [16:59] have missing translations in my example [17:01] I'm saying this finds 137 posts [17:06] um these then need to be translated to [17:08] German, French and Dutch. Um which then [17:11] result in 411 posts that then need to be [17:14] reviewed for brand tone. Now the [17:16] interesting thing about brand tone is [17:18] that you're not going to necessarily [17:21] extrapolate or [17:23] extend a single brand tone that was [17:26] meant for English into every region and [17:29] language. So already here you may start [17:31] splitting into uh the regional nuances [17:35] or language nuances uh for the different [17:38] um [17:40] um domains that you want to be able to [17:43] uh translate for. And then going on from [17:46] there, once you have that content all [17:48] set, you may then want to update the SEO [17:50] for all of this. Um, I do not believe [17:52] that Yoast SEO has an abilities API uh [17:56] set up yet, but I I' I'd imagine it's [18:00] pretty close. Um, and then depending on [18:03] how you run governance, you may want to [18:05] have manual review of everything. You [18:07] may want to have a more pragmatic [18:09] approach. Um, and then that is a summary [18:11] that is then reviewed after the fact. [18:14] And then lastly, um I think a very [18:17] important part of all of this will be to [18:19] have a complete audit trail, which is [18:21] really who initiated the action, what [18:23] was the action, which model did it run [18:26] on, when did it run. Now, this would [18:28] have to be created manually for now, but [18:30] I would assume that someone uh maybe you [18:34] know humanade or someone else uh creates [18:36] something to help support uh agentic [18:39] audit trails. [18:42] Now that is one example. [18:45] Another would be um I've already hooked [18:48] up uh our our plug-in uh accelerate into [18:53] uh open claw and different places. So I [18:55] I have a bit of experience with this but [18:57] ultimately [18:58] this idea of self selfoptimization I [19:02] think is is a big territory that we'll [19:04] we'll land in. Um, and in my particular [19:07] example here, um, it's really about [19:10] trying to identify blocks that have a [19:13] lot of traffic, uh, on any given [19:15] website. Uh, potentially creating [19:18] multiple variants, uh, for that block. [19:20] And we don't have the variance um, we [19:23] don't have the create variance uh, [19:24] ability endpoint yet for accelerate, but [19:26] that's coming soon. Um then potentially [19:29] this pipes into Slack or somewhere else [19:31] to notify that the agent has identified [19:34] an opportunity and has created multiple [19:36] uh variants to test. Um after some time [19:40] we may show the winner of such an [19:43] experiment in Slack. Uh the agent may [19:45] then se automatically select the winner [19:47] to then revert to a regular block [19:49] because that is the highest performing [19:51] block. Uh and then again uh have an [19:54] audit trail uh full log of all these [19:56] actions. [20:01] So [20:03] to zoom out a bit and to understand [20:07] where WordPress sits in all of this, [20:09] I've mapped out a bunch of what are [20:11] essentially the point features of [20:14] proprietary CMSs. Uh and you can see the [20:17] ones that I've pulled out here which are [20:19] largely around Adobe Experience Manager, [20:21] Psychore, Contentful. [20:23] And [20:25] these may be around governed generation, [20:28] brandaw aware AI, a lot of bulk [20:31] operations, [20:32] um, agentic analytics, [20:35] um, and then table stakes or what have [20:38] become table stakes such as, uh, MCP [20:40] tool access. And all of this is [20:42] constructible on WordPress using the [20:45] same primitives I just showed you. And [20:47] I'm not going to walk you through every [20:49] row. I I I feel like the the visual [20:52] density of this is kind of the point, [20:54] but the difference is in the assembly. [20:59] An Adobe or Psychore or Contentful will [21:02] ship a finished product and WordPress [21:05] ships the building blocks for enterprise [21:08] teams with very specific requirements. I [21:12] realize that it doesn't solve the [21:14] offtheshelf need, but honestly, I think [21:17] it's how you get exactly what you need. [21:20] And I understand that this out of the [21:24] box solution may be a great thing in the [21:28] moment because it may drive ROI. It's [21:31] simply not sustainable over the long [21:33] term. And I'll show you why. [21:39] So part of the part of the ch there's [21:42] there's a number of challenges here but [21:43] I this is where I think that WordPress [21:47] especially will flex a lot of its [21:49] strength as time progresses and some of [21:52] that comes back to [21:55] proprietary CMS's racing to market to [21:58] release some kind of point feature [22:00] whilst WordPress has spent a lot of time [22:02] building a great foundation and as this [22:05] race continues we may I'll see a lot of [22:08] exponential growth on the WordPress [22:09] side. But specific to the proprietary [22:11] versus WordPress uh argument, I think [22:15] one of the things I'm I'm really looking [22:16] to communicate to the buyers and people [22:19] I talk to um is a number of the items [22:22] here. [22:25] So, one of the challenges with [22:27] proprietary CMS's is that they may uh [22:30] enforce their own model um or their own [22:33] approach to which model should be used. [22:36] Um, and that means that for potentially [22:38] creating content, you don't have a [22:40] choice of model, which I would [22:42] personally struggle with because I use [22:45] at least five or six models from three [22:47] different providers and over time these [22:51] models change from week to week or month [22:53] to month. [22:55] Bringing your own keys, uh, a lot of [22:57] that is about um cost management. Um, if [23:01] you are being resold, uh, API [23:05] credits, uh, sorry, AI credits, AI [23:08] tokens, whatever it may be, uh, that may [23:10] come out of markup, especially if it's [23:12] coming through third party vendors. [23:16] And [23:17] again, you want that flexibility when [23:21] models change. And it it's I mean if [23:25] anything is constant in this market is [23:27] that everything is just changing at [23:29] lightning speed. There is no such thing [23:31] as a couple weeks of peace. So [23:35] you may want to always change to the [23:37] model that best suits your needs. And [23:40] that may be the difference between [23:43] having a solution that kind of works and [23:46] one that really works very well. [23:50] Now this is the big one uh in my opinion [23:52] is that a number of these point features [23:55] are not a proprietary version of the [23:58] abilities API. They are a [24:02] set of features or abilities. Let's just [24:06] call them abilities for now. Uh there [24:07] are simply set in stone per featur uh [24:10] per release. And that is extremely [24:14] limiting when your business has a couple [24:19] of differences that are just that may [24:21] not just fit inside of this um [24:25] pre-created ability very well. For [24:28] WordPress, the ability layers will be [24:31] across core, will be across select [24:34] plugins. So, wherever plug-in authors [24:35] decide to release abilities. Um, and if [24:39] they don't choose to do so, maybe other [24:41] plug-in authors will will create [24:43] extensions for those plugins. And then [24:46] where I find a lot of the opportunity is [24:49] essentially for you to create abilities [24:51] on top of your own homegrown plugins for [24:55] your website. And that is I I find just [24:59] genius compared to being limited to a [25:02] handful of um tools essentially. [25:07] Same with the workflows. Um, this is [25:09] where it it really starts flexing [25:11] because this is where you may want to [25:14] have a very specific [25:17] combination of abilities that are just [25:21] not going to be covered by uh a [25:24] proprietary [25:26] CMS because of the default recipes or [25:29] workflows it hands you. [25:32] And lastly, just having the full [25:34] visibility, right? Um, some of these [25:37] features may be sort of blackboxed in [25:39] that you can't really debug what's going [25:40] on on the model side, on the LM side, on [25:43] the agentic side. Um, and here you're [25:46] able to debug at every step, which is [25:48] exactly what we need when we're trying [25:49] to figure out how to get the most out of [25:52] any agentic work. [25:55] And lastly, [25:57] this is more enterprise focused, but [25:59] procurement is a huge issue. Um, you [26:02] want to be able to move quickly between [26:05] models. You want to be able to not be [26:07] locked into specific features. Uh, [26:10] especially as quickly as this market [26:12] changes. [26:15] Okay. So, let me bring this together. [26:17] Um, I I started by telling you what I've [26:19] been hearing all week uh about the AI [26:21] budgets graduating pressure to deliver [26:24] uh the tension between wanting things [26:27] now and then also uh needing to prove [26:29] your agentic advantage. Um, but what [26:32] I've shown you is that WordPress already [26:34] has four open primitives that let you [26:36] build [26:38] very similar capabilities to what [26:40] proprietary vendors are already [26:41] shipping. And that's really just the [26:44] beginning of WordPress without the whole [26:46] ecosystem coming behind it. But these [26:48] are real APIs and real building blocks. [26:51] And the difference here is that [26:52] proprietary venders, proprietary vendors [26:56] give you essentially what are their [26:57] choices and WordPress gives you the [27:00] ability to uh choose yours and that's a [27:03] huge difference. Uh I hear someone [27:06] coming on. Peta, are you giving me the [27:08] time? Is that what's happening? [27:10] >> I I'm giving it a time. [27:12] >> Okay. By by scratching your microphone. [27:15] It's a little bit passive aggressive. [27:17] >> I'm so sorry. [27:18] >> I'm joking. Um, but I I will I'll um [27:22] I'll wrap up on a note to say that if [27:26] you want to start anywhere, um, just [27:28] pick one ability to try and exploit. And [27:31] that may well be to [27:34] do a self-healing audit whereby an agent [27:37] just works through your website to [27:40] augment your SEO, your current SEO to [27:43] then be more in line with GEO and AEO [27:45] uh, best practices. And that could be [27:47] your first closed loop. and everything [27:50] after that just compounds. So, I'm going [27:53] to leave it there. Uh, thank you very [27:54] much for listening and I'll pass it back [27:56] to um Peta. [27:59] >> Do you want to answer a couple of quick [28:01] questions? No, there are a couple of [28:03] questions that have been asked in the [28:04] audience. [28:05] >> Yeah. All right. [28:07] >> Let me close my thing. [28:09] >> All right. So, uh, first question. How [28:12] does the WP AI development compare to [28:16] the work that Drupal has been building [28:18] over the last two years in their uh AI [28:21] recipe [28:23] has been [28:24] >> I don't know u I I I from I haven't [28:26] looked at the Drupal stuff in a little [28:27] while but my my understanding from it [28:30] when I last looked at the Drupal stuff [28:32] is quite similar it's about creating the [28:34] foundational pieces um and [28:38] I mean it's I I don't know if I try to [28:40] compare these two [28:42] because they're so closely aligned, it's [28:44] probably a lot more worthwhile to try [28:46] and compare open source projects and [28:49] their approach versus proprietary. [28:52] >> Do you have an opinion on how open [28:55] source projects are doing versus [28:56] proprietary? [28:59] I I I think uh yeah, I mean I think this [29:02] is the the the sheer fact that [29:05] what is what has already been released [29:08] is already coming very close to what [29:10] proprietary solutions are offering on [29:12] point features and package solutions. [29:15] I think means that WordPress still has a [29:18] lot of gas in the tank as soon as uh [29:21] plug-in vendors start releasing as soon [29:23] as we start maturing uh the foundational [29:25] pieces and the primitives. Um I and then [29:27] as soon as we start having contents and [29:29] guides so uh I am writing a uh an [29:32] agentic guide for WordPress. Um so [29:35] definitely follow humanmade on LinkedIn [29:37] to see that first. [29:40] >> Nice. Thank you. Awesome. All right. Um [29:44] another question. Uh [29:47] so James is asking, "My site already [29:50] uses accelerate. What are the steps to [29:52] hook that up with open claw? What do I [29:55] need to do?" Oh, I love it. Choosing [29:56] violence. That's great. Um [30:01] >> Um so this I'm going to try to keep it [30:03] simple. Um you can always ping me [30:05] otherwise. Uh but the steps are you need [30:09] the MCP adapter. Um you then need to uh [30:13] connect your site to [30:16] um your sorry you need to connect your [30:18] Agentic sort of MCP to your WordPress [30:20] site. Make that work. Uh there's a whole [30:22] sort of um authentication there. And [30:26] then from there um you need to enable um [30:31] the abilities API in the Accelerate [30:34] plugin. Uh that's on the settings page. [30:36] Um so you just got to turn that on and [30:39] then you should be essentially able to [30:42] pull the abilities that exist. So if you [30:46] want to copy paste all the abilities and [30:49] the sort of documentation that exists [30:52] already on the accelerate like docs page [30:54] for AI, um you can then turn that into a [30:56] skill and then leverage that skill uh [30:59] inside of claw code or any other tool to [31:03] then run pretty sturdy queries that give [31:07] you that data back. [31:10] >> All right, cool. Uh so unfortunately we [31:14] don't have time in the session for any [31:16] more questions. No null there are two [31:17] more questions in the Q&A session. If [31:19] you want to maybe answer them in the [31:21] session chat you can you can you can [31:24] stay in uh the session otherwise [31:26] everybody we're going to transfer you [31:28] into the next session where we're going [31:29] to chat about uh SEO and uh AI search [31:34] optimization with uh Alex Moss from [31:37] Yost. Uh thank you so much null. Thank [31:40] you. And I know you stayed really late [31:43] for uh this. Uh really appreciate it. It [31:46] was super insightful. So [31:48] >> I'm already hallucinating. [31:49] >> You are. Yeah. So have a good night and [31:51] thank you once again for joining us [31:54] despite of where you are in the world. [31:56] Bye bye.  📄 **Full text:** ![[Full Document Contents/Articles/WordPress in 2026|WordPress in 2026, YouTube]] ## Highlights - positioned for this than you may think and that the beauty of this is that your current WordPress installations can get a significant bump from what's shipping right now. Also interesting is that WordPress may actually have an edge on other CMS's here and not because it ships the most polished AI features out of the box. quite the opposite actually. Uh it's because it ships some of the most comprehensive foundations out there. Open models, open abilities, open ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvmnyrj7n664ek6ynr44rng)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - having that available will make some of our lives easier when it comes to Agentic. And if you already use the block editor today, this is already accessible to you. Um, so it's really just a incremental change as opposed to some kind of huge revamp. Now, uh, the fun stuff. Let's talk about the AI layer. WordPress has essentially four things that you need to keep in the back of your mind, um, that in my ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvmnysh8snzmyfv305n1p65)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - So to zoom out a bit and to understand where WordPress sits in all of this, I've mapped out a bunch of what are essentially the point features of proprietary CMSs. Uh and you can see the ones that I've pulled out here which are largely around Adobe Experience Manager, Psychore, Contentful. And these may be around governed generation, brandaw aware AI, a lot of bulk ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvmnytrpx25rr73czqrg69c)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - handful of um tools essentially. Same with the workflows. Um, this is where it it really starts flexing because this is where you may want to have a very specific combination of abilities that are just not going to be covered by uh a proprietary CMS because of the default recipes or workflows it hands you. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvmnyxvr1s5dmy992gk9y6p)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - want to be able to move quickly between models. You want to be able to not be locked into specific features. Uh, especially as quickly as this market changes. Okay. So, let me bring this together. Um, I I started by telling you what I've been hearing all week uh about the AI budgets graduating pressure to deliver uh the tension between wanting things now and then also uh needing to prove your agentic advantage. Um, but what ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvmnz01dp8h1v7916dxav8s)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - is the the the sheer fact that what is what has already been released is already coming very close to what proprietary solutions are offering on point features and package solutions. I think means that WordPress still has a lot of gas in the tank as soon as uh plug-in vendors start releasing as soon as we start maturing uh the foundational pieces and the primitives. Um I and then as soon as we start having contents and guides so uh I am writing a uh an ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvmnz4jmyjfmvt1n1brgra1)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted ## New Highlights added 2026-03-16 at 1:27 PM - positioned for this than you may think and that the beauty of this is that your current WordPress installations can get a significant bump from what's shipping right now. Also interesting is that WordPress may actually have an edge on other CMS's here and not because it ships the most polished AI features out of the box. quite the opposite actually. Uh it's because it ships some of the most comprehensive foundations out there. Open models, open abilities, open ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvtx1j4nx9kzbg09jxscmqn)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - having that available will make some of our lives easier when it comes to Agentic. And if you already use the block editor today, this is already accessible to you. Um, so it's really just a incremental change as opposed to some kind of huge revamp. Now, uh, the fun stuff. Let's talk about the AI layer. WordPress has essentially four things that you need to keep in the back of your mind, um, that in my ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvtx1k6gttkhj4g5w7zxj7f)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - So to zoom out a bit and to understand where WordPress sits in all of this, I've mapped out a bunch of what are essentially the point features of proprietary CMSs. Uh and you can see the ones that I've pulled out here which are largely around Adobe Experience Manager, Psychore, Contentful. And these may be around governed generation, brandaw aware AI, a lot of bulk ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvtx1matpsdpp4y7yse72ar)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - handful of um tools essentially. Same with the workflows. Um, this is where it it really starts flexing because this is where you may want to have a very specific combination of abilities that are just not going to be covered by uh a proprietary CMS because of the default recipes or workflows it hands you. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvtx1qbw00q44e13zgres1k)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - want to be able to move quickly between models. You want to be able to not be locked into specific features. Uh, especially as quickly as this market changes. Okay. So, let me bring this together. Um, I I started by telling you what I've been hearing all week uh about the AI budgets graduating pressure to deliver uh the tension between wanting things now and then also uh needing to prove your agentic advantage. Um, but what ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvtx1sb0hwckt9b3jzr16wt)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - is the the the sheer fact that what is what has already been released is already coming very close to what proprietary solutions are offering on point features and package solutions. I think means that WordPress still has a lot of gas in the tank as soon as uh plug-in vendors start releasing as soon as we start maturing uh the foundational pieces and the primitives. Um I and then as soon as we start having contents and guides so uh I am writing a uh an ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kkvtx1xk1er68w7wjq2ttewq)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted