My Thoughts on Mullenweg's Keynote WCUS2025  ## Metadata - Author: [[Matt Medeiros]] - Full Title: My Thoughts on Mullenweg's Keynote WCUS2025 - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #WordPress - #WCUS2025 - #OpenSource Author: Matt Medeiros (WP Minute) Source: WP Minute YouTube Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo date created: 2025-09-03 12:45 --- # Title: My Thoughts on Mullenweg's Keynote WCUS2025 ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary Matt Medeiros analyzed Matt Mullenweg’s WCUS 2025 keynote, highlighting WordPress’s positioning as both product and movement. The keynote emphasized GPL freedoms, community reliance, AI’s uncertain role, and Automattic’s experimentation with tools like TX. Mullenweg’s subdued tone reflected a focus on “heads down” progress, contrasting earlier, more defensive talks. Medeiros critiqued Automattic’s branding efforts, pressed for clearer product synergies, and underscored the importance of community trust in navigating lawsuits, competition, and AI disruption. --- ## 📖 Main Content Mullenweg set a subdued tone: less spectacle, more Q&A. He framed WordPress as a movement with democratized publishing at its core, governed by GPL freedoms. He nodded (lightly) to the community, though critics noted his phrasing blurred “community” with “Automattic.” The “elephant in the room” (the WP Engine lawsuit) was acknowledged but deflected. Mullenweg shared minimal updates, emphasizing faith in the courts. Medeiros noted this was both strategic and evasive, and it risked alienating community members who wanted stronger recognition of their role. AI dominated the keynote. Mullenweg promoted AI browsers and the TX experimental tool for Gutenberg blocks. Medeiros critiqued both: AI productivity gains are real, but flashy demos like “Doom in a block” still lack reliability. He stressed the need for practical integration that empowers average users, not just tech elites. Mullenweg’s 10-year vision invoked compounding effort, long-term cultural resilience, and product investments in Gutenberg. Medeiros found this more optimistic than prior appearances but criticized the absence of synergy across Automattic’s portfolio (WooCommerce, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Jetpack). He suggested Automattic must articulate a coherent vision tying these products together. --- ### 🗒️ Notes - [00:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=4) WordPress framed as movement, not just product. - [01:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=115) GPL freedoms as foundation. - [06:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=362) Lawsuit pressures acknowledged obliquely. - [07:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=474) Authentic advocacy > forced branding. - [12:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=737) AI seen as productivity tool, but hype vs. reality gap remains. - [14:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=880) TX tool for Gutenberg blocks demoed. - [18:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=1128) WordPress’s global footprint: asset or liability in AI age? - [20:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=1244) AI lowers entry barrier for non-technical users. - [24:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=1464) Culture and communication critical to long-term resilience. - [26:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=1569) Mullenweg more upbeat than prior appearances. - [30:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo&t=1809) Call for synergy across Automattic’s tools. --- ## 📖 References - Mullenweg, M. (2025). WCUS 2025 Keynote. - Medeiros, M. (2025). *My Thoughts on Mullenweg’s Keynote WCUS 2025*. WP Minute. --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase 1. Original: “WordPress is so unique because we’re not just a product. We’re a movement.” Paraphrase: Mullenweg stressed that WordPress is more than software—it’s a collective effort rooted in shared values. 2. Original: “If 20% of features are commercial while 80% remain open-source, that’s fine by me.” Paraphrase: Medeiros argued that a balance between paid and free features could sustain Automattic while still empowering the open-source community. --- ## 📰 Newsletter 🚨 **WCUS 2025 Keynote Reactions** 🚨 Matt Mullenweg’s keynote leaned practical this year—fewer stats, more “heads down” energy. He framed WordPress as a movement anchored in GPL freedoms, while acknowledging (lightly) the community’s role and ongoing legal battles. Highlights: - AI browsers + TX tool experiments for Gutenberg. - Automattic’s long-game vision of compounding effort. - WordPress’s 46% web footprint: boon or risk in the AI era? Critiques remain: Automattic still lacks a clear synergy across WooCommerce, Jetpack, Tumblr, and Pocket Casts. As Medeiros put it, “WordPress needs a cheerleader who loves it.” 👉 Watch full keynote [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo). 👉 Subscribe for more community insights: wpminute.com/subscribe --- ## ✅ Action Items - Align keynote themes with **open-source advocacy**: GPL freedoms, democratization, and AI integration. - Contextualize Automattic’s experiments (TX, AI browsers) in **education & contributor onboarding**. - Build narratives connecting Automattic’s portfolio into an **OSPO director vision**: synergy, sustainability, and inclusivity. - Frame community support as essential to **contributor engagement strategies**. - Position lawsuits and competition as **teaching moments** on resilience in open source ecosystems. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses - AI-native CMS experiences could shift contributor dynamics toward less technical participants. - Automattic’s sustainability may hinge on product synergy rather than isolated innovation. - Community trust influences adoption rates more than technical innovation alone. ### 📊 Methodology - Analyze adoption rates of TX and AI features via surveys. - Map Automattic product usage overlap across segments. - Conduct focus groups on perceptions of Automattic-community alignment. ### ❓ Questions - How can Automattic rebuild stronger community trust post-lawsuit? - Should WordPress integrate AI into core or remain plugin-optional? - What frameworks ensure commercial/open-source balance? ### 🔮 Future Research - Impact of AI browsers on CMS relevance. - Cross-product synergy within Automattic. - Role of long-term compounding work in sustaining open-source projects. ### 💡 Implications - Stronger OSPO governance models could emerge. - CMS evolution may accelerate toward AI-driven tools. - Community voice remains the critical factor in WordPress’s legitimacy. --- ## 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment - **Visual**: Minimal visuals—would benefit from flowcharts of product strategy. - **Aural**: Video format supports auditory learners, but lacks podcast summary. - **Verbal**: Rich in rhetoric; could expand analogies for non-technical readers. - **Kinesthetic**: No hands-on demos except TX; more interactive exercises needed. - **Logical**: Clear cause-effect reasoning in AI discussions. - **Social**: No direct group engagement prompts; could link forums. - **Solitary**: Viewers can reflect individually but no guided reflection prompts. - **Naturalistic**: No environmental analogies—opportunity missed. --- ## 📊 Accessibility Assessment - Transcript available (good for screen readers). - No alt-text for referenced visuals (needs improvement). - Contrast/readability unknown from transcript. - Navigation accessible but lacks interactive accessibility tools. --- ## 🌍 DEIB Assessment - Inclusive language overall, though “we” - Summary: Our Matt breaks down Matt Mullenweg’s keynote at WordCamp US 2025! Get the highlights and honest reactions to the most important moments, including: * The evolving role of the WordPress community and the “four freedoms” at the heart of open source. * Addressing the “elephant in the room” and the impact of recent legal and industry challenges. * WordPress’s push to be more present on YouTube and across platforms, and why authentic community engagement matters. * The future of AI in WordPress, including hands-on impressions of new tools like Telex and thoughts on browser-based AI. * Predictions for the next 10 years of WordPress and Automattic, and what it means for users, professionals, and the open web. Whether you missed the keynote or want a thoughtful recap, this episode covers the key takeaways and what they mean for the future of WordPress. Subscribe to The WP Minute for more insights, news, and community updates! Matt's video on Telex AI by Automattic https://youtu.be/t5dRm70FnSg Mullenweg's Keynote WCUS https://youtu.be/45HRzzc0waU?si=DIhxDiqwGNzAPWTL Matt Report Episode 320 September 3, 2025 ★ Episode details: https://share.transistor.fm/s/d7c7afa9 ★ Additional episodes: https://mattreport.com - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH9UsqzA9Eo Hey, it's Matt from the WP Minute. We are going to chat about Matt Mulleng's keynote at Word Camp US 2025. I'm going to share some clips that I thought were interesting to Opine and to share my opinion on uh some of the more important pieces in my opinion to how, you know, Matt's take on on WordPress impacts WordPress professionals, what we're doing with the software community, etc., etc. I certainly recommend watching the whole thing if you if you want. It's about an hour long with Q&A. If not, uh, this will be a bit of a preview of that keynote if you didn't want to spend the hour watching it. So, you'll hear some clips about Matt. I'm going to react to them. I'm going to share my opinion as always. The wpminute.com/subscribe. Let me set the stage real quick. No pun intended. Uh, very much more subdued approach to this keynote for sure. I did appreciate that. Uh, in fact, uh, I'd have to double check the time stamps, but he was getting into Q&A at like by minute 20. uh which was uh a bit of a refresher. This is much more of his summer update. So, I know I'm not not trying to say like this was a state of the word or there should have been more stats and hype around it, but generally I feel like there's a lot more meat to the summer update bone, if you will. But I did appreciate some of the brevity here and it really just feels like he's heads down and WordPress is heads down and therefore we should all be heads down. And I'm going to share a little bit of my opinion today, of course, but it's also going to be sort of a lesson of like where I think we need to go with all of this stuff in order to, you know, make true progress. So, here we go. Here's here's the opening uh remark that I found interesting. >> WordPress is so unique because we're not just a product. We're a movement. We're people who come together because we believe in something. Actually, we believe in a lot of things. Not always the same things, but some of the same things. We have basically like we believe in democratizing publishing as one of our core movements. We have like the GPL is like our constitution, the kind of fundamental document underlying the code that gives fundamental the four freedoms to everyone. The freedom to use the software for any purpose, the freedom to see how the software works, freedom to modify it, and freedom to redistribute it as the four freedoms. But we also rise beyond just that document and we kind of think about things in a positive some way. We think about ecosystems. We think about how uh we come together and what the results are on iterations of our actions. >> So the thing about that statement especially when he talks about the freedom the four freedoms and how we think of things in positive way and that we don't necessarily always agree on things. There's a few like threads I want to pull on. I think it's obvious for anybody who's followed this stuff for a long time is like does he really mean this and by we does he mean we collectively as a community or we as just in automatic either way like this is all this is the thing that always brings me back to WordPress whether or not it's coming out of Matt Mullenweg's mouth Mary's mouth Josepha or anyone else like this is the core of it this is it this is it for me and I think that regardless of like what Matt's doing or automatic or any other uh brand that's impacting WordPress either positively or negatively. I think this is the thing that makes me want to rally around WordPress. We're going to talk about that elephant in the room in about a second as he addresses it. So, I kind of see this as an acknowledgement slightly, very slightly to be like, "Oh, yeah, community is important and we can't do it without you all." Even though he didn't say that, would have loved to say that. would have loved to hear him say that and acknowledge that. But this is what brings me back to WordPress. And this is why the the future of the WP Minute, the future of the stuff that I want to do is about this unapologetically, unabashedly to say I want WordPress to succeed. It doesn't mean I won't be critical. It doesn't mean it involves everyone. It just it means that I want WordPress as an idea idea ideal as a piece of software as a community to succeed. because it it does empower it can empower a single person or a group of people or a community or a city, a town, a village, etc., etc. There is a little bit of an elephant in the room that's not just PHP or or Aaron Jordan's tattoo, which is also an awesome elephant if you haven't met Aaron Jordan yet. And that is last year on this stage I highlighted some uh ecosystem members and it's kicked off a whole media thing and everything like that. I'm not going to talk about that today. So if you were looking for that uh that's not what today's presentation is. The the quick update is it's working its way through it the legal system. We trust in the fairness of the courts. If there's any commentary I'll just say that there was a settlement conference. I showed up. The other CEO did not. But it is working its way through that and that's uh my only comment on that whole rigomeroll. But it did get us like kind of more press than we've ever had in a while. So that was interesting being uh WordPress being the main character on the internet for a little while. People hopping on like making themselves trying to get in the middle of it, everything like that. It was um it was pretty interesting process. I'm >> not a lawyer, but I asked Chat GPT as many of us do if both parties in a case in a lawsuit need to be at a settlement conference. Bottom line, here's the answer from Chat GPT. Bottom line, settlement conferences usually require both sides or the representatives with full settlement authority to attend, but attendance may be in person video or through a representative depending on the case and the court order. So, I don't know, did a representative show up and not the CEO of WP Engine? The point is is yes, he acknowledged the elephant in the room. Once again, not going to go too deep into it. He didn't go too deep into it. Basically kind of saying like we're not going to talk about it, which is probably was just a sort of uh barrier for question for a Q&A round that came up later on in the in the c in the um conference. But um it's it is what it is at this point. We all kind of understand it. We all kind of know it. Like I said, I think the nod to the community was him trying to be like, "Yeah, kind of screwed up and we kind of need the community." At least that's the way that I see it. But the point is is this felt much more heads down. We got to get back to work because of the pressures of well the the lawsuit, competition, AI, are people dropping off and aging out of WordPress? like there's a lot of external factors pointing at WordPress. Though it doesn't look like it's like it's losing ground to the CMS market, but still you doesn't mean you just rest on your, you know, 20-year-old laurels. You have to be able to continue to innovate. And for once, like as cut and dry as this presentation was, I felt like, okay, let's all get back to work. >> I met with some YouTubers earlier in the week. Yeah, we want to be present. We want to be multimodal and just where the people are. So we can like bring the knowledge of WordPress and the ability how to use WordPress, which is one of the most incredible skills you can have in your life because it enables you to do so many other things to everything. YouTube in particular, we we basically like almost tripled uh our YouTube subscribers. So good job to that team. Okay, two points about this one. And I won't belabor it because I think those of you that follow me kind of know a lot of my thoughts around this particular topic, but you know there's there's two things here. There when a brand comes to me and I have a lot of brands that sponsor the WP Minute. I'm very fortunate in that, but I also feel like we do some really good work and we do some unique work uh in the WordPress content space. And if they come to us with like this request to be multimodal and to be everywhere, it's you often see this at the seauite level like Mulleng is saying here. I mean, I might be sensationalizing it just a little bit, but my point is is whenever you get these sort of tasks for being everywhere and being involved in the community and showing up and being in the conversation, I don't think when a brand forces that as a task that good things come from it. When everything is measured and metered and gone through with a fine tooth comb, it from a branding perspective, especially when you're trying to like be in the the conversation, if you're forcing it, it it is just that. And automatic and its multitude of products are they're all over the place. Uh they're either nowhere or everywhere in in too many places and too fractured. Somebody just needs to love WordPress and be the person who is out there making the case for WordPress. I thought that's what Jamie was supposed to do. I know this is where I get opinionated on my soap box, but like it's been over a year for this YouTube thing. Where where is the outreach? We've had over a year. Oh, is everything on pause because of this lawsuit? That's the struggle I have with this whole lawsuit and this I guess corporate thinking for lack of a better phrase. Now, Pressible is a sponsor of the WP Minute. We wouldn't be able to do it without Pressible Automatic Company. They've kind of ran as an independent startup to, you know, a certain extent. So, it doesn't feel like it's certainly not WordPress.com. Certainly not Jetack. I've had conversations with Jetack folks before and it's just very we can only do a little bit. We can only say so much. We Okay, well then we're never going to really change that narrative about Jetack or WordPress.com and you need to be able to share and open up like you need to want to do this not just task to do this because that's what WordPress really needs. WordPress needs the cheerleader to say, "Hey, look, love WordPress. Want it to succeed. Here's what we're faced with now. Here's what we got. Here's how we can go to market. Here's how we can address these concerns. Here's how we can rally more people around us. Here's how we can compete with the competition. I know we're short changed in one area, but here's how we're going to approach it, and here's how we're going to invest in those areas. And if we never invest in those areas, then here's why. That's what we need. That's the like community person WordPress needs. >> And that is who has tried one of the AI browsers out there. A couple people. Okay. Next year I hope all the hands go up. So uh there's a few different versions of this. There's like Playright. There's like claudas got something in beta. Basically where your AI controls your computer. The one I like the best. The one I like the best is from basically took basically took Chrome and made this thing called made this thing called and you can see a little bit on the screen. Basically what it does is basically what it does browser when you import from Chrome when you import from Chrome it's really everything you're logged into your WordPress.org everything but you have this kind of persistence but you have this kind of persistence on the side uh that's actually pretty clever and that's actually pretty clever and you can just need to be an MCP server and there doesn't need to be MCP server doesn't make the investments in way investments in way semantic HTML with semantic things you can actually go you can actually go and say hey anything move this block and make the second paragraph wittier and move this block around and make the just graph wid and add an image and like and it just does it. >> Okay, this is a deep one. I won't spend too much time on this section either, I hope. But the AI thing, I'm still like right down the middle with AI. Love what I can do with AI. It fails in a lot of areas. It succeeds in a lot of areas. I haven't seen it do the stuff that is like so amazing that everyone talks about especially in coding especially in research especially in writing like every use case I have for it uh even in ideulating and future thinking and comparisons like it's very very bare bones in terms of the results I get however because it does shrink a lot of the gaps in time for a lot of stuff that I do. There is a productivity level there for me. And I'm saying that because AI is is huge. This is something I asked Mullen WG about last year at the 2024 Word Camp US YouTube dinner that we did. And I had asked him like cuz I never heard him talk like up until this point like I I haven't heard him talk about open source AI at from from one of the leading AI projects in the world. I would have want to hear want to hear more about how we're going to incorporate open-source AI with WordPress. And I'm paraphrasing this was late at night and obviously he was on the precipice of about to destroy uh a lot of what we built. And I had asked him about, you know, where do you see integration of of WordPress and AI and if so, like is that going to be open source LLM and where do you think they can win? And he sort of kind of said like the open source side will never have basically the horsepower that like OpenAI or Claude will have because of the billions if not trillions of dollars they'll eventually have and just buying the hardware it needs to process this stuff at least now anyway or at least in the next I don't know 10 years. So, it's interesting to hear him come around to thinking of this idea of the browserbased AI context. And the one credit I always give to Matt is and the one thing I really do appreciate is a lot of it is forward thinking. uh his future forward thinking one because I think he's able to because he's in he's at a particular echelon where he can meet and talk to these heads of technology and to really understand like where all this tech is going. So he's he's definitely in the driver's seat to be in a lot of these conversations which gets him privy to a lot of this stuff. So, the point is is I think he's probably right on the money and it's not something that I had ever really thought of, but like I just got access to Comet, which is Perplexity's AI browser. His thinking about WordPress being adaptable inside of a AI browser is really intriguing to me. And I'm just going to like kind of leave it at that. I don't want to go too down this rabbit hole because I could. But if you think of like dragging around Gutenberg blocks like he's talking about, we have a lot of these plugins and services who are building AI rappers and tools to build websites. Well, what if you could just your browser could do that for you because it has the control of your keyboard and mouse and it knows WordPress and it can it can interoperate interoperate with it. It's pretty cool and it's not something I I've I've thought of. It's like disrupting AI before before AI is even really you know the dust is even settled. So interesting space right there and I would keep an eye on it like he like he urges us to. >> There's a little something as well that I wanted to soft launch here uh that automatic is launching and that is called TX. So think of TX like a Vzero or a lovable but specific for WordPress in building Gutenberg blocks. So you can go to uh tlex.automatic automatic.ai right now and check it out. And you can actually type in some pretty rich rich functionality in there. I don't have it for the video, but someone actually asked it to make the Doom game and it created that and put it in a Goodutenberg block and then ran it inside a playground. It was a mind-blowing moment. Uh so this is is is getting very beta, very experimental as we talk about, but uh what you get at the end of it is just a zip file that you can install as a plugin to any WordPress in the world or a playground instance or anything like that. So uh these things are pretty exciting. >> They accept it didn't work. I downloaded it and tried my hand at Tellex and um it it's pretty cool. It is, you know, what you expect from a chat bot window. It's very par for the course if you're used to replet or lovable um or bolt. It's got that sort of familiarity which is you know important and the the key thing is is that it is being baked into native WordPress and um with a grain of salt this is still an experimental badge and I'm you know joking that it didn't work. Well, I'm not joking. It didn't work. But I I'm also not expecting everything to work when you have the badge experimental on it and it's not even an alpha or a beta. Like this is a very early days, which I I I fully understand. I did a video on it. I'll link it up in the description. You can kind of see my, you know, my my reaction to it and sort of my other thoughts on it. But the key thing here is as I was saying in the previous segment is how does WordPress evolve with AI and who wins the the AI integration into WordPress? Do we simply get an AI API options page by default in core WordPress and then we can integrate with whichever chat LLM service we want. Is there some kind of deal struck with an open AAI or Claude or something from Salesforce? I can only imagine the conversations that are happening behind the scenes with we just talked about browserbased AI context and and he does allude to it in a segment that I didn't clip where, you know, he talks about having 46% of the web and uh imagine what WordPress can do with AI and stuff like that. I mean, people must be knocking down the doors trying to say, "Hey, look, how do we incorporate AI into this massive footprint that WordPress has across the web?" I mean, this could be a good thing where businesses and and investments say, "Hey, look, WordPress is important because of that footprint and because of how um uh standardized and open source it all is." So it helps with AI to learn this stuff, not only the structure of a WordPress site, but the content inside of a WordPress site. This could be a benefit to Automatic and Matt. Or they look at him and go, "We don't need you anymore because AI can build this stuff and because the CMS might not matter anymore." I mean, two totally different different paths, but check it out. Telix tix.ai. I'll link up my video so you can watch the whole thing uh of what I did. It's cool. And somebody did comment somebody from my career in podcasting he he's also very technical and uh he's also a podcaster and uh when I posted this on LinkedIn he responded like oh you know what is this going to do that what I what I can't do with cursor and in almost like a I can already do this why would they even waste their time on this and I the point is is well first of all this is super early days so you can't even really hope that this is going to be a until it maybe hits another version and there's an alpha tag on it. But what this signals is a core experience of WordPress, a potential core experience of WordPress with AI right out of the box. And you know to my colleague from the podcast world who is technical, who has cursor, who knows how to develop this stuff, it's not for them. Much like Gutenberg isn't for a professional web designer. I mean, it can be. And those who are just like, "No, no, it doesn't have this, it doesn't." Well, then move on and get another tool. That's the beauty of WordPress, you know. So, when I see something like this, I go, "Great. The common person, the above average person can take to WordPress, chat with it, build whatever it wants, or do that in the context of a browser-based AI system." and and build whatever they want where they don't have to have all the tooling and all of the the knowledge to make something really bespoke first where it comes but really advanced or whatever. I think there's a point where yeah you hire somebody and they and they help you with help you the rest of the way or they start from scratch and they do it over again. The point is is like I think this brings that innovation to the core of WordPress to the masses and whatever shape or form or who's selling this potential product in the future whether it's.com or automatic or jetack you know time will tell but it's still somewhat exciting. Hello Matt. My question is regarding for the past 22 years you've been building WordPress for the past 20 years building automatic. I think the level of commitment that you have with the company and the open source is amazing. You know so many years on this I would like to see how do you imagine the next 10 years of automatic and WordPress. ah the next 10 years well one of the most interesting things things for me and one thing I' I've had a lot of success with so like when younger people come ask me something it's like it's amazing the effect of compounding and when you work on something even just a little bit every single day how that develops your context and your knowledge and your efficiency and your everything and just the effects that you can have for working on something a very long period of time, you know, at various points in WordPress's history, I was like, okay, it's like a 10 year overnight success, you know, and and when if you study compounding, it can start very very very small. But when you start to get into year 10, 20, 30, 40, the effects can be quite quite large. And so I do study a lot of longerterm organizations and longerterm companies to see like when you go to an Apple at like 50 years old or a Microsoft, what's allowing them to still be at the forefront of technology and innovation? What have they done? How have they passed the torch and culture? How how do they leverage the wisdom of the longer tenure members and always bring in fresh people and not get too oified in the way they did things behind previously? And every culture is different and automatic is a fairly unique one. WordPress is a fairly unique one actually as well. They're they're very related actually. They've influenced each other quite a bit. You know, being radically distributed, being um you know, open source at our core. Uh also being multi-product. So, automatic has our most WordPress products like Pressible and WordPress.com. I've found a lot of uh fun for me as well has been working on the apps like open sourcing Pocketcast. So now there's an open source open source uh podcasting player day one Tumblr which someday we're going to get on WordPress. Not not this year but like someday we're going to switch those half a billion blogs to WordPress. And um yeah so I find a lot of fun in that. So if I think about my next 10 years the things I am certain won't change that speed of iteration is going to be really really important. customer centricity. I hope I'm still doing tech support and I actually think I need to to stay connected and uh I learn so much every time I do. What I don't know what it's going to look like is h how many people are at the company? How many AI agents are at the company? What uh is the technology landscape that we're building on? Is there some new computing uh paradigm which um isn't VR but maybe it's like an AR? Maybe it's a contact lens we wear or maybe like how what's the future APIs of the future? Is it MCP or is it GraphQL or is it something else or like what is it that is going to happen? So I don't try to make predictions that far out for those things. But I do try to think like what are the fundamental building blocks that we're putting in place today and some of those are cultural and some of those are product. So on the cultural side, it is the things I talked about before of really working on communication, performance, accountability, energy management, staying with people also like being with people through the ups and the downs and all the beautiful humanity that you experience the longer that you have the opportunity to know each other. Then on the product side, it's things like our investment in the Gutenberg and in particular, I'm excited about this collaboration and what that enables. And in a lot of ways, WP admin feels very similar to what it was a few years ago, even though we've done literally thousands of upgrades. But when I think about that experience when someone logging into WP admin and then like seeing the real-time cursor of someone else logged in, like that feels like pretty wow amazing. And when I see things like these chat bots that can be built at a contributor day and other things, I'm like, wow, that's kind of pretty incredible. And if these things are starting to be more enabled by new APIs in the browser or new frontier models or whatever it is, like what can we create? So, uh I'm very much looking forward to co-creating with all of y'all. So, thank you. [Applause] >> Okay, so I don't want to really put a grade on this response. It's super hard to predict a decade now with AI breathing down our neck. What I will say is in comparison to him answering this question I think in Word Campy Europe or was it Asia? I can't can't remember when it was somebody asked him sort of the same question about like the future of automatic the future of WordPress and that one was just like it was a depressing answer you know at the at the last major word camp. It was almost like he sounded defeated. He he he sounded like you. Why would you even ask me about the future? At least this one was trending in a slightly more upbeat prediction. What I still can't wrap my head around is um you know I think it's okay to well I I don't even know like I'm even wrestling with responding to this. I think it's almost okay to say here's where well because the the person who asked the question is is also you know mentioned automatic. So it's okay to talk about like all the other products and like where you see that that future going. I'm I'm wondering if there is like he's not thinking of all of these other products and it's just WordPress. So then what happens to all of these products and by all these products he mentioned he mentioned Pocketcast again in my podcasting world. Love it. It's my daily driver for podcast apps. They're investing in podcast 2.0 which is a open source movement just like WordPress for the RSS feed. really happy and love the fact that they're doing that. I pay I'm a paying customer for the pro version. I signed up for video press uh which is a jetack module product to host videos on the WP Minute when we launch our course site. I use Woo Commerce to sell merch on the WP Minute. And I'm I'm wondering like when do we talk about the synergy of the suite of automatic tools and how all of this stuff comes together? the Clay acquisition. I've been using Clay as a relationship manager for the WP Minute. It's freaking fantastic. Uh, one of my favorite products to start to use of the year. And um I'm hoping it gets love because I I look at everything else and I'm like I used to use Simple Note as my daily driver note-taking app and I stopped only because I started using Bear to write and then Bear was a note-taking app and it kind of won the day for me in terms of the muscle memory. But automatic has a ton of great products. I mean, Woo Commerce, like when are we going to just like really pave the path of how we see automatic marching forward with a commercial product and maybe he's just not ready to say it and maybe that's the fair assessment to this. Maybe he's just unwilling to say it yet. Maybe it's a timing thing. Maybe it's like we we only say we reserve that for state of the word. But look, here's where I stand. I don't if there was a commercial version of WordPress that was air quotes better. Let's take Telix for example, which he talked about and uh it's the AI tool to build stuff inside native WordPress. If he did that, if if he incorporated Telix into WordPress, commercial version of WordPress that you could only buy from, let's say, Automatic or WordPress.com, but you could still download it and, you know, use it however you want. I'm fine with that. Like I am 100% okay with automatic having commercial endeavors, having ways to monetize, having ways to stay healthy and sustainable so long as it means that you're bringing the open-source side of it on that ride. And if 20% of the goods better is 20% of this like featurerich stuff goes into the commercial side and we get the rest of the 80%. Fine. I would love that in fact because that means that there's a clear path and a clear mission forward and you're healthy and you're selling stuff and business is good. And by the way, we're taking all that stuff that we're learning, we're baking it into our product. 80% of it goes into the open source side. 20% of it is reserved for the commercial side. Sign me up. you know, where does Matt see the future of automatic and WordPress coming together with all these products? You know, an easytouse website builder meets e-commerce meets media with with Pocketcast and podcast hosting. I worked for a company that he in that he did a seed investment in at Castos. So, buy them buy them and let me run it. But you know this that's the thing like we have all this stuff. What does that future look like? And I think that's always the missing piece from that vision statement and and maybe he just doesn't have it yet. But I feel like somebody should at some point because we want automatic to uh to thrive and we want automatic to uh stay in business because it's very important to the success of WordPress in my opinion. It's the WP Minute. the wpmin.com/subscribe. Stay connected to that newsletter and the podcast. Search for the WP Minute wherever you listen to podcast. Subscribe to our YouTube channels. Spread the word uh to other WordPress professionals that uh you love getting your information from the WP Minute., My Thoughts on Mullenweg's Keynote WCUS2025, Matt Medeiros, 01k486a2db2ssx3ratcky39stg.