WordPress contributors are having an ongoing discussion about how AI might fit into the WordPress ecosystem, either in core or as a plugin.
There are no plans at this time to add AI to WordPress core, these discussions are just the starting point, turning on the light to see what’s out there so to speak.
A number of contributors chimed in to share their views, and although the discussion is just beginning, important points were made.
Plugin or basic integration
One thing that was agreed upon at this point was that AI integration could be better achieved through external plugins rather than being coded into WordPress core.
Matt Cromwell shared his concern that current WordPress plans are full of projects that needed to be finished, and that adding AI to that load could distract and take efforts away from existing projects.
But he also agreed that talking about AI is the smart thing to do at this point.
he he wrote:
“At what cost would the project pursue an AI integration?
… It’s hard for me to imagine following the current roadmap with excellence and stability AND adding a big AI integration as well.
… since all AI options currently require integration with a third-party system, some kind of pricing, and authentication, it clearly seems like plugin territory to me.
It’s a fun exercise to dream of what an AI-powered WordPress would look like, but at this early stage of AI I think it’s better to let the plugin ecosystem do the innovation so that Core can focus on its more fundamental features that need improve. …”
Diagnostic AI co-pilot
Ollie Jones provided a brilliant use of AI in the context of keeping a WordPress site running.
They suggested integrating AI as a diagnostic copilot that can identify a problem (presumably like a plugin conflict) and offer next steps.
Ollie he wrote:
“HERE IS the AI feature I want to see: send traces and error messages to the AI and then say ‘Hey AI, what went wrong here?’ Suggest some ways to fix the problem.’
If this worked even minimally on the ‘what went wrong’ question, the WordPress people will love it.”
It’s a good idea. How good would it be for an artificial intelligence to detect when two plugins conflict with the possibility of blocking the site?
It would be helpful if the AI could take steps to block the problematic code, keep the site up and running, and send a message about it.
If AIs are assistants, helping with the day-to-day publishing and development tasks seems like a useful application of the technology in a way that wouldn’t eliminate anyone’s job.
Member of the WordPress AI team
Another person, robglidden, had a similar view of AI only this time as a user of a collaborative team.
The comment is a reference to Phase 3 of the four-phase plan to modernize WordPress with Gutenberg.
WordPress is currently in the second of four planned phases, the third of which focuses on collaboration.
Examples of Phase 3 approaches:
Real-time collaboration
Building the user interface and infrastructure to accommodate multiple team members customizing the website simultaneously.
Asynchronous collaboration
The ability to share drafts, comments and annotations
Editorial flows
This incorporates editorial features such as steps, goals, and prerequisites into the content creation and publishing workflow.
There are many other focuses for phase three which will start later in 2023.
the robbery slide he wrote:
“I would suggest looking at AI chatbots as a user type (“just another”) in the next phase 3 of collaboration/workflow.
I want an AI chatbot in my multi-user collaboration team on a phase 3 WordPress.
In the multi-user collaborative workflows already described in “Phase 3 Collaboration”, it seems that essentially the same infrastructure should work for both human users and AI “users”.
In fact, it’s not a stretch when reading this document to think of “users”, “contributors” and “creators” as users who have also been assigned and perform tasks within a flow of work…”
AI is already integrated with WordPress
An eye-opening contribution came from James LePage, founder of an AI SaaS company called CodeWP.
It is a plugin that offers an AI Code Generator plugin specifically for WordPress development.
According to the CodeWP website, the plugin can generate WordPress-specific code at the PHP, JavaScript, and WooCommerce levels.
While it promises to mitigate the need for expensive developers, it looks like a useful product for developers themselves, to help make them more productive.
James LePage he wrote:
“It seems to me a solid territory of connectors; 1: AI will always require computation, i.e. 3rd party services, and I think that already takes it out of the core and 2: we don’t really need anything special to integrate AI.
I’m the founder of one of the only AI SaaS offerings for WP, and we’re building a plugin to help integrate our service with individual sites.
We also collaborate with existing code snippet plugins.
There is nothing we really need from Core to help with this plugin, and we can add all the features we need by leveraging existing features/functions.
James brings up an interesting point about integrating AI with WordPress, as the integration is already here.
There are at least three SEO plugins and one content optimization plugin that integrate AI:
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) Rank Math SEOPress WordLift WordPress Plugin
RankMath includes an AI content assistant feature called Content AI. Rank Math’s Content AI provides SEO-focused suggestions for improving content, including which headings to use.
SEOPress and AIOSEO offer programmatic title element generation and description meta tags through an integration with OpenAI
All three AI integrations require a paid upgrade. These are examples of how AI is already being integrated into the WordPress ecosystem.
Finally, WordLift is a content optimization plugin that also integrates AI.
In some ways, WordPress already contains AI integration, which shows the value of the third-party plugin ecosystem that is able to innovate quickly.
WordPress keeps up with AI
It’s encouraging to see WordPress discuss how to leverage technology to keep WordPress moving forward and not falling behind.
While this is just a conversation starter, many of today’s innovations, such as the WordPress Performance Team, also began as conversations like this.
What types of AI integration in WordPress would you like to see?
Do you have thoughts? Share them in the official WordPress discussion:
Let’s talk about it: WordPress Core and Artificial Intelligence
Featured image by Shutterstock/Master1305
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