We already knew that WordPress.com was betting everything on artificial intelligence (AI). Evidence of this was the launch of its new AI-based product, which lets you start a site from scratch with great ease. The latest development is that an AI team has been formally established within WordPress, whose aim is to accelerate and coordinate AI projects across the entire WordPress ecosystem.
It is no coincidence that WordPress holds an impressive market share. Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, has always had a keen sense for spotting trends and AI is one of them. It is clear that he has understood that, for WordPress to remain relevant and even grow further, it must stay at the forefront of this technology, ensuring that innovation unfolds openly, guided by community values and developed according to core standards.
The approach matters greatly in this case. The new WordPress AI team will take on a strategic role, focused on meeting long-term goals and avoiding fragmentation. Of course, the community can also join this initiative or build its own via plugins. The way of operating will be through plugins, emulating how the performance team has worked—making improvements without waiting for regular Core releases.
The new AI team will coordinate all efforts in this regard, liaise with the other core WordPress teams, and be responsible for publishing and maintaining a public roadmap of AI initiatives and canonical plugins.
Of course, the team has names and affiliations:
- James LePage – Automattic
- Félix Arntz – Google
- Pascal Birchler – Google
- Jeff Paul – 10up
As can be seen, Google’s tentacles also extend into numerous open-source projects. Their contributions have been substantial and are much appreciated, but, on the other hand, Google Search is increasingly becoming a closed platform precisely because of AI and has decided to cut back significantly on the traffic it sends to content creators, many of whom rely on WordPress.
On the one hand, they take content without any permission (some organisations call it theft), and, not content with that, they use AI Overviews and their new AI mode to provide users with direct (albeit hallucinatory) answers, leaving the original sources without their reward in the form of audience.
To collaborate with the new AI team, you can join the Slack channel #core-ai and you can also find information on this website.
¿Did you know…?
Did you know that Automattic will have a strong presence at the CMS & AI AInnovación 2025 event organised by this publication, CMS MAG? It has been confirmed that Automattic will present the AI news for Newspack and WordPress VIP. If you want to request a free ticket to the event, there is still time.
* Original article written in Spanish, translated with chatGPT and reviewed in English by Jorge Mediavilla.
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