AI SDK for WordPress

Executive Summary

WordPress powers 43% of the web. Yet in the AI era, it risks becoming irrelevant to the agencies and professionals who built that market share.

The problem isn't that WordPress lacks AI capabilities. The problem is that those capabilities point in the wrong direction.

While the WordPress community has focused on building AI features inside WordPress installations, the rest of the technology ecosystem has raced ahead by making their platforms accessible to AI. Laravel, Next.js, Vercel, Netlify—these platforms have become first-class citizens in the AI ecosystem. WordPress has not.

This paper proposes an open standard: the AI SDK for WordPress. A toolkit that makes any WordPress site agent-ready—connectable, controllable, and context-aware for any AI tool. An initiative that complements WordPress core's AI efforts while solving the problems core cannot address.

The stakes are clear. Without a standard for AI-to-WordPress connectivity, the ecosystem that agencies depend on will become the longest path to deliverable success rather than the shortest. Without rapid change, WordPress-focused agencies find themselves at a fundamental competitive disadvantage.

This paper proposes a path forward.

Part I: The Shift WordPress Missed

The Direction of AI Integration Matters

There are two ways to integrate with AI:

1. Platform calls AI — The platform makes requests to AI services
2. AI calls platform — AI agents operate the platform directly

Most WordPress AI initiatives focus on the first approach. A WordPress site asks Claude to generate content. A plugin uses GPT to write product descriptions. WordPress reaches out.

This is useful. But it's not transformative.

The transformative approach is the second one: AI agents that don't just explain how to update plugins—but actually update them. Workflows that don't just suggest inventory changes—but make them. Assistants that don't just describe your client's site—but operate it.

This is where the rest of the technology ecosystem has been building. And this is where WordPress has fallen behind.

What Other Platforms Understood

Consider Laravel, the PHP framework that shares WordPress's language foundation.

Laravel's ecosystem invested heavily in making the platform accessible to AI. Their MCP server (Laravel Boost) exposes documentation for the entire framework, plus integrations with popular first-party and third-party packages. When developers work with AI tools, they can instantly retrieve current documentation, follow established patterns, and build with confidence.

The result: Laravel has become one of the most productive platforms for AI-assisted development. Agencies building enterprise applications can leverage AI to move faster, not slower.

Or consider Vercel and Netlify. These platforms enable instant container spin-up and deployment. An AI agent can launch an environment, build an application, and deploy it to production—all through standardized interfaces. The barrier between "AI-generated code" and "working production application" has nearly disappeared.

Where WordPress Stands Today

WordPress has no equivalent infrastructure.

There is no standard way to say: "Launch a WordPress site, connect my AI tools, then push to Kinsta when it's ready."

There is no AI workspace environment where agents can build WordPress sites with the same fluidity they build Next.js applications.

There is no verified documentation layer that AI tools can query for authoritative WordPress knowledge—beyond what happened to be in their training data.

Credit where it's due: important work is happening.

The Abilities API, shipping in WordPress 6.9, provides a central registry for plugin and theme capabilities. The MCP Adapter will translate those capabilities into a format AI tools understand. The emerging AGENTS.md standard allows plugins to advertise their capabilities before installation—giving AI the menu before it enters the restaurant.

And FAIR (Federated and Independent Repositories), now a Linux Foundation project, is building decentralized package distribution with proper trust verification. If FAIR indexes AGENTS.md files, the entire WordPress supply chain becomes machine-readable.

This is real progress on discovery—helping AI find and understand what plugins can do.

But discovery is only half the equation. Once an AI agent knows a plugin exists and understands its capabilities, then what? How does it install the plugin on a remote site? Configure the settings? Execute operations across 47 client sites? Handle failures and rollbacks?

The ecosystem is building the map. Someone needs to build the roads.

Part II: The Cost of Inaction

WordPress's Historic Advantage—Eroded

WordPress became the dominant web platform because it represented the lowest barrier to entry for creating websites that delivered value to clients.

That advantage has been neutralized.

In the AI era, the "barrier to entry" isn't just about ease of use. It's about connectivity. Platforms that integrate with AI workflows have near-zero friction. Platforms that don't have infinite friction.

Today, an agency building a Next.js application can:

• Spin up an AI workspace in seconds
• Connect Claude Code, Cursor, or any AI development tool
• Build, test, and iterate with AI assistance
• Deploy to production automatically

An agency building a WordPress site cannot do any of this with the same fluidity. Each step requires manual intervention, custom tooling, or workarounds.

The irony is painful: WordPress—the platform built on democratizing publishing—has become the most difficult platform to work with in an era where AI is democratizing development.

The Structural Problem

There's a deeper architectural flaw in how WordPress is approaching AI—and it's important to understand why it matters.

The current direction has AI working inside WordPress, executing through PHP within the application itself. This is fundamentally dangerous. When an AI agent operates inside the software it's modifying, any mistake the agent makes can break the software entirely. A fatal PHP error doesn't just stop the AI workflow—it locks you out. The site becomes inaccessible. The agent broke the very thing it was using to work.

Think about what that means: "Build your site within your site" doesn't work. The moment something goes wrong, everything goes wrong.

Other platforms understood this. They don't let AI work inside the application—they provide infrastructure and connectivity into the application from outside. Vercel's preview deployments. Laravel's local development servers. The AI operates from a safe layer above, with the ability to observe, modify, and recover without ever being at risk of breaking itself.

WordPress has no equivalent. The AI initiatives being built assume the agent operates inside PHP, inside the WordPress installation. That's not just a missing feature—it's a structural vulnerability that makes WordPress uniquely risky for AI-assisted development.

Individual hosts offer their own workarounds, but there's no unified standard. No infrastructure layer that AI tools can rely on.

The Timeline

The AI development ecosystem is moving faster than most industries anticipate.

Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and similar tools have achieved mainstream adoption among professional developers. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is becoming the standard interface for AI-to-platform communication. Every major AI provider is investing in agent capabilities.

Consider what just happened: In January 2026, Google announced their Universal Commerce Protocol—the standard for how AI agents will shop on behalf of humans. Launch partners included Shopify, BigCommerce, Etsy, Walmart, Target, Stripe, Visa.

WooCommerce—which powers a massive chunk of global e-commerce—wasn't mentioned.

When the protocols that define AI commerce are being written, and WordPress isn't at the table, that's not a warning sign. That's the fire alarm.

WordPress agencies face a choice: participate in this ecosystem or become obsolete within it.

Based on current trajectories, agencies that cannot offer AI-integrated WordPress development will face significant competitive pressure within 12-18 months. Not because their skills become worthless—but because their delivery timelines will be multiples of what competitors using AI-native platforms can offer.

The gap is widening. Every month without a standard solution is a month the WordPress ecosystem falls further behind.

Part III: The AI SDK for WordPress

An Open Standard, Not a Product

The AI SDK for WordPress is an open-source toolkit that makes any WordPress site agent-ready.

It is not a product. It is not a platform. It is a standard—designed to be implemented by any host, integrated by any plugin, and connected by any AI tool.

The SDK complements existing WordPress AI initiatives rather than competing with them. A plugin author who registers capabilities with the core Abilities API gets SDK capabilities for free. The SDK extends the foundation others are building to places they cannot go.

Think of it as three layers working together:

• FAIR = Supply chain (decentralized package distribution and trust verification)
• Abilities API + AGENTS.md = Discovery (what plugins can do, before and after installation)
• AI SDK = Execution (how things actually get done across sites and hosts)

Discovery tells AI what's possible. The SDK makes it happen.

Seven Components, One Standard

The SDK provides seven interconnected capabilities:

Each component is useful independently. Together, they create a complete standard for WordPress AI.

What This Enables

With the AI SDK implemented across the ecosystem:

Part IV: The Path Forward

A Collaborative Initiative

The AI SDK for WordPress cannot succeed as a solo effort. It requires coordination across the ecosystem—hosting companies, plugin developers, agencies, and the WordPress core team.

We're proposing a staged approach:

The Partnership Model

We're inviting hosting companies to be founding partners.

This isn't about selling software. It's about building a standard that benefits everyone in the ecosystem. Founding partners will:

• Participate in specification development
• Get early access to integration tooling
• Shape the Host Connect interface for their platforms
• Be listed as certified "AI SDK Compatible" hosts at launch

We're also establishing a community for ongoing collaboration—hosting companies, plugin providers, agencies, and independent developers. Regular meetings. Shared Discord. Transparent development.

Proving the Concept

Skepticism is warranted. Standards proposals often fail.

This is why we're building proof of concept first. Dollie's existing platform demonstrates what's possible today with the toolset we've developed internally. We're making this available as an early access testing environment.

Agencies can:

• Test agentic WordPress workflows
• Connect their preferred AI tools
• Provide feedback on real-world usage
• Access MCP servers for their sites

No lock-in. Pay only for AI usage. See what's possible, then decide whether to participate in building the standard.

Part V: The Stakes

Why This Matters Beyond WordPress

WordPress isn't just a CMS. It's the infrastructure for 43% of the web.

There's an argument—a good one—that WordPress's twenty years of battle-tested code is actually an advantage in the AI era. The "generalization tax" that WordPress pays (handling millions of edge cases, maintaining backward compatibility) creates a foundation that no AI-generated bespoke solution can match. WordPress as a "Base AI"—a stable, standardized layer that AI builds on top of rather than replacing.

But that argument only holds if WordPress is accessible to AI. A battle-tested foundation that AI can't reach is just legacy infrastructure.

If WordPress becomes disconnected from the AI ecosystem, the consequences extend far beyond developers and agencies. Millions of businesses will find themselves on an increasingly isolated platform. The content they've built. The workflows they've established. The investments they've made. All of it becomes harder to leverage in an AI-native future.

This isn't about WordPress versus other platforms. It's about whether the open web—the web that WordPress has championed—remains relevant as AI reshapes how we build and interact with digital experiences.

Why Open Standards Matter

A proprietary solution to this problem would be worse than no solution.

The WordPress ecosystem's strength has always been its openness. Thousands of hosts. Tens of thousands of plugins. Millions of sites. All interoperable because of shared standards.

The AI SDK must follow the same principle. Open source. Open standard. Open ecosystem. Any host can implement it. Any plugin can integrate with it. Any AI tool can connect through it.

This is why we're building a standard, not a product. The moment this becomes proprietary, it fails the ecosystem it's meant to serve.

The Window Is Closing

We have perhaps 18 months before the WordPress ecosystem's position becomes difficult to recover.

Not because WordPress will disappear. It won't. But because the gap between "AI-native platforms" and "everything else" will become so wide that agencies and businesses will make rational decisions to move their new projects elsewhere.

The talent will follow. The investment will follow. The innovation will follow.

WordPress survived the mobile transition. It survived the JavaScript framework wars. It survived the headless CMS trend. Each time, the ecosystem adapted—sometimes slowly, but eventually.

This transition is different. The pace is faster. The stakes are higher. The alternatives are more mature.

We don't have the luxury of slow adaptation.

Conclusion: An Invitation

This paper is not a product announcement. It's an invitation.

To hosting companies: Join us in defining the Host Connect standard. Shape how your platform integrates with the AI ecosystem.

To plugin developers: Participate in the Skills specification. Define how AI should interact with your software.

To agencies: Test what's possible today. Provide feedback. Help us understand what you need.

To the WordPress core team: We're building on your foundation. The Abilities API is the right abstraction. We want to extend it, not replace it.

WordPress has always been a community project. This initiative must be as well.

The community has already proven it can self-organize to build critical infrastructure. When decentralized package distribution was needed, FAIR emerged—now a Linux Foundation project with 40+ contributors and neutral governance. That same model can work for AI execution infrastructure.

The AI SDK for WordPress exists because the WordPress ecosystem needs it to exist. Not because any single company can profit from it—but because without it, the ecosystem that millions of businesses depend on will slowly become obsolete.

We have the talent. We have the infrastructure. We have the community. We have proof that this kind of coordination works.

What we need is the will to act before the window closes.