WordPress.com has integrated its Artificial Intelligence assistant directly into the platform’s editing and media management interfaces. The feature is now available for sites on the company’s Business and Commerce plans at no additional cost. This integration aims to provide contextual assistance to users as they build and manage their websites.
The AI tool is embedded within the WordPress editor and Media Library. It is designed to understand a site’s existing content and layout, allowing users to make changes through conversational prompts without needing to use external applications or write code.
Core Functionality and Availability
The assistant becomes active once enabled by a site administrator. It appears in several key areas of the WordPress.com dashboard. Unlike standalone AI chatbots, it operates with the context of the user’s specific website.
Administrators can enable the tool by navigating to their site’s Settings and selecting the “AI tools” option. For sites originally created using WordPress.com’s AI website builder, the assistant is enabled automatically. The company notes the tool works optimally with block-based themes; on classic themes, AI editing functions within the page editor are unavailable, though image generation in the Media Library remains functional.
Editor and Content Applications
Within the post and page editor, the AI can adjust design elements and rewrite content based on user requests. Examples provided by the company include commands to modernize a section’s layout, change site-wide color schemes, suggest professional fonts, add new page sections like testimonials, or translate content into other languages.
The system can also generate title options and create images for blog posts directly from a text description. This functionality is intended to keep users within their workflow rather than switching between different software tools.
Media Library Integration
A significant component is the AI’s integration into the Media Library. Users can generate new images or edit existing ones by describing what they want. Commands can include generating an image of a specific subject, converting a photo to black and white, or altering objects within a picture.
WordPress.com states this image feature utilizes what it describes as the latest models from a major AI provider, offering the capability without requiring separate subscriptions to image generation services.
Collaboration via Block Notes
The assistant also extends the block notes feature introduced in WordPress 6.9. Users can tag the AI within notes attached to content blocks to request tasks like fact-checking information, generating headline ideas, or suggesting examples to improve a paragraph. The AI can pull context from the site’s own content and reference external sources.
Context and Development
The move represents a broader trend of embedding generative AI directly into established software platforms. By integrating the tool into the core editing environment, WordPress.com aims to reduce the friction typically associated with using external AI applications for web design and content creation.
The company has positioned the assistant as a natural extension of its existing AI website builder, which allows users to create a full site through a conversational interface. The integrated assistant is intended to provide continuous support after the initial site creation phase.
Looking ahead, the integration is one of several AI-powered features planned for WordPress.com users this year. The development suggests a continued focus on incorporating intelligent tools directly into the Content Management workflow, potentially influencing how similar platforms approach AI integration.
Source: WordPress.com Blog
