I keep hearing the same questions pop up lately, in Slack, at events, in casual convos with agency folks:
“Do we even need WordPress anymore?”
“Can’t AI just build the whole site?”
So I asked someone who would know, Adam Silverstein, a longtime WordPress core contributor. He’s also one of the people Kinsta proudly sponsors for his work on open source.
In the run-up to WordCamp US 2025, Adam joined me for a chat about his upcoming talk:
Unlock Developer Superpowers with AI
What followed was one of the most grounded, insightful takes on AI in development that I’ve heard in a while.
Here are a few takeaways:
AI is (still) just glorified autocomplete
That’s how Adam described it, a reminder that under all the hype, it’s still a tool that completes what we start. Helpful? Absolutely. But magical? Not quite.
WordPress isn’t going anywhere
Sure, AI can spin up a brochure site. But what about maintaining that site? Editing content? Handling forms and workflows? That’s what CMSs (WordPress) were built for.
Developers still matter
One of the best parts of the conversation was Adam’s take on junior devs. He sees AI as a way to accelerate their growth, not replace them. That said, he’s quick to point out the risk of over-relying on AI without understanding the code it generates.
“If you don’t have any discernment to tell what a good result is, you’re going to wind up with not-great code.”
Adam’s talk is coming up at WordCamp US, and I’m excited to see the full version. Until then, I highly recommend watching our full interview. Especially if you’re a developer, agency owner, or just trying to figure out where this whole AI-in-web-dev thing is headed.