AI for WordPress
What WordPress 7.0’s AI Features Mean for Agencies
WordPress 7.0 put AI infrastructure into core. Here is what the AI Client, Connectors and Abilities API actually do, what else shipped and what was cut, and what agencies should change on client sites.
WordPress 7.0 shipped on 20 May 2026, about six weeks after its original April target, and it was the first major release where the headline was AI. Five months on, most client sites have updated, and the questions agencies get are practical: is AI now running on our site, does it cost us anything, and should we be doing something with it?
Short answers: no, not unless someone switches it on; no, not by itself; and yes, a few things are worth doing. This post walks through the WordPress 7.0 AI features in plain English, what else came with the release, what was pulled, and what we would change on client sites now. For the bigger picture, start with our AI for WordPress guide.
The three AI building blocks in core
1. The AI Client
A provider-agnostic way for any plugin to ask a generative AI model to do something. The plugin describes the task; WordPress sends it to whichever provider the site has configured and returns the result. Plugin developers no longer need to build and maintain separate integrations for each AI company.
What it means for agencies: custom features you build for clients are not locked to one vendor. If a client changes AI provider for cost, privacy or quality reasons, your code keeps working.
2. Connectors
A new screen under Settings → Connectors where an administrator authenticates AI providers. Anthropic, Google and OpenAI are supported by default. It is opt-in: with no connector configured, nothing on the site calls an AI model.
What it means for agencies: one place to control and audit AI access per site, and a clear answer for clients who ask whether their content is being sent anywhere.
3. The Abilities API
Introduced in 6.9 and expanded in 7.0 with core abilities for common tasks and a JavaScript package that discovers abilities registered on the server. An ability is a described, permission-checked action — “publish a post”, “export orders”, “update stock” — that AI features and external agents can find and run.
What it means for agencies: this is the long-term opportunity. Custom plugins that register their actions as abilities become usable by AI tools without bespoke integration work, and with permissions you control.
What is not in core
The features editors notice — title suggestions, excerpts, alt text, image and featured image generation — are in the separate, optional AI plugin from the WordPress AI team. Agents connecting from outside (Claude, Cursor, Codex and similar) go through the official MCP Adapter plugin, which is also separate and exposes only abilities you explicitly make public.
Keeping these out of core was deliberate. Core provides the safe plumbing; site owners choose which features to add.
The rest of 7.0 that clients will notice
- A refreshed admin with updated colours, buttons, forms and notices, built to WCAG 2.2 AA.
- The command palette everywhere — Cmd+K or Ctrl+K from any admin screen.
- Visual revisions with a slider and colour-coded changes, much easier for clients to understand than the old diff view.
- Notes improvements, including email notifications for mentions and a suggestions mode for proposed edits.
- New and improved blocks, including Breadcrumbs and Icon, plus block visibility by device and per-block custom CSS.
- PHP 7.4 minimum. Sites on PHP 7.2 or 7.3 cannot update.
What was cut
Real-time collaboration — several people editing the same post at once — was removed shortly before release because of stability and server load concerns, and postponed to a future version. If a client was promised “Google Docs-style editing in WordPress 7”, reset that expectation.
What we would do on client sites now
- Confirm every site is on 7.x and a supported PHP version. Anything stuck on an old version is a security issue before it is an AI issue.
- Check Settings → Connectors. Make sure nothing is connected that the client has not approved, and document what is.
- Agree an AI policy per client. Which providers, what data, which features, who reviews output. One page.
- Trial the AI plugin on staging for alt text first. It is the lowest-risk, highest-value feature for most sites.
- Register abilities in new custom plugins. It adds little to the build and makes the plugin future-ready. See when to build a custom plugin instead of buying one.
- Use staging for anything agent-driven. Our staging to production workflow applies to AI-driven content changes as much as to code.
The cost question
WordPress does not charge for any of this. Costs come from the AI provider, billed to whoever owns the API account, based on usage. For alt text and occasional suggestions the amounts are usually small, but they are not zero and they can grow with bulk jobs. Decide up front whether the client’s account or yours is connected, and say so in writing. If you look after the account, that oversight belongs in a maintenance retainer.
A real example of AI on a WordPress site
The most useful AI work we have done on our own site so far is not a feature at all. It is operations: we connected an AI assistant to our blog and used it to audit and fix internal links across 56 posts. The process and the guardrails are written up in how we fixed 10 orphaned posts with AI-assisted internal linking.
Frequently asked questions
Is AI switched on after updating to 7.0?
No. The infrastructure is there, but nothing calls an AI provider until an administrator configures a connector and a feature uses it.
Do our existing AI plugins still work?
Generally yes; they keep their own integrations. Over time we expect more plugins to move to the core AI Client, which simplifies key management.
Should we turn on the AI plugin for every client?
No. Turn on specific features where they solve a real problem, starting with alt text, and only with the client’s agreement on provider and data.
When will real-time collaboration arrive?
It was postponed to a future release without a confirmed date. Plan without it.
Want help rolling this out across client sites?
Version upgrades, PHP updates, AI configuration and custom abilities are all routine work for our team, delivered under your brand. See our maintenance and support service or the dedicated monthly plans.
// related