Artificial intelligence is no longer a buzzword you encounter in pitch decks and product demos. It’s infrastructure — woven into how we publish, how we build, and increasingly how WordPress itself works under the hood. With WordPress 7.0 shipping a native AI Client, Abilities API, and Connectors system directly into core, every WordPress professional is about to feel the shift.
That’s why AI has its own dedicated presence at WordCamp Europe 2026, and why we’d encourage every attendee — whether you write plugins, run an agency, create content, or simply want to understand what’s coming — to make space in your schedule for it.
Why AI matters to every WordPress professional (not just developers)
When we talk about AI in WordPress, we’re not talking about replacing people. We’re talking about a platform-level change in how sites are built, managed, and extended — one that touches every role in the ecosystem.
WordPress 7.0 introduces a standardised framework for connecting AI providers directly to your site. Until now, every plugin that wanted to use AI had to build its own integration from scratch: its own API keys, its own credentials, its own interface. That era is ending.
Here’s why this matters beyond the code:
- It’s now in core. WordPress 7.0 ships with a Web Client AI API and a Connectors screen in the admin. Site owners can connect providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini from Settings → Connectors — no plugin plumbing required.
- It levels the playing field. Small plugin developers no longer need to build and maintain their own AI infrastructure. They can tap into the same shared layer that large teams use, reducing complexity and cost.
- It changes how plugins talk to each other. The Abilities API lets plugins register what they can do in a discoverable way. AI agents and automation tools can then find and use those capabilities without custom integration code for every combination.
- It future-proofs your workflow. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) Adapter means external AI assistants can interact with a WordPress site directly — reading content, triggering actions, auditing performance — all through a standardised interface.
- It creates new business opportunities. From AI-assisted content classification and meta description generation to bulk alt text processing, the practical applications are already taking shape in the AI plugin’s latest releases.
In short: AI in WordPress isn’t a feature you opt into. It’s becoming the fabric of the platform. Understanding it now is not optional — it’s a competitive advantage.
The Talks
Panel: inside WordPress 7.0
Speaker: Juan Manuel Garrido, Adam Silverstein, Benjamin Zekavica, Sarah Norris, Milana Cap
Where: Track 2
When: Friday 5 June at 10:15
Session page: Panel: inside WordPress 7.0
WordPress 7.0 is not yet another WordPress release. It might be the most significant release in a while. It comes with features we couldn’t even imagine a couple of years ago. It’s changing how we use WordPress and how we develop on top of and with WordPress. It’s changing everything.
Join a group of contributors who helped with this release in various ways to discuss not just new features in the software itself, but also the process of releasing such an impactful software, human errors, contribution workflows, and anything you wish to know about WordPress 7.0.
JuanMa is a Developer Advocate with 20+ years of experience in web development, specializing in JavaScript and WordPress. He works as Developer Relations at Automattic. A WordPress core contributor, he co-leads the Triage team for the WP 7.0 release squad and is part of the WordPress Test Team. He focuses on advocating for WordPress as a full-featured and AI-ready development framework.
Follow his work on WordPress.org as @juanmaguitar
Adam is a WordPress core committer where he works to fix bugs and improve modern web capabilities. Previously at Google, these days he is focused on WordPress core where he works as a sponsored contributor. Adam loves long rafting trips, playing mbira, travel, taking walks and tending his over-sized garden.
Follow his work on WordPress.org as @adamsilverstein
Benjamin Zekavica shows how companies can use WordPress as a serious digital infrastructure instead of treating it as just another website. As the founder of Kreo Pulse and UnleashWP and a member of the WordPress Core Team, he combines strategic perspective with technical depth. Kreo Pulse helps companies use WordPress with greater clarity, reliability, and structure. With UnleashWP, he shares practical knowledge for professionals who want to do more than just use WordPress. They want to understand it more deeply and apply it more deliberately.
Follow his work on WordPress.org as @benjamin_zekavica
Milana Cap is a WordPress engineer at XWP, freelance WordPress engineer at Toptal, WordPress Documentation Team representative, plugin reviewer, and Documentation Focus lead for WordPress 5.8 – 6.2 release cycles, and end-user docs for 7.0. She helped organise some of the largest WordPress conferences, WordCamp Europe 2018 and 2019, focusing on Contributor Days, and 2026 as a member of the Speakers team. Being a single mum in Serbia, she developed the superpower of fighting the odds. Easily bribed with dark chocolate and a nice piece of bacon.
Follow her work on WordPress.org as @milana_cap
Natalia Basiura is an operations leader and startup builder working at the intersection of technology, community, and communication. She currently serves as Operations Director at Kraków Miastem Startupów Foundation, where she turns ideas into structured processes and helps teams deliver impactful projects.
She is the founder of FastMic, a platform that transforms event communication by enabling real-time audience interaction and turning passive attendees into active participants. She also leads Corpatriot, a project focused on building a community around civil defense and women’s safety, combining education, technology, and real-world needs.
Natalia has experience across both startup and NGO sectors, from cultural initiatives to tech-driven social projects. She actively co-creates communities, including LinkedIn Local Kraków, and serves on the board of Ubi Es? Foundation.
Her approach blends strategy with execution – she builds, tests, and improves, always staying close to people and their needs.
Follow her work on WordPress.org as @nataliabasiura
Smarter plugin permissions with the Abilities API
Speaker: Anukasha Singh
Where: Track 2
When: Friday 5 June at 14:30
Session page: Smarter plugin permissions with the Abilities API
Discover how the new Abilities API makes plugin permissions cleaner, safer, and easier to maintain. In just a few minutes, you’ll see how it differs from legacy capability checks, learn from a small code example, and get actionable tips you can take back to your own plugins.
I’m Anukasha, a developer specializing in WordPress security and authentication systems. I have built enterprise-grade SSO and identity solutions, integrating protocols like OAuth, SAML, JWT. I’m passionate about cybersecurity and open source technologies, and always up for talking security.
Follow her work on WordPress.org as @anukasha
Agentic AI & WordPress: from prompts to tools & systems
Speaker: Vito Peleg
Where: Workshop 2
When: Friday 5 June at 14:30
Session page: Agentic AI & WordPress: from prompts to tools & systems
Prompts chat; Agents act. In this hands-on session, you will move beyond LLMs to build a tool-using AI workflow. We’ll engineer a system that audits a live WordPress site, validates the results, and generates structured tickets. Bring your laptop; leave with a deployment-ready workflow.
Vito Peleg is the founder and CEO of Atarim.io – an AI-powered collaboration platform used by tens of thousands of web professionals worldwide. A former WordPress agency owner, Vito is deeply rooted in the WordPress community and its evolution. In 2021, he led the development of one of the first AI implementations inside WordPress, and today focuses on the shift toward agentic AI, helping creative teams move from simple prompts to systems that actually execute work.
Follow his work on WordPress.org as @wpfeedback
AI search: why your whole company should care
Speaker: Emma Young
Where: Workshop 2
When: Friday 5 June at 14:30
Session page: AI search: why your whole company should care
AI Search isn’t just SEO’s problem anymore – it’s everyone’s. From content teams to developers, PPC to partnerships, the shift to AI-native discovery affects your entire business. This session is your wake-up call: why you’re probably already behind, what’s changed, and the quick wins you can implement now to catch up.
Emma Young is Head of Organic Marketing at Hostinger, where she leads SEO, Content, YouTube, and Localization.
Her work sits at the intersection of search, AI, and creativity—exploring how ideas turn into content, content turns into distribution, and distribution turns into visibility.
She focuses on how search is evolving into something closer to a feed, where ranking isn’t enough, and brands need to be selected, cited, and remembered across the ecosystem.
Emma is known for challenging traditional SEO thinking and helping teams build not just optimized content—but content that travels, gets talked about, and earns its place in AI-driven discovery.
Follow her work on WordPress.org as @emmaht
AI won’t save your marketing (but it might save your time and money)
Speaker: Monika Dimitrova
Where: Track 1
When: Saturday 6 June at 10:30 AM
Session page: AI won’t save your marketing (but it might save your time and money)
AI won’t fix a weak strategy; it will just amplify what you already have. This talk explores why some businesses see real results while others produce more of what wasn’t working, and how small businesses can use AI as an equaliser without losing what makes them different.
Monika has spent the last 10 years at SiteGround, where she leads growth marketing, business development, and new product launches. She’s perpetually studying something, and when she’s not working or learning, she splits her time between video games, grey skies, two very demanding cats, one very mature kid, and one very patient partner. That, and baking.
Follow her work on WordPress.org as @zwindey
Build your first AI-powered WordPress plugin
Speaker: Jonathan Bossenger
Where: Workshop 1
When: Saturday 6 June at 10:45 AM
Session page: Build your first AI-powered WordPress plugin
Jonathan is a developer, educator, writer, and open-source advocate from Cape Town, South Africa. After a 20-year career in software development, he found his calling in developer relations in 2020 and hasn’t looked back. Jonathan is passionate about supporting developer communities, building awesome developer tooling, and creating engaging educational content for developers.
Follow his work on WordPress.org as @psykro
Fighting spam and bots on WordPress with AI
Speaker: Adeolu Oshadare
Where: Track 2
When: Saturday 6 June at 14:10
Session page: Fighting spam and bots on WordPress with AI
Learn how AI-powered solutions can help WordPress sites combat spam, bots, and fake sign-ups. Discover how lightweight, privacy-friendly AI detects abnormal behavior to enhance security and performance.
Adeolu is a data professional with a strong interest in applying AI to solve practical problems. Her work focuses on using machine learning techniques to detect patterns, improve systems, and enhance user experience. At WordCamp Europe 2026, she will share a practical approach to identifying and preventing spam and bot activity in WordPress, breaking down how AI can be used in a simple and effective way without unnecessary complexity.
Follow her work on WordPress.org as @mary1197
The AI-first WordPress site: crawler to citation
Speaker: Alain Schlesser
Where: Track 1
When: Saturday 6 June at 14:45
Session page: The AI-first WordPress site: crawler to citation
AI platforms generated 1.13 billion referral visits by mid-2025, yet most WordPress sites aren’t ready. This practical session covers the complete AI optimization stack: strategic robots.txt configuration, structured data for AI comprehension, content patterns that earn citations, and measuring AI visibility. Leave with an actionable checklist to make your WordPress site AI-ready today..
Alain Schlesser is a Google Developer Expert, WP-CLI maintainer, and agentic engineer who led NLWeb and schema aggregation initiatives at Yoast. He specialises in AI systems, structured data, and the intersection of WordPress with the AI-native web.
Follow his work on WordPress.org as @sclessera
The bigger picture
WordPress 7.0 represents a philosophical shift as much as a technical one. For the first time, the platform is treating AI not as a plugin concern but as core infrastructure — something every theme, every plugin, and every workflow can build on.
The sessions at WordCamp Europe 2026 reflect that shift. They span the full range: from deep technical architecture to business strategy, from spam prevention to agentic workflows, from plugin permissions to product design. Together, they paint a picture of where WordPress is heading — and what you need to know to keep up.
Whether you’re a developer evaluating the new APIs, a business owner wondering how AI changes your competitive position, or a content creator curious about what your WordPress dashboard will look like in six months — Kraków is where these conversations are happening.
Make space in your schedule. The AI track at WCEU 2026 is not a side event. It’s the main story.