On December 2, 2025, I joined roughly 45 WordPress group members on the high of San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower for some of the unique occasions in WordPress historical past. State of the Phrase 2025 was invite-only, held at an undisclosed location, and delivered one thing the mission had by no means tried earlier than: a stay on-stage launch of WordPress 6.9.
As Senior Supervisor of Advertising Operations at InMotion Internet hosting, I had the privilege of witnessing firsthand how WordPress is positioning itself for the following twenty years of the open internet.
An Intimate Setting for a Main Announcement
The 20 th State of the Phrase felt completely different from earlier years. With roughly 45 attendees representing internet hosting firms, plugin builders, businesses, WordPress contributors, and Basis board members, the ambiance was intimate but charged with significance. We gathered on the Salesforce Tower’s 59th flooring, handled to panoramic views of San Francisco, together with the Golden Gate Bridge.
Resulting from safety considerations, pictures was restricted contained in the occasion house. We may seize the breathtaking cityscape, however not the displays themselves. This created a novel surroundings the place attendees had been absolutely current, engaged within the second quite than documenting it.
WordPress has all the time been about democratizing publishing. Being in a room with solely 45 individuals who signify hundreds of thousands of WordPress customers felt like a distillation of that mission. Each particular person there carried the voice of a a lot bigger group.
A Jazz-Impressed Celebration of Convergence
From the pre-event advertising supplies to the on-site expertise, a cohesive design theme wove all through: concentric circles with parallel grooves echoing the floor of a vinyl file. This visible motif paid tribute to WordPress’s custom of naming main releases after notable jazz musicians. WordPress 6.9, launched stay throughout the occasion, carries the codename “Gene” in honor of jazz drummer Gene Krupa.
The occasion organizers created interactive moments that strengthened this musical connection. Attendees chosen classic vinyl information and painted them on spinning wheels. I known as this exercise “vibe vinyling” within the spirit of “vibe coding,” the AI-assisted growth strategy that has turn out to be widespread amongst builders. We additionally acquired themed swag, together with tote baggage, t-shirts, and enamel pins that includes spinning information.
WordPress by the Numbers: Continued Market Dominance
Matt Mullenweg opened with statistics that strengthened WordPress’s place as the inspiration of the open internet. The platform now powers 43% of all web sites globally with roughly 60% CMS market share. For context, Shopify, the second-largest CMS, holds 6.8% market share.
Among the many high 1,000 web sites worldwide, WordPress adoption climbed to 49.4%, up 2.3% from the earlier yr. Japan emerged as a very sturdy market, with WordPress powering 58.5% of all Japanese web sites and commanding 83% CMS market share in that area. Japanese grew to become the second most-used language on WordPress, and for the primary time, over 56% of WordPress websites function in languages apart from English.
The plugin ecosystem confirmed explosive development with over 60,000 plugins now accessible within the listing, a 68% improve in permitted plugins since 2024. Plugin downloads are projected to achieve 2.1 billion by year-end. Block themes crossed the 1,000 threshold with a 40% adoption price amongst WordPress customers.
The Stay Launch of WordPress 6.9
Probably the most memorable second got here when launch leads gathered on stage to press the discharge button for WordPress 6.9 “Gene.” The room counted down collectively, and inside hours, over 700,000 websites had already up to date to the brand new model. Transport a serious WordPress launch stay, on stage, with out incident, demonstrated the reliability and belief the group has constructed into its processes over twenty years.
WordPress 6.9 launched a number of collaboration-focused options together with block editor notes for inline feedback on particular blocks, electronic mail notifications for collaboration, and improved drag-and-drop interactions. Developer-focused additions included the Skills API, HTML API enhancements, and Interactivity API maturation for smoother client-side interactions.
WordPress Takes AI Significantly
Probably the most important announcement for internet hosting suppliers and businesses was WordPress’s complete AI technique. James LePage, who leads Automattic’s devoted AI group fashioned in mid-2025, offered 4 foundational “constructing blocks” that shipped in WordPress 6.9:
Skills API creates a unified registry describing WordPress capabilities throughout PHP, REST endpoints, the command palette, and future AI-driven interactions. This standardization permits AI methods to know what WordPress can do in a structured, machine-readable format.
WP AI Shopper offers an abstraction layer for speaking with any generative AI supplier, together with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Builders write prompts as soon as; website house owners configure their most well-liked supplier. This provider-agnostic strategy ensures flexibility as AI fashions evolve.
MCP Adapter bridges the Skills API with AI suppliers via the Mannequin Context Protocol, enabling AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT to know and act inside WordPress safely and predictably.
AI Experiments Plugin is now accessible on WordPress.org, offering end-user AI options and serving as a reference implementation for builders constructing AI-powered instruments.
Past the AI-specific constructing blocks, WordPress 6.9 launched two further APIs that strengthen the platform’s technical basis:
HTML API introduces new methods of working with and modifying HTML server-side. The API ensures safer, extra dependable dealing with, decreasing the barrier for theme and block builders who work with dynamic or structured markup.
Interactivity API delivers smoother, quicker interactions with out requiring heavy JavaScript frameworks. Improved routing, higher state administration, and clearer conventions assist builders create wealthy, trendy interfaces with out leaving the WordPress philosophy of simplicity and adaptability.
What impressed me most about WordPress’s AI strategy is the architectural resolution to stay provider-agnostic. They’re constructing infrastructure that adapts to whichever AI fashions show simplest, quite than betting every little thing on a single supplier. That’s the sort of forward-thinking that has stored WordPress related for 20 years.
Why AI-Generated Web sites Received’t Substitute WordPress
Throughout networking classes, conversations regularly turned to AI web site builders like Lovable, Bolt, and comparable instruments that promise to generate full web sites from pure language prompts. My perspective differs from the alarmist takes circulating in tech media.
I don’t see AI-generated web sites as a right away menace to WordPress. Instruments like Lovable and Bolt are nowhere close to as mature as they must be for critical enterprise use until you’ve gotten a full-stack growth group behind you to troubleshoot points and obtain a really seamless deployment workflow. For many companies, the gaps in Search engine optimisation readiness, deployment pipelines, and collaboration options make these instruments impractical with out important technical assets.
The technical limitations are important. AI-generated websites usually rely closely on React and client-side rendering, making them almost invisible to search engines like google and yahoo and crawlers. For companies that depend upon natural search site visitors, this limitation represents a elementary barrier to adoption.
It’s vital to have a web site that may be consumed by crawlers so companies may be current in search engines like google and yahoo, LLMs, AI overviews, and past. WordPress websites are inherently extra Search engine optimisation-friendly as a result of they render server-side content material that crawlers can index. Most AI web site builders haven’t solved this drawback but.
That mentioned, WordPress may strengthen its aggressive place by changing into extra Search engine optimisation-native quite than relying on plugins for primary optimization. As customers more and more work together with content material via AI assistants and search options, WordPress would profit from constructing these capabilities instantly into core.
WooCommerce and the AI Search Alternative
One statistic from Matt Mullenweg’s presentation stood out for its implications on e-commerce internet hosting: WooCommerce now runs on 8.9% of all web sites globally, processing tens of billions in annual gross merchandise worth. For perspective, Shopify holds 6.8% market share. WooCommerce powers extra on-line shops than every other platform.
This huge footprint is about to intersect with a elementary shift in product discovery. On November 24, 2025, OpenAI launched procuring analysis in ChatGPT, a characteristic that creates personalised purchaser’s guides by researching merchandise throughout the online. It’s powered by GPT-5 mini, skilled with reinforcement studying particularly for procuring duties.
Main retailers together with Walmart and Goal are already collaborating with OpenAI to make sure their merchandise seem appropriately on this new ecosystem. As AI procuring assistants proliferate throughout platforms like Perplexity and Google, smaller WooCommerce retailers face an pressing window to determine AI visibility earlier than the optimization playbook turns into commoditized.
The convergence of WooCommerce’s market place and AI-powered procuring represents a serious alternative for internet hosting suppliers. The retailers who optimize their product knowledge and website efficiency now could have a major benefit as AI assistants turn out to be the default start line for buy analysis.
E-commerce AI instruments are altering the early-stage procuring funnel earlier than customers even attain conventional search engines like google and yahoo. AI-driven discovery places stress on the technical basis of on-line shops. Retailers on any platform want cleaner product knowledge, quicker website efficiency, and tighter integrations if they need their catalogs to floor in AI suggestions.
What WordPress Management Is Asking of the Ecosystem
James LePage made two direct asks to the WordPress ecosystem throughout his presentation. He inspired plugin builders to undertake the Skills API and expose current performance to AI assistants via standardized interfaces. He additionally urged internet hosting suppliers to trace the WP AI Shopper carefully, noting that three main hosts have already dedicated to bundling AI credit into their plans.
WordPress 7.0, focused for early 2026, will combine the WP AI Shopper instantly into core. This shift indicators that AI capabilities are transferring from premium add-on territory towards anticipated infrastructure, just like how SSL certificates advanced from paid extras to baseline necessities.
Watching WordPress management lay out this roadmap strengthened how rapidly AI is changing into desk stakes for the trade. The following yr will reveal which approaches resonate most with WordPress customers and website builders.
Conversations on Management and Group
Past the technical bulletins, State of the Phrase 2025 supplied beneficial networking time earlier than and after the primary presentation. I had the chance to talk with Mary Hubbard, WordPress Basis Government Director, about equitable feminine management and empowerment in open supply communities.
Mary opened the occasion by reflecting on her first full yr as Government Director, emphasizing how WordPress grows as a result of folks select to take part, be taught by doing, and assist others alongside the way in which. Her assertion that “WordPress doesn’t run on servers, it runs on individuals who present up” captured the spirit of the gathering.
The occasion additionally highlighted WordPress’s instructional initiatives. Be taught.WordPress.org served over 1.5 million learners this yr with common engagement time up 32%. The Campus Join program is bringing WordPress into universities, with college students at Costa Rica’s Universidad Fidélitas now incomes educational credit score for contributing to open supply.
Trying Ahead: The Subsequent 20 Years
Matt Mullenweg closed the occasion with a message that has stayed with me since leaving San Francisco. WordPress goals to stay the middle of the open internet for the following 20 years by creating foundational methods that adapt as AI transforms content material consumption and creation.
“Combat for freedom, combat for an open internet,” he mentioned because the occasion concluded.
The investments WordPress is making in AI infrastructure, collaboration options, and developer tooling place the platform to satisfy that objective. For internet hosting suppliers, businesses, and builders, the message is obvious: the way forward for WordPress consists of AI as a core functionality, not an afterthought.
State of the Phrase 2025 demonstrated that WordPress understands each the chance and the duty that comes with powering 43% of the online. The platform that democratized publishing is now working to democratize AI, guaranteeing these highly effective instruments stay accessible to creators and companies of all sizes.
