I just gave a talk at WordCamp Asia 2026 a few hours ago - remotely, which wasn't the plan, but it worked out surprisingly well. Not the same as being there though...
The topic: why WordPress's history of open extensibility is actually a structural advantage in the AI era, not just a nostalgic footnote.
Here's the argument in short: when the WordPress community shifted from editing core directly to building on hooks and filters, it wasn't just a technical decision. It was a cultural one. The community decided that the future should be built on a shared protocol, not shortcuts. And what came out of that was one of the most successful open-source ecosystems in the history of the web — tens of thousands of plugins, all interacting without permission, without contracts, without even knowing each other. Just a shared interface.
The WordPress core AI team is moving in the same direction now. The Abilities API (in WordPress 6.9), the MCP Adapter, and the WP AI Client (both coming in WordPress 7.0, which is expected later this month) are the hooks system for AI. Common protocols. Shared infrastructure. Open by default. Anyone can build on it, no single entity controls it.
Meanwhile, the vibe coding tools people are excited about are largely walled gardens — capable AI, but siloed ecosystems where everyone reinvents the same wheel independently. WordPress's 60,000+ plugins, each potentially exposing capabilities through the Abilities API, creates network effects no closed platform can replicate.
But the deeper advantage isn't even technical. It's the culture of sharing that's been part of this community for over 20 years. That's not a feature you can copy.
I wrote it all up here — would love to hear what you think: https://lnkd.in/djbf4emY