AI in WordPress: Practical Uses Beyond the Hype

Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic for years, but in WordPress, it’s no longer just “coming soon” — it’s here, and it’s practical. Used wisely, AI can help us build faster, more accessible, and more personalised sites without replacing the human touch that makes a website good.

The reality check

No, AI won’t replace developers. At least, not the good ones. What it will do is:

Speed up repetitive tasks
Give content creators a running start
Spot issues humans might miss
Help optimise images and performance

The trick is knowing where to use it — and where to keep your hands firmly on the wheel.

AI for content generation (with a big “but”)

Tools like Bertha AI or AI Engine integrate directly into the WordPress Block Editor. You can highlight a paragraph block, click a button, and get suggested content. You can even ask it to rephrase something for clarity or adjust the tone.

How it works: These plugins send your prompt to a Large Language Model (LLM) via an API (usually OpenAI), then insert the output into your post.

Example: generating a 150-word blog intro.

$response = wp_remote_post( 'https://api.openai.com/v1/completions', [
    'headers' => [
        'Authorization' => 'Bearer ' . OPENAI_API_KEY,
        'Content-Type'  => 'application/json'
    ],
    'body' => json_encode([
        'model' => 'text-davinci-003',
        'prompt' => 'Write a friendly 150-word intro about the importance of accessible web design.',
        'max_tokens' => 200
    ])
]);

Caution: AI output is like clay — it needs shaping. Always fact-check, rewrite for your brand voice, and optimise for SEO manually.

AI for accessibility

Accessibility is one of AI’s strongest suits. A machine can:

Scan your media library and auto-generate alt text.
Flag colour contrast issues.
Suggest clearer link text.

Plugins like Automatic Alternative Text use Microsoft’s Computer Vision API to describe images. It’s not perfect (“a brown dog sitting” is fine, “some object” is not), but it beats “IMG_9384.jpg” as alt text.

AI-powered image optimisation

Images are one of the biggest contributors to page weight. AI-based optimisation tools — like ShortPixel Adaptive Images or Imagify — can:

Analyse each image to decide the optimal compression.
Convert images to modern formats (WebP, AVIF) based on browser support.
Resize on the fly depending on the visitor’s device.

This is smarter than blanket compression. For example, an AI might compress a busy cityscape less aggressively than a flat-colour illustration to preserve quality.