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Until now, every WordPress plugin that integrated AI had to build its own foundations. |
The upcoming WordPress 7.0 changes this by introducing a shared infrastructure that supports how AI works across sites. |
AI tools can now discover what a site can do, access AI services through a consistent layer, and trigger actions across plugins without requiring custom integration code for every combination. |
The Abilities API: Defining what a site can do |
WordPress 6.9 introduced the Abilities API as one of the first foundational pieces of this infrastructure. It gives plugins a standard way to register their capabilities in one place. |
Instead of each plugin building its own custom integration, it declares what it exposes: |
- Specific actions
- The inputs those actions need
- What they return
- Which permissions are required
Those capabilities become discoverable through REST endpoints or the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Adapter. |
This means automation tools and AI assistants can interact with WordPress without needing custom code for every plugin. A tool such as Zapier or an AI assistant such as Claude reads what’s available and acts on it. |
A practical example: WooCommerce can register capabilities such as updating stock status, retrieving order data, or modifying product attributes. An AI assistant connecting to that site discovers those capabilities automatically. It doesn’t need a bespoke WooCommerce integration — it works with what the plugin has declared. |
The WordPress AI Client: One connection to AI models |
Before the WordPress AI Client, every plugin that wanted to use AI handled its own integration. Authentication, request formatting, response parsing — all built from scratch, again and again. |
The AI Client introduces a shared interface for interacting with AI models. Plugins send prompts through one consistent layer, regardless of the provider. |
WordPress 7.0 introduces the Connectors API alongside it. This is a system for managing connections to external services. It also adds a Connectors screen where site owners can configure AI providers in one place. Once configured, those connections are available across plugins without needing additional setup. |
This makes AI interactions composable across plugins. |
A workflow can span multiple tools, such as retrieving WooCommerce product data and passing it through an AI model to generate descriptions, without custom glue code holding it together. |
For developers, this means no more rebuilding the same integrations. For site owners, it means configuring AI once and using it everywhere. |
The MCP Adapter: Connecting to external AI tools |
MCP is an open standard for how AI assistants communicate with external tools. The WordPress MCP Adapter implements that protocol for WordPress, exposing registered abilities as tools that any MCP-compatible client can discover and call. |
The adapter ships separately from WordPress core and was available prior to 7.0, but it becomes significantly more useful with the new AI infrastructure in place. |
Once connected, tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini can see what your site can do and trigger actions directly. |
This opens up workflows that would have required significant manual work or custom scripting before, such as having to: |
- Batch-update hundreds of posts with a single natural language command.
- Find all WooCommerce products with inconsistent attributes and standardize them at scale.
- Query order data to identify top-performing products or spot return trends.
How the pieces fit together |
Each component handles a different part of the problem. The Abilities API defines what actions a site can perform. The AI Client connects plugins to AI models. The MCP Adapter exposes those actions to external AI assistants. |
Here’s what it might look like in a real workflow: |
- An AI assistant retrieves posts from WordPress.
- An AI model analyzes the content.
- The assistant triggers an ability to update the metadata.
Each step uses shared infrastructure. This makes these workflows reusable and composable across the ecosystem rather than locked inside a single plugin. |
How this works on WordPress.com |
On WordPress.com, this infrastructure is already in place. |
Site owners can use the AI Assistant directly in the editor and Media Library to create and rewrite content, adjust layouts, generate images, and more. You can also connect the WordPress site to Claude to analyze content, identify gaps, generate ideas, and push updates back to your site. |
For development, WordPress Studio provides a local environment where you can use tools such as Claude Code to build and test plugins, themes, and custom functionality. Telex extends this further, letting you generate blocks and themes from prompts and add them to your site. |
The AI infrastructure in WordPress 7.0 is making AI-powered plugins and workflows possible at scale. |
The Abilities API and AI Client are at the core of that shift — a shared infrastructure that gives the entire ecosystem something consistent to build on. |
Together, they represent a meaningful step toward creating a world where WordPress doesn’t just support AI workflows but actively enables them. |
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