In this issue of Delicious Brain Bytes, we discuss the new WordPress AI Team, dip into Figma Sites, and much more!
WordPress Launches AI Team to Steer Open-Source Innovation
WordPress is doubling down on artificial intelligence with the formation of a dedicated WordPress AI Team, announced by Mary Hubbard in a blog post on WordPress.org. The team will coordinate AI-driven projects across the ecosystem, ensuring innovation aligns with WordPress’s open-source ethos and core standards.
“AI is transforming how people create and manage content online,” writes Hubbard. “This team ensures WordPress remains at the forefront, building AI features the WordPress way—openly, inclusively, and with community values at heart.”
The team’s creation addresses three critical needs: unifying AI efforts to avoid fragmentation, creating a central hub for collaboration between contributors and companies, and accelerating development through a “plugin-first” approach. Borrowing from the Performance Team’s playbook, they’ll prioritize canonical plugins to test AI tools like content generation and workflow automation outside core updates.
Leading the initiative are James LePage (Automattic) and Felix Arntz (Google), serving as initial Team Reps. They’re joined by Pascal Birchler (Google) and Jeff Paul (10up), blending open-source expertise with enterprise-scale experience.
Next steps include publishing a public roadmap for AI initiatives and hosting discussions in the #core-ai Slack channel. Developers can join the conversation or follow updates on the Make WordPress AI site.
“This is an exciting step in WordPress’s evolution,” Hubbard adds. “Together, we’ll shape AI’s role in democratizing publishing—responsibly.”
For more details, read the full announcement here.
PressConf 2025 Unites WordPress Business Leaders
PressConf 2025, a conference dedicated to professionals shaping the WordPress economy, wrapped up last week with a focus on collaboration and innovation. The event brought together developers, designers, agency leaders, and product experts for a single-track agenda designed to foster open dialogue and shared growth.
Unlike larger multi-track conferences, PressConf opted for a unified schedule with just one room and one talk track, ensuring all attendees could engage directly with speakers and each other. Discussions covered challenges and successes in scaling WordPress businesses, with presentations from industry leaders like Amber Hinds, a familiar voice from DE{CODE}.
WP Engine supported the event as a sponsor, hosting a booth where attendees could connect with team members including Vice President of Product Jeremy Pollock and Head of Community Brian Gardner. However, the spotlight remained on PressConf’s core mission: advancing the WordPress ecosystem through transparency and collective problem-solving.
Organizers have yet to announce dates for 2026, but the event’s emphasis on unity and practical insights signals a promising future for WordPress professionals.
Learn more about PressConf 2025 sessions and speakers here.
WordPress Campus Connect Becomes Official Event Series After Student Success
WordPress Campus Connect, a grassroots initiative to teach students WordPress skills, is now an official WordPress event series. Launched in Ajmer, India by organizers Anand Upadhyay and Pooja Derashri, the program hosted 400 students across four colleges in 2024, guiding them through building their first sites.
“If WordPress wanted to reach students, why not meet them where they were?” says Upadhyay, as reported by The Repository. The workshops—capped at 100 students each—focused on hands-on learning, resulting in over 50 newcomers at the next local meetup.
Now globally scaling with pilots in Europe and Latin America, the initiative offers templated resources for organizers and a #campusconnect Slack channel. Future plans include student-run clubs and mentorship pathways into core contributions.
“Even if 10% of students continue with WordPress, that’s a huge win,” says Upadhyay.
CSS Hell: A Torturous Playground for Flexbox Heretics
Got strong opinions about CSS? Prepare to repent. CSS Hell dares developers to solve 15 devilish layout challenges. Each puzzle forces you to align “pegs” and “holes” using strict CSS rules: limited properties per div, locked elements, and no cheating via dev tools.
The manifesto is clear: “I saw you chuckle at ‘CSS isn’t a real language.’ I saw you upvote that div alignment meme. Now face the wrath of unhinged CSS power.” Puzzles demand creativity (and maybe MDN docs) to bend flexbox, grid, or transforms into submission. Need mercy? Hints and GitHub solutions await.
Tested on modern browsers, CSS Hell is equal parts masochistic fun and skill sharpener. Just don’t blaspheme flexbox on the way out.
Figma Sites Launches Beta: Power Tool or Div Soup Generator?
Figma’s new Figma Sites beta promises to turn designs into live websites without leaving the app. The tool offers responsive layouts, pre-built interactions (like parallax and draggable elements), and publishing in one click. Templates and design system integration aim to streamline workflows, with future AI features like chat-to-code teased.
But critics are raising alarms. Developer Joe Dolson dissected the launch demo’s markup, calling it “garbage code”: a single link used 14 nested divs, duplicate aria-label text, and JavaScript-dependent “links” that fail keyboard navigation. “A truly smart tool wouldn’t make these mistakes,” he argues. Accessibility issues—like ignoring prefers-reduced-motion and missing landmarks—abound.
YouTube’s Kevin Powell tested the beta, noting the code is “divs all the way down” with inline styles and nonsemantic elements. While praising rapid prototyping, he warned, “People will make sites with this not knowing how bad it is.”
Behind the Scenes of WordPress 6.8’s Speculative Loading
Felix Arntz’s recent blog post unveils the behind-the-scenes story of Speculative Loading, a performance feature now in WordPress 6.8. The feature leverages the Speculation Rules API to preload likely user navigation paths, cutting perceived load times.
After discovering the experimental API in April 2023, Arntz built a prototype via the Performance Lab plugin. Early collaboration with Google and WordPress contributors shaped the foundation, and by January 2024, a standalone “Speculative Loading” plugin debuted.
Arntz highlights the collaborative effort across Google, WordPress contributors, and the Performance Team, underscoring how plugin experimentation and community feedback paved the way for core adoption.
For technical details, see the Make WordPress Core dev note. Arntz’s full post dives deeper into lessons on feature development cycles and cross-ecosystem partnerships.
Mastering the WP Engine API: A Comprehensive Guide for Developers
Automation is key to efficient workflow management. For developers and agencies working with WordPress sites hosted on WP Engine, the WP Engine API offers powerful capabilities to programmatically manage your hosting infrastructure. Whether you’re managing a single site or hundreds, the API enables you to automate repetitive tasks, integrate with your existing tools, and build custom workflows tailored to your needs.
In this guide, Kellen Mace covers everything you need to know, from basic concepts to advanced implementation strategies.
How to Tame Scope Creep in WordPress Development
Scope creep occurs when a project’s requirements expand, usually through incremental, unplanned requests. In WordPress development, this often takes the form of requests like “Can we add a newsletter pop-up after approving the design?” or “Our competitor’s site has X feature. Can you replicate it by next week?”
In this article, we look at actionable strategies to anticipate, prevent, and manage scope creep in WordPress development, without burning bridges with clients. Scope creep isn’t just about clients changing their minds. It’s often rooted in WordPress’s greatest strength: its flexibility.
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