


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">More than <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/stats/">70 locales have fully translated</a> WordPress 7.0 into their language. Community translators are working hard to ensure more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps make WordPress available in 200+ languages.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Thank you to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/test-results/">more than 21 web hosts</a> that have tested pre-release versions for WordPress 7.0, helping ensure that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, and optimized for the best possible user experience.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Last but not least, thanks to the volunteers who contribute to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forums/">support forums</a> by answering questions from WordPress users worldwide.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Get involved</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Participation in WordPress goes far beyond coding. And learning more and getting involved is easy. Discover the teams that come together to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/">Make WordPress</a> and use <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/contribute/">this interactive tool</a> to help you decide which is right for you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 20 May 2026 18:41:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matias Ventura";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: #217 – Leonardo Losovic on Affordable and Accurate WordPress Translations Using AI";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=204324";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:108:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/217-leonardo-losovic-on-affordable-and-accurate-wordpress-translations-using-ai";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49406:"<details>Transcript<div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress, the people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, how to create affordable and accurate WordPress translations using AI.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox and use the form there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So on the podcast today we have Leonardo Losovic. Leonardo has been working with WordPress since 2012, developing plugins such as Gato GraphQL, a GraphQL server for WordPress, and more recently, Gato AI Translations for Polylang, a plugin that harnesses AI to streamline the process of translating WordPress websites.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">After giving a talk at WordCamp Asia on the invisible gotchas of WordPress translation, Leonardo joins us to discuss both the moral and practical arguments for making your site multilingual, and how the technology has changed the landscape for site owners and developers alike.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I suspect that many listeners have considered translating their WordPress websites, whether for legal compliance or to reach a wider audience, but may be unsure where to start, or if the investment is worthwhile.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As Leonardo explains, the ease and affordability introduced by AI powered translation tools have changed the landscape. What used to require costly human translators and time consuming workflows can now often be handled with a few clicks, and for a fraction of the price.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Leonardo starts by sharing his background in plugin development, and the evolution of translation plugins over the</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">decade. We then get into how AI translations work, why manual oversight still matters, and how the new features coming to WordPress, such as collaborative editing and deeper AI integration will impact workflows and user experience.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We also discuss plugin strategies around managing multiple translations, SEO considerations, and the best practises for ensuring your translations are accurate and efficient.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Leonardo gives practical advice on how to avoid wasting resources when updating posts, and offers his perspective on the arms race of translation, as AI becomes ubiquitous, and why as it gets easier, keeping up with competitors becomes essential.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re interested in making your site multilingual, or just want to hear how WordPress translation technology is evolving, this episode is for you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And so without further delay, I bring you Leonardo Losovic.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I am joined on the podcast by Leo Losoviz. Hello, Leo.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:03:40] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Hello, Nathan.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:03:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s lovely to have you on the podcast today. Leo and I were hanging out at WordCamp Asia where you did a presentation, I think it&#8217;s correct to say. It was all about how you might translate things on your WordPress website, leveraging some of the solutions that Leo has built, but possibly just some things that might be baked into WordPress as well. So that&#8217;s going to be the discussion topic for today.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Before we crack into that, Leo, can you just tell us a little bit about you, your background with WordPress, and probably the stuff that you&#8217;ve been doing recently, which touches on translations?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:14] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Alright. So I&#8217;ve been working with WordPress since 2012, and I have a plugin called Gato GraphQL, which is a graphical server for WordPress. I&#8217;ve been working on that since like forever now.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And then I upgraded to try to make plugins that can be used by the final user of the website, bloggers and marketing people, not just developers. And then I launched another plugin that is called Gato AI Translations for Polylang. It&#8217;s basically a wrapper of my other plugin that will help people translate their websites using AI. And I have been working with this plugin for over one year now. And, yeah, I mean this is what I&#8217;m doing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:54] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. And how did your presentation at WordCamp Asia go? Were you happy with the delivery and the attendance and things like that?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:05:00] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Delivery. Yes. Actually, I think it came out quite good. You can check it out, it&#8217;s on YouTube. Attendance? Not really. My talk was the first one on the second day of the conference. It was 9:30 AM. Everybody was either sleeping or they were drinking coffee outside. We did have people showing up slowly. Maybe by the end of the presentation there were people who were like, hey, this appeared to be good. Too bad that I didn&#8217;t come here on time.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:05:23] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I hope you forgive me because I was one of those people. I dropped in towards the end. I certainly enjoyed the latter part of your talk. So you&#8217;ve built a whole load of solutions around the capacity, the capability to make your WordPress website go from language A to language, B, C, D, E, and so on and so forth. I will just read the blurb about what your presentation was called and also what it was about.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And so the presentation title was The Invisible Gotchas of WP Translation. And then the blurb surrounding that was nice and short, and it goes like this. This talk walks through a practical checklist to turn, we should translate, into a precise plan that leaves no strings untranslated. Attendees will leave with a practical end-to-end approach to translating WordPress content that leaves nothing to chance.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So my first question then is really focused on the, we should translate, that little bit. Let&#8217;s make the case for, I suppose the moral argument, not the technological argument. Now, it might be a moral argument, but it also might be a legal argument. I&#8217;m just wondering where you think we stand in terms of whether you have to, or should, translate things at this point in time.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:06:34] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Well, I guess that if you have to out of legal requirements, then you will have to. So that is out of the equation. If you&#8217;re compelled to do it, then that&#8217;s part of your business. It&#8217;s a business requirement, so you&#8217;ll have to do it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The key question is, if you don&#8217;t have to, I mean, nobody&#8217;s forcing you to do it, should you still do it? And the answer is, yes, of course you should, because it will help you. Why wouldn&#8217;t you do it if you can do it? If you have potential visitors to your website speaking different languages, why wouldn&#8217;t you want to track them? Why wouldn&#8217;t you want to show your content to new, like a new user base? The key question is, as long as you can do it, do it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:07:13] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I think that&#8217;s an interesting point. So certainly in the part of the world where I live, there is a lot of legislation around what must be done. So for example, I&#8217;m in the UK and we have a variety of different languages spread throughout the country. And depending on where you live and what your business is involved in, you may be compelled to do it. And so, as you say, that&#8217;s just the way it is. You know, you don&#8217;t have any choice around that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I think now, especially with the advent of technologies which enable translation to happen at the speed of light, more or less, it becomes increasingly a question of, well, why wouldn&#8217;t you do that?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And so I&#8217;m kind of keen to explore the things that have changed over the last, let&#8217;s say decade. That&#8217;s probably a bit too long, but something along those lines, to make it easier to translate. In the past, I&#8217;ve interviewed lots of founders of plugins that do translations. Let&#8217;s say 10 years ago, this was a fairly lengthy, probably quite costly enterprise. Translating, let&#8217;s say an English site into, let&#8217;s say a German site.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Because you had to figure out which bits of the website needed to be translated. You probably had to go somewhere to find a human that could do that translation work. You then had to negotiate the price for that, receive the translated text, and then somehow figure out how to make it so that the English string is converted into the German string, and so on and so forth. I&#8217;m imagining that&#8217;s no longer the case. Where are we at in April, 2026 in terms of the ease of getting things translated? And probably, I think we&#8217;re going to stray into AI here.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:08:45] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Yes, the answer is AI. Truth is that with AI you can translate your content very easily and the quality is just excellent. I will not tell you to not engage a professional translator if you don&#8217;t speak the language, just to make sure that the translation is right. Mostly when we&#8217;re talking about technical terms, or when they refer to some industry that your website is targeting. Otherwise, the quality is just excellent.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I would say that with AI, you can rely on it, I don&#8217;t know, maybe 99% of the translation seems accurate. If there&#8217;s some ambiguity around some technical term, then you might still want to have a professional translator. But even then, you know that you don&#8217;t need to engage the translator for the 100% translation. But only to pay attention to those details, possibly fix those errors, make sure the technical acronyms are correct and that kind of stuff.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So clearly the pricing tag that now you have compared to five years ago has gone down dramatically. You have to pay for the tokens. Basically, when you engage one of these AI providers, either Open AI or Anthropic or Gemini, you are paying to them for tokens to perform the translation. But that is literally like very little money. It can be like cents on the dollar.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the past when you have, not just the past but also the present, you have company providing translation services. They will charge you much, much, much more than that. Maybe it will be like 50 USD per hour. Maybe it&#8217;ll be like 100 USD per hour for a professional translator. And then you have to engage them maybe five hours to translate one blog post, or, I don&#8217;t know, like five blog posts, it doesn&#8217;t matter. Now that the amount of work that you need to engage them just to double check, instead of five hours, will be maybe 30 minutes. So you are still spending money to engage the professional translator, but much, much, much less.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And that means that if you do have the budget, now instead of translating one language, you are talking, Nathan, about legal requirements, possibly your country has two or three different languages. I don&#8217;t know, if you&#8217;re from Canada, you might speak English and French. Maybe they will ask you to translate your websites to English and French. But now you can say, okay, well now, if I had the money and it&#8217;s so easy to translate using AI, I can translate to many more languages and also target people, not just from Canada, but from other regions of the world.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And then you can also translate to Spanish. Why not? And you can translate to Portuguese. So the situation now is that prices went down dramatically, the quality of the translation using AI is really, really, really high and you will need professional services only in those cases that you need to be 100% sure that translation is valid when it is a professional industry.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:11:25] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I suppose the, as you described, the acronyms and things like that, the technical language, I guess if you&#8217;ve just got a blog where, in my case I&#8217;m just using plain English, an ordinary set of words, I&#8217;m not ever going to be delving into complexity, and that may be the case for many people. I think I agree with you that the AI will probably do an admirable job.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But the minute you start to stray into unusual words, or technical things where, I don&#8217;t know, you&#8217;re referencing some aspect of physics or biochemistry or something like that, then I can see exactly why you might need to do that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But also, interestingly, the budget has obviously shrunk to get that translation done from perhaps many hundreds of dollars down to perhaps a handful of US cents. But still, if you want to be compliant and you&#8217;ve got an intuition that your language may be straying into a grey area where AI might not do a perfect job, that is now where the budget is going. It&#8217;s just sort of polishing it up a little bit and making sure that, okay, that actually is highlighted.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Can I ask a question related to that? Do the AIs, when you ask them to translate things, do they come back with, okay, we&#8217;ve done our best, but we are confused by this portion or that portion? Or do they typically just hand back, this is our translation, go figure it out for yourself from there?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:12:43] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> When we&#8217;re talking about my plugin, Gato AI Translations, you get the translation straight because you&#8217;re not interacting with the AI. You are asking straight for the response and that response, you add it, you embed it into your blog post. There is no interaction with the person.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So basically, you can do that, you could feed the content to ChatGPT and tell ChatGPT, translate it, and if you have any doubt, please ask me. And then ChatGPT will talk to you, and then we say, I don&#8217;t know how to translate this word. Should I say this or should I say that? But that is in the context of the interface when you&#8217;re talking to ChatGPT or you&#8217;re talking to Claude. In a plugin where you want to collect the string and just add it into the translated blog post, you don&#8217;t have that interaction. So it really depends on your use case.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:13:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The plugins that I&#8217;ve seen in the past that have been tackling this job in WordPress, and again, we&#8217;re going back many, many years prior to AI. There was a lot of UI involved. You would have to log into the WordPress website. Let&#8217;s say it was a blog post, you would go to the blog post and usually lurking somewhere in meta, so in a box somewhere else would be the original string and then the translated string. And that would typically have been done by a human. And you&#8217;d probably copy and paste that back, or maybe the platform, the plugin would actually facilitate the putting of that text into that box by somebody that&#8217;s logged into the platform who&#8217;s paid to do the translations.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But the point being, there was a lot to look at. If you had a German translation and a Portuguese and a Lithuanian and Russian and, you know, on you go. Every time you add one of those in the UI becomes much more complicated and what have you. So I&#8217;m curious to see in 2026, how do you manage that? How is that all done? What does the UI look like? In an era of AI when we are increasingly typing and talking to our software, have you leveraged that and sort of tried to minimise the UI in a way?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:14:34] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Okay, so there are two responses to this. One is what I&#8217;m doing right now, and what I expect WordPress to offer coming soon. So what I am doing now with my plugin is just to do the translation. And you have one blog post in, say in English, your origin language, and then you select it from the post list, and you have this dropdown in the bulk actions with all the actions that you can execute with the post. And you just say, translate. And when you do that, it will duplicate the post from the origin to all of the translations.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You can have one translation, you can have 17 translations. It will create all of those 17 entries, and it will already translate all the content to the target language. So then if you want to edit the translation, if you want to fix it, then you&#8217;ll just edit the translation and then there you will see there&#8217;s something that doesn&#8217;t appear right, and then you fix it in the WordPress editor.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In my scenario right now, we go from nothing to everything. There&#8217;s no in between. Now with WordPress 7.0, they&#8217;re adding two things. One is adding the AI Connector. So we will have more and more and more capabilities to interact with AI. And the other thing that we have that is unrelated, but I think it will end up being related is phase three, which is the communications in the WordPress editor, right? That two people can communicate with each other, like Google Docs style.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And so we&#8217;ll have these windows on the right hand side from the WordPress editor, right? So you can add a comment. Somebody can add a comment saying, hey, do you think this is right? And the other person on the other side can say, yeah, this needs to be fixed. So they can communicate via the WordPress editor. Whereas right now you have two people interacting with each other. You can have one person and one AI.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So then imagine the scenario where you translate everything and then you edit the translated post. And you might have those same windows with a kind of sticky post, and pointing an arrow to some word saying, hey, I&#8217;m not sure if this is the right translation. Please check it out.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I can see that WordPress 7.0 will give use the infrastructure to start adding this additional interaction. So then I could translate all the content as I&#8217;m doing right now. And if I find out from the AI that a world has not been, it doesn&#8217;t have 100% confidence that it&#8217;s the right translation, maybe we can use that phase three functionality to add a sticky post to have the AI interact with the person, say, hey, this translation, I&#8217;m not sure, please double check.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:17:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> This leverage is so much interesting stuff. So again, just in case the user hasn&#8217;t been keeping up with the WordPress news, 7.0 has, or WordPress 7.0 I should say, has this capability which wasn&#8217;t quite ready for the WordCamp Asia release. The idea was to release 7.0 at WordCamp Asia, but because of technical reasons, there was something that needed to be changed and amended about the way that data was handled and stored in different tables.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">7.0 will bring the capability to have collaborative editing, so think Google Docs. And it really didn&#8217;t occur to me until quite recently, because somebody suggested exactly what you said, I was always imagining another human being, being in that interface. So it would be me and Leo having a conversation through comments or what have you in that same WordPress post.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But of course now we realise, well, of course, the AI work, the MCP and the adapters and all of those kind of things allow that thing in the post to be not a human being, it could be an AI. And so that&#8217;s really interesting.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So maybe we&#8217;ll come in, have a conversation, something along the lines of, please could you just check, this would appear to be fine but there seem to be a few errors here and there and everywhere, and it may be able to come back with a suggestion.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That stuff is so powerful, but yet completely unrealised at the minute. It&#8217;s kind of just on the horizon, but when that feature drops, I think that will be quite an interesting experience. You&#8217;ll be able to talk about the content with an AI, based upon what is in the content area of WordPress. That&#8217;s going to be really, really fascinating. Gosh, wow. What a future.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Is that stuff ready? Do you know if WordPress is going to ship with those kind of capabilities? So you mentioned things like the sticky post to sort of highlight, imagine a post-it note or something like that. Something which can highlight? Are all of those foundational pieces ready or were you just sort of blue sky gazing there?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:19:02] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> I haven&#8217;t seen it, but we can all picture that happening. So you know that 7.0 is giving us the foundation to build all of the things. Once the foundation is there, it&#8217;s up to the community to implement these use cases. So yeah, I&#8217;m quite confident that it will happen, but I haven&#8217;t seen it. I haven&#8217;t seen it yet.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:19:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I do love the idea though, of communicating through that interface. That&#8217;ll be really interesting to see how that changes the calculus of how we write things and who we write them with and all of that kind of thing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So Gutenberg, which we don&#8217;t talk about too much really at the moment, but Gutenberg had four phases when it was first talked about. So we&#8217;re in phase three at the moment, which is this collaborative editing. Broadly it was collaborative editing was the poster child of that release.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And the fourth one, so that may be many years away, I don&#8217;t know when phase four will come about, but the fourth one is bound very much to translation. Do you know if there&#8217;s any sort of foundational work being done over there? It may still be a complete black box. It&#8217;s just the word we&#8217;re going to deal with translations. Do you have any wisdom or insight into what&#8217;s happening over there?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:20:03] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> No. All I know is that Matt Mullenweg was postponing that for the very, very, very end. And since we&#8217;re still working on phase three, I don&#8217;t think that there will be any phase four work happening anytime soon.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:20:16] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> No. Okay. So we&#8217;ll have to wait and see how that drops. But it could be another interesting phase. Let&#8217;s see what that does.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, okay, now let&#8217;s sort of dig into the weeds of how your system works. So you mentioned that if I&#8217;m in the data view for posts, one of the options that I have when I&#8217;m hovering over a post, you know, delete post, edit post, what have you. It sounds like in there somewhere you inject a translate. And presumably when you hit that button, automations that you&#8217;ve previously set up, say, translate to French, translate to Portuguese, translate to Chinese and Japanese, that would then be triggered.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Do you then create separate posts? So that the post that&#8217;s now in Chinese is separate to the original one, or as some plugins handle it, do you take the original one and just inject metadata into that post?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:21:04] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> If we&#8217;re talking about my plugin, my plugin is called Gato AI Translations for Polylang. I depend on Polylang. So Polylang is a plugin that works by creating separate entries for each of the languages. So you have a post in English, and when you translate it, you&#8217;ll create another post in French and another one in Spanish and another one in Portuguese.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Then you have a different plugin like WPML which has a different strategy, which is to have only one post and then all the individual strings are translated on runtime. So you&#8217;re not statically creating different versions of the post, but you have only one post and then you translate the strings, the actual content.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It really is up to what is the best strategy for your site, what it is that you are most comfortable working with. There are other plugins, of course. There is TranslatePress, there is Weglot, MultilingualPress. They all have different strategies. I do like Polylang because the post is created in advance. Then all the same rules for your WordPress site apply. You can cache the page, you can export it statically, and it also is fast because you don&#8217;t need to translate the string.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Like finding a specific string can be very expensive. Like a string, you know, that you need to find from English and translate to French. The string might be like, I mean 1000 characters long. You know, that can become very expensive. And if you do that on runtime, even if you cache it later, that can be very expensive. Yeah, my plugin is based only on Polylang, but it&#8217;s not the only plugin.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:22:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. So there&#8217;s a whole range of different things out there, but you&#8217;ve obviously opted for Polylang. Is that a commercial kind of pro plugin or do they have a, is there a free version that you can leverage?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:22:37] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Yeah. It&#8217;s free. And they have the pro version that is, I think 99 USD per year for one domain, if I&#8217;m not wrong. But it&#8217;s completely optional, you can use Polylang free and it&#8217;s more than enough. Actually, Polylang Pro, they have a few features and the main feature that they had historically is that you could use machine learning for translating the content.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">They use DeepL as a service, like Google Translate. Now the thing is that I wouldn&#8217;t use DeepL anymore. Even my own plugin, at the very beginning had, even nowadays, it has integration for Google Translate and for DeepL. But AI is so much superior than those. So you can still use Polylang Pro for the other features, but the machine translation one, there&#8217;s no need, Polylang free, more than enough.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:23:23] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So when, let&#8217;s say for example, that I&#8217;ve got a post and I&#8217;ve translated it. I&#8217;m just beginning my journey, figuring stuff out. And again, we&#8217;re talking about your solution here. So, you know, you can speak to how it works, not how all the other ones work.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I click the translate button and I&#8217;ve now got six posts, the English original and then these five other languages. How does that surface? Are they like child posts of the original post? Is there an easy way for me to see, okay, here&#8217;s the German version of that, and it&#8217;s bound to this? Is there a filter system or what have you?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And then how does that look on the front end? So if the original string is, I don&#8217;t know, example.com/post-one, am I from an SEO point of view, does that stay nice and tidy? Like, I don&#8217;t know, it goes example.com/g for German, forward slash post-one, or how does that all tie together?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:24:13] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> All right, so this is once again, a feature provided by Polylang. When you create the translations, all the posts, they&#8217;re all parallel to each other. They don&#8217;t have a hierarchy. They&#8217;re not like the child post from the origin post. And if you want to only see the post for one specific language, there is a switch, like a switcher button at the top menu bar, and you can select the language.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So by default it says all languages, and then you&#8217;ll have all the posts. So in a way, if you have, say that you have 10 posts and then you have 10 languages, that means that you have now 100 posts. So it can be a bit clutter. So then you go to the top menu and then you select English, and then it only shows you the English ones.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And the important thing is that, say you&#8217;re using AI to translate, you only need to deal with the origin post and nothing else, until you need to double check if the translation is right, maybe fix one thing here, one thing there. But otherwise, the whole time you are only dealing with the origin post.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So what I do is I always have my selector in that origin language. So it&#8217;s in English and I only see the English post. So then I do translate, and I know that the translation will be created alongside all of the categories, and all of the tags and all the feature image, right? But I don&#8217;t need to deal with them. So then I also don&#8217;t need to see them on my screen. They create clutter, so then I remove them.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And then to see them, to visualise them, yeah, once again, Polylang, it gives you the option of choosing the language by appending the language code in the URL. So mysite.com/fr/the-slug, that&#8217;s for French. Or you can also use subdomains. So you can have fr.mysite.com/the-slug. So that&#8217;s something that you can configure. And then basically when you go to that page and you add the language code in the URL, then you will see that blog post for the selected language.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And the way that Polylang handles all of this is it connects a post to all of its translations via a specific taxonomy, like a tag that they created, I think it&#8217;s called language, if I&#8217;m not wrong, or language relationship, I&#8217;m not completely sure now. And so it ties all the post to all of its translations. And the thing is that then when you go to the post in French, it can add the href lang meta tag that is telling Google that this post is a translation of that post.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So that is important for SEO purposes that these posts are not two independent entities, but one is a translation of that one for French. So Google will understand a lot of the relationships, and if the user who is searching for information, they&#8217;re searching for information in French, then Google will know to serve the French page. And if it is in Spanish, Google will know to serve the Spanish page.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:27:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s an amazing wraparound solution, isn&#8217;t it? In that all of this is just sort of handled and what you essentially end up doing is, the user that is, you click the translate button and once you&#8217;ve got everything set up correctly, it just, off it goes.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I have a question though about amendment. So let&#8217;s say for example, I realised that my blog post was full of inaccuracies and errors and there&#8217;s just wrong throughout it. And I then go in and I make amendments. Do I then need to restart that whole translation process or can I rely on it kind of figuring out, okay, amendments were made, let&#8217;s just do that automatically for you? How does amendments to the original, in my case, English work?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:27:37] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Yeah, well, I would change that. I would say do not do any translation until you&#8217;re 100% sure that the post is final. And that&#8217;s the main way to waste your time, and to waste money in tokens. Because you execute the translation, and then you realise that something was wrong. Maybe this H2 tag was supposed to be an H3, then you fix it, and then you run the translation again. And then you realise that was another mistake, there was a typo. And then you had to run the translation again. And then you&#8217;re like, oh, but that image has embedded text in the image. It doesn&#8217;t work on the translated post. And then you run the translation again.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So all of these things are common sense, and you don&#8217;t think about them until you see the error happening time and again and again. So what I do is I have a checklist actually on my website. I have a blog post where I have every single item that we need to pay attention to in advance of executing the translation. So executing the translation is when you go to the post list, you select the post, and then you select translate. Easy, and it takes five seconds.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But before you do that, you need to make sure that the post is final. That means no typos. That means all the headers are the right header. That means that all images are correct. They have alt attributes. They have the title that you need. There&#8217;s no embedded text in the image, even adding an embed from another source.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Say that you have a YouTube video that you&#8217;re embedding on your content, and the YouTube video is in Spanish. When you translate that to French, maybe the YouTube video is not useful anymore. So all of these things you need to check from a multilingual point of view when you&#8217;re looking at your origin post. And then you&#8217;re like, okay, this origin post, now it&#8217;s okay. It&#8217;s perfect. You publish the post, then you translate.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:29:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I got it. Yeah, I mean that makes sense. But, should you need to, it&#8217;s a process of clicking the button again and kind of beginning that process. But yeah, good idea to have those checks and balances.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I was at an event not that long ago in which AI was used inside of a WordPress plugin, inside of a post, to ascertain the content of things like images and infographics. So as an example, there was data held inside of a graph. So, I don&#8217;t know, whatever that data was, bar charts, pie charts you can imagine, but also just images and what have you. And although this may not be handled and maybe it&#8217;s blue sky thinking, I was wondering what the capabilities are for handling those kind of things.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So in the case of an image with a chart in it, wouldn&#8217;t it be nice if we could replicate that chart, but instead of all the labels being in English, if they could be in German or French or whatever it may be. I don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s utterly out of the scope, even in blue sky thinking in terms of AI and translations. But I was curious if you had an inkling whether things that were not just text-based content might be handled in the future as well by AI. Not specifically addressing what you do at the moment, but whether that seems to be on the horizon.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:30:41] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Yeah, well, to be honest, I think technically it is feasible, but even if it can be done, I don&#8217;t think it should be done. And the thing is this, I&#8217;m promoting that we can translate our websites to as many languages as possible, only because we can. So you have your website in one language, then you can have it in two, then you will have it in five. You can have it in 30 languages. Why wouldn&#8217;t you do it? If you can target new countries and new visitors, sure, go ahead and do it. AI gives you the possibility.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But now imagine that you also want to translate the images. Every single image on your website will be replicated 30 times. That sounds scary. I wouldn&#8217;t do that. What I will do is to have one single image that is language agnostic, that there&#8217;s no text inside. And if you had to add text, maybe in your page builder, maybe in Gutenberg or Elementor or Bricks, maybe you can create an overlay and place the text on top. It&#8217;s a more difficult solution and a bit more complex, but it&#8217;s clean because then you can translate that as part of text, and the image, you don&#8217;t need to replicate the image 30 times.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:31:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s an interesting point. And that leads me to wonder whether it&#8217;s possible to, for example, an image caption. Whether it&#8217;s possible to translate that into 30 different languages whilst still referencing the exact same image.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, I don&#8217;t know, in English it might say, here is a picture of a dog walking by a beach, and then the French equivalent caption, and the German equivalent caption and what have you. Then in effect, you&#8217;ve recycled the same image, but you&#8217;ve also, the person viewing it in German would get the German equivalent of that. Again, I don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s possible, but maybe that&#8217;s an interesting.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:32:14] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Yeah, actually that&#8217;s how it is right now. So when you translate the post, you will also translate all of the entities associated to the post, the tags and the categories and the featured image. So the featured image will have meta data associated. So when you upload an image to the media manager, you add meta data, the title, you can add a caption. So all of that text, it&#8217;s in one language.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now, you can also translate the image by creating a new entry, once again using Polylang. The image has a language associated, so the origin image will be in English, and you can create a new entry in French, and the title will be translated to French and the caption will be translated to French. But the image itself is the same for both entries. So the JPEG or the PNG, that one is not duplicated. So you&#8217;re not increasing the size of your hard drive. You&#8217;re creating another entry on the database for the media entry, the custom post media, or the attachment, but not for the actual physical file.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:33:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. So it&#8217;s much more lean, basically doing it that way, isn&#8217;t it? I didn&#8217;t actually know that it was done that way, but that&#8217;s certainly how Polylang handles that. Okay, that&#8217;s interesting.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So you mentioned that, I think one of the through lines in what you&#8217;ve been saying is because you can do it, why not just do it? It kind of makes sense when you think about it like that, but I&#8217;m just wondering what the real world impact of this is. You know, in terms of things like discoverability, and whether or not it really genuinely does have an impact on your business. Let&#8217;s say for example, I don&#8217;t know, you&#8217;re shipping widgets from England to France, and suddenly you translate your site into Japanese and Chinese.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I would assume that that could only have a positive effect, but also, equally, I&#8217;d want to know what the data was on that. And I don&#8217;t know if you have, given that you are in the translation space quite heavily, I don&#8217;t know if you have any data to hand which would compel people to do this, to prove, look, it really is worthwhile. Anecdotally, it feels like it would definitely be worthwhile. Why not, would be the way of phrasing it. But I don&#8217;t know if there&#8217;s any data lurking in your head which would categorically say, oh yeah, this is definitely it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:34:16] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Nathan, unfortunately, we&#8217;re screwed.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:34:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The answer is no.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:34:20] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Because when it&#8217;s so easy, everyone will do it. And when everybody does it, you&#8217;re not moving forward. You&#8217;re just moving, you&#8217;re running just to be on the same spot. If you&#8217;re the only one who is translating your site to 20 languages, you will be far ahead from everybody else. But because it&#8217;s easy to you, it&#8217;s easy to everybody. And if everybody does the same, once again, you are not ahead of them. You&#8217;re on the same place.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So this is the problem of technology, right? And the problem of AI. Now we&#8217;re all very productive with AI. I&#8217;m using AI to code my plugin, and I think I&#8217;m pulling ahead. But my competitor is also using AI to code his plugin. So we are both running just to stay on the same place. So in a way, unfortunately, it becomes a situation in which you need to do it just to not fall behind.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:07] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s kind of like the arms race mentality in a way, isn&#8217;t it? But also, that&#8217;s quite a compelling way of framing it, because you can be sure that, okay, if you&#8217;re writing a blog and you&#8217;ve got a limited audience, maybe there&#8217;s limited scope in that. If you are in a business and you are, certainly if you have pretensions of dealing over international borders and your competitors are doing this, it is exactly that arms race mentality, isn&#8217;t it?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Then you are compelled to do it just to be ordinary, just to be the baseline. 20 years ago, would&#8217;ve been entirely different because of that would&#8217;ve been a very expensive calculation and translating into, let&#8217;s say, Japanese. If there&#8217;s no ROI on the Japanese translation, that is money which would&#8217;ve been probably wasted.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now, with AI costing literal cents to translate, it does feel like that is the calculus, right? We are doing it because it can be done and we know that the competitors will be doing it, so we ought to do it as well. Maybe that&#8217;s all the argument needs to be. It&#8217;s simply that, simply stated in that way.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:36:12] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> That&#8217;s a good reason to do it, which is that you want to target people in other countries, speaking other languages. So yes, I want to do it, but at the same time, if I see that my competitors are doing it, then I have to do it. I can see it both ways.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:36:25] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. Okay. It&#8217;s certainly been an interesting conversation. What I&#8217;ll do is I will ask Leo to provide me with links that are pertinent. Maybe we can get the wordpress.tv of the presentation that you did, plus links to the websites which have been mentioned in this podcast episode. If you go to wptavern.com and you search for the episode with Leo Losoviz. His name is spelled L-O-S-O-V-I-Z or Z, depending on where you live in the world. If you go and search for that, then you&#8217;ll be able to find a transcription of this as well as links to the various different bits and pieces that we have mentioned.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Leo, before we wrap it up, is there anything else you wanted to say? If not, we will bid you adieu.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:37:07] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> No, not really.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:37:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You&#8217;ve got it. In which case we will call that a day and say thank you very much, Leo, for chatting to me today. Really appreciate it,</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:37:15] <strong>Leonardo Losoviz:</strong> Thank you, Nathan.</p>
</div></details>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">On the podcast today we have Leonardo Losovic.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Leonardo has been working with WordPress since 2012, developing plugins such as Gato GraphQL, a GraphQL server for WordPress, and more recently, Gato AI Translations for Polylang, a plugin that harnesses AI to streamline the process of translating WordPress websites. After giving a talk at WordCamp Asia on the “invisible gotchas” of WordPress translation, Leonardo joins us to discuss both the moral and practical arguments for making your site multilingual, and how the technology has changed the landscape for site owners and developers alike.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I suspect that many listeners have considered translating their WordPress websites, whether for legal compliance or to reach a wider audience, but may be unsure where to start or if the investment is worthwhile. As Leonardo explains, the ease and affordability introduced by AI-powered translation tools have changed the landscape. What used to require costly human translators and time-consuming workflows can now often be handled with a few clicks, and for a fraction of the price.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Leonardo starts by sharing his background in plugin development and the evolution of translation plugins over the past decade. We then get into how AI translations work, why manual oversight still matters, and how the new features coming to WordPress, such as collaborative editing and deeper AI integration, will impact workflows and user experience.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We also discuss plugin strategies around managing multiple translations, SEO considerations, and the best practices for ensuring your translations are accurate and efficient. Leonardo gives practical advice on how to avoid wasting resources when updating posts, and offers his perspective on the “arms race” of translation as AI becomes ubiquitous, and why, as it gets easier, keeping up with competitors becomes essential.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you’re interested in making your site multilingual or just want to hear how WordPress translation technology is evolving, this episode is for you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/session/the-invisible-gotchas-of-wp-translation/">The Invisible Gotchas of WP Translation</a> &#8211; WordCamp Asia 2026 presentation from Leonardo</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij7rRolIDiU">YouTube video of the presentation above</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://gatographql.com">Gato GraphQL plugin</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://gatoaitranslations.com"> Gato AI Translations for Polylang plugin</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/">Polylang plugin</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://translatepress.com"> TranslatePress</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.weglot.com">Weglot</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://multilingualpress.org">MultilingualPress</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://wpml.org">WPML</a></p>



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";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"Open Channels FM: News on the Do the Woo Podcast";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2554409";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"https://openchannels.fm/news-on-the-do-the-woo-podcast/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:172:""Do the Woo" is now a standalone podcast at dothewoo.com. Subscribe for new episodes, extensive show notes, and upcoming features while archives remain on Open Channels FM.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 20 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"Bob Dunn";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"Greg Ziółkowski: Memory in WordPress Core: Building on Guidelines";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"https://gziolo.pl/?p=14801";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://gziolo.pl/2026/05/19/memory-in-wordpress-core-building-on-guidelines/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:314:"When I wrote about WordPress Core AI 7.1 planning a few weeks ago, I called Guidelines my top personal priority and mentioned memories and skills as future primitives this work would unlock. This post explains what I mean by memory in this context, why I think it belongs in core rather than in a plugin, [&#8230;]";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 19 May 2026 11:29:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Greg Ziółkowski";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"Open Channels FM: Elevate Your Brand With Authentic Case Studies That Resonate";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2554356";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"https://openchannels.fm/elevate-your-brand-with-authentic-case-studies-that-resonate/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:282:"In this Open Makers episode, host Adam Weeks and guest Elena Yovcheva-Tileva discuss crafting impactful case studies. They emphasize storytelling, client involvement, and practical strategies for creating narratives that highlight successful outcomes, boosting trust and engagement.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 19 May 2026 09:29:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"Bob Dunn";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"Open Channels FM: The Power of Human Connection in Modern Marketing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2553603";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"https://openchannels.fm/the-power-of-human-connection-in-modern-marketing/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:358:"In today&#8217;s digital landscape, where messages and advertisements bombard us from every direction, it is easy to feel lost in the noise. Gaining real attention is more challenging than ever, and many marketers and entrepreneurs find themselves wondering: how do you stand out when everyone is shouting at once? A recurring theme that emerges is [&#8230;]";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 18 May 2026 11:12:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"Bob Dunn";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 4";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=20570";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/05/wordpress-7-0-release-candidate-4/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6612:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The fourth Release Candidate (“RC4”) for WordPress 7.0 is ready for download and testing!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>This version of the WordPress software is under development</strong>.<strong> Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites.</strong> Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC4 on a test server and site.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 7.0 is the best it can be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You can test WordPress 7.0 RC4 in four ways:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table class="has-fixed-layout"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Plugin</strong></td><td>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Direct Download</strong></td><td>Download the <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-7.0-RC4.zip">RC4 version (zip)</a> and install it on a WordPress website.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Command Line</strong></td><td>Use this <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/">WP-CLI</a> command: <br /><code>wp core update --version=7.0-</code>RC4</td></tr><tr><td><strong>WordPress Playground</strong></td><td>Use the <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?php=8.0&amp;wp=beta&amp;networking=no&amp;language=&amp;multisite=no&amp;random=y4q1rn88xn">WordPress Playground instance</a> to test the software directly in your browser.  No setup required – just click and go! </td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is <strong>May 20, 2026</strong>. The full <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/22/wordpress-7-0-release-party-updated-schedule/">release schedule can be found here</a>. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Please continue checking the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core blog</a> for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/7-0">7.0-related posts</a> in the coming weeks for more information.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s in WordPress 7.0 RC4?</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? Take a look at the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/05/14/wordpress-7-0-field-guide/">WordPress 7.0 Field Guide</a>. For technical information related to the issues addressed since <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2026/05/wordpress-7-0-release-candidate-3/">RC3</a>, you can browse the following links:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&amp;changetime=05%2F08%2F2026..05%2F14%2F2026&amp;milestone=7.0&amp;group=component&amp;col=id&amp;col=summary&amp;col=milestone&amp;col=changetime&amp;col=type&amp;order=id">Closed 7.0 WordPress Core Trac tickets</a> since May 8, 2026</li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/7.0?since=026-05-08&amp;until=2026-05-14">7.0 Gutenberg commits</a> since May 8, 2026</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How you can contribute</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can get involved with the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Get involved in testing</h3>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. Your help testing the WordPress 7.0 RC4 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2026/02/20/help-test-wordpress-7-0/">detailed guide</a> will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For those new to testing, follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/handbook/get-setup-for-testing/">this general testing guide</a> for more details on getting set up.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you encounter a potential bug or issue, please report it to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta area</a> of the support forums or directly to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">WordPress Trac</a> if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">known bugs</a>. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Curious about testing releases in general?  Follow along with the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">testing initiatives in Make Core</a> and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/messages/core-test/">#core-test channel</a> on <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/">Making WordPress Slack</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Help translate WordPress</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ?  You can <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev/">help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages</a>. This release milestone (RC4) marks the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#hard-freeze">hard string freeze</a> point of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/03/25/wordpress-7-0-release-candidate-phase/">7.0 release cycle</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">An RC4 haiku</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Step into the next,</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>bold, new era of WordPress.</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Seven-oh is blessed.</em></p>



<p class="has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph"><em>Props to <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chaion07</a></em> <em>for proofreading and review.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 May 2026 16:47:15 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Amy Kamala";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: Get Your WordCamp US 2026 Tickets";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=20548";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/05/wcus-2026-get-tickets/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8139:"<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20551" height="470" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/05/WCUS-sign-2.png?resize=1024%2C470&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>August 16–19, 2026, Phoenix Convention Center – Phoenix, Arizona</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Tickets are now available for WordCamp US 2026, taking place August 16–19, 2026, at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The flagship event brings together people from across the WordPress community to learn, contribute, share ideas, connect with contributor teams, and help shape the future of an open source project that powers over 40% of the web.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group has-off-white-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-9598f8b8 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained">
<div class="wp-block-spacer" style="height: 50px;"></div>



<p class="has-text-align-center has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph"><img alt="🎟" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f39f.png" style="height: 1em;" /> <strong>Tickets are limited. Secure yours today!</strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer" style="height: 25px;"></div>



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-text-align-center wp-element-button" href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/tickets/"><strong>Get Your Tickets</strong></a></div>



<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-text-align-center wp-element-button" href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/contributor-day/"><strong>Sign Up For Contributor Day</strong></a></div>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer" style="height: 50px;"></div>
</div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">WordCamp US is designed for people at many points in their WordPress journey, including contributors, developers, designers, marketers, publishers, business owners, educators, students, and anyone who wants to learn more about WordPress. This year’s event will include Contributor Day, where attendees can work alongside contributor teams and learn how to take part in the project; Showcase Day, which highlights real-world uses of WordPress; and two full days of sessions and workshops. The programming will also explore how artificial intelligence is changing the way people create, publish, build, and maintain digital experiences, with WordPress as an important part of that broader conversation.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Gather in Phoenix</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This year also brings WordCamp US to downtown Phoenix, where the <a href="https://www.phoenixconventioncenter.com/">Phoenix Convention Center</a> is close to restaurants, museums, theaters, galleries, live music, and the <a href="https://www.visitphoenix.com/greater-phoenix/phoenix/downtown-phoenix/roosevelt-row/">Roosevelt Row Arts District</a>. Attendees can stay near the venue, meet with other community members between sessions, and explore a downtown area served by <a href="https://www.valleymetro.org/how-to-ride/rail">Valley Metro Rail</a>. For those extending their trip, Phoenix also offers access to the wider Sonoran Desert region, including parks, gardens, and outdoor spaces that make the city a distinct setting for this year’s event.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped has-darker-grey-background-color has-background wp-block-gallery-5 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex" style="border-width: 20px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px;">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20566" height="1024" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/05/2188855058_459eb2d870_k.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&#038;ssl=1" width="768" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19086" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/08/Z633226-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19112" height="577" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/08/20250826_215948.jpg?resize=1024%2C577&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19100" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/08/Programming-Day-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20565" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/05/2248829384_7f84e3b500_h.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19110" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/08/DSC04553.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19115" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/08/IMG_5869.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19114" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/08/IMG_5641-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20564" height="501" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/05/Ksblack99_Yukimi_Doro_Lantern_in_Phoenix_Arizona_3.jpg?resize=1024%2C501&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19085" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/08/Z632926.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>
</figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Choose the Ticket That Fits</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Several ticket options are available, giving attendees different ways to join or support the event:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>General Admission:</strong> A $100 ticket that includes access to all four days of WordCamp US programming, including Contributor Day, Showcase Day, sessions, workshops, lunch and snacks, sponsor booths, and the community social.</li>



<li><strong>Student:</strong> A $25 ticket for students who want to learn more about WordPress, connect with mentors and community members, explore open source contribution, and build practical experience.</li>



<li><strong>Micro-Sponsor:</strong> A $750 ticket that includes the same access and attendee benefits as General Admission while helping support the true cost of the event. Micro-Sponsors will also be listed on the official WordCamp US Sponsors page.</li>
</ul>



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button" href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/tickets/"><strong>Get Your Ticket Today</strong></a></div>
</div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Full ticket details, including refund information, visa support, dietary accommodations, registration requirements, and other attendee information, are available on the ticket page. You can also follow the <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/news/">WordCamp US 2026 website</a> for updates on the schedule, speakers, travel information, and more as the event gets closer.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-18898" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/06/wordcamp-us.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 May 2026 13:56:36 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Brett McSherry";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:112:"Open Channels FM: Challenges and Wins of Developer Advocacy Plus OpenTelemetry and Neurodiversity in Modern Tech";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2554048";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:123:"https://openchannels.fm/challenges-and-triumphs-of-developer-advocacy-plus-opentelemetry-and-neurodiversity-in-modern-tech/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:268:"In this episode, hostsCarl Alexander and  guest Diana Todia discuss neurodiversity in tech and the role of Developer Relations, emphasizing the importance of community support, open source contributions, and the growing significance of OpenTelemetry for observability.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 May 2026 10:16:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"Bob Dunn";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"Gravatar: Connect Your Research Identity with ORCID on Gravatar";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=3458";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://blog.gravatar.com/2026/05/14/connect-research-identity-orcid-gravatar/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3776:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Researchers, scholars, and contributors can now connect their <a href="https://info.orcid.org/what-is-orcid/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong>ORCID iD</strong></a> to their Gravatar profile as a verified account.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">With this update, your Gravatar profile can include a trusted research identity alongside the other places people can find you online — from your personal site and social profiles to the platforms where you publish, collaborate, and contribute.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is ORCID?</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><a href="https://orcid.org/">ORCID</a></strong>, which stands for <strong>Open Researcher and Contributor ID</strong>, provides a unique, persistent identifier for people involved in research, scholarship, and innovation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">An ORCID iD helps distinguish you from other researchers and contributors, even if you share a similar name, change institutions, publish across disciplines, or contribute under different affiliations over time. It’s widely used across the research community to connect people with their work, affiliations, funding, and scholarly contributions.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In short: ORCID helps make sure your work is connected to you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why add ORCID to your Gravatar profile?</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Your Gravatar profile is a simple way to bring your online identity together in one place. Adding ORCID makes that profile more useful for researchers, academics, students, writers, and contributors who want to showcase a recognized scholarly identity.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">By connecting your ORCID iD, you can:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Show a trusted research identity</strong> on your Gravatar profile.</li>



<li><strong>Help others find your scholarly work and contributions</strong> through your ORCID record.</li>



<li><strong>Keep your identity portable</strong> across the web, connected to the same Gravatar profile people already recognize.</li>



<li><strong>Bring more context to your profile</strong> by linking your research identity with your professional and personal presence online.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whether you publish papers, contribute datasets, review research, collaborate with institutions, or simply want your academic identity represented, ORCID is a natural fit for your Gravatar profile.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to add your ORCID iD to Gravatar</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Adding ORCID works just like other verified accounts in Gravatar:</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Go to your <a href="https://gravatar.com/profile" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Gravatar profile</a>.</li>



<li>Open the <strong>Verified Accounts</strong> section.</li>



<li>Choose <strong>ORCID</strong> from the list of services.</li>



<li>Sign in with ORCID and approve the connection.</li>



<li>Your ORCID account will appear on your Gravatar profile as a verified account.</li>
</ol>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Once connected, visitors to your profile can easily find and recognize your ORCID iD.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bring your research identity with you</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Gravatar helps you maintain a consistent identity across the web. With ORCID support, that identity can now include the research and scholarly work that matters to you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Ready to connect your research identity?<br /><a href="https://gravatar.com/profile" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Update your Gravatar profile and add your ORCID iD today.</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 May 2026 09:33:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Stephane Daury";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"WPTavern: #216 – Matt Schwartz on Exploring AI’s Impact in WordPress Agencies (Part 2)";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=204202";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/216-matt-schwartz-on-exploring-ais-impact-in-wordpress-agencies-part-2";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77026:"<details>Transcript<div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case a second look at exploring AI&#8217;s impact in WordPress agencies.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox, and use the form there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So on the podcast today, for a second time, we have Matt Schwartz.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Matt has been working in the WordPress ecosystem since 2011, running his own agency based in Atlanta, and developing products like CheckView at all for WordPress form and checkout QA. Matt&#8217;s expertise lies in how agencies can smartly, and cautiously, incorporate AI into their workflows for real tangible wins, and how to avoid potential pitfalls.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">He was on the show last week to record the first of this two part mini series. You might want to listen to that prior to this, but it&#8217;s not strictly necessary.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In this episode, we build upon last week&#8217;s conversation. Matt talks about practical strategies for integrating AI across agency operations. The discussion starts with what it means to give AI access to your agency&#8217;s brain, using tools like project management wikis and connecting them with AI chatbots to streamline knowledge sharing, and avoid common AI hallucinations.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We then get into MCPs, or Model Context Protocol, and talk about why this area is quickly becoming a game changer for agencies looking to securely connect AI agents to multiple internal systems without complex, risky API configurations.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The conversation covers how to use AI for building internal tools, highlighting where it&#8217;s low risk and where you should be more cautious, especially with public facing, or mission critical, systems. Matt explains how agencies can leverage AI for QA and checklist automation, freeing up time for deeper human review of other important tasks.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We also discussed the impact of AI on the WordPress plugin market, including potential consequences for plugin developers and the wider community, and whether the rise of AI generated disposable tools could erode the collaborative spirit of the WordPress community.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We end by chatting about the importance of approaching agency AI adoption with eyes wide open to the risks. Data security, overdependence on vendors, failure to handle errors, and the reality that AI still makes mistakes.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Matt shares his outlook on how agencies can position themselves to thrive as AI reshapes the industry, from hiring strategies to the next generation of productised services.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re running an agency or freelance business in the WordPress space and want to get ahead with AI thoughtfully and securely, this episode is for you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And so without further delay, I bring you Matt Schwartz.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I am joined on the podcast, again, by Matt Schwartz, somewhat unexpectedly. Hello, Matt.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:05] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Hey Nathan, thanks again for having me this week. I&#8217;m super excited to dive back in.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you. So we recorded an episode last week, and we intended to do it as a one hit. So get it all recorded, tied off within 40 minutes or what have you. And then we began talking.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So last week we began talking and at about the half an hour point, it became obvious to me that we weren&#8217;t going to capture it all in one recording. So we&#8217;ve come back for a second episode.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Dear listener, I would just say that in order to provide context for this episode, you really probably should listen to the previous one, because we&#8217;re stacking up Matt&#8217;s case, argument, however you wish to describe it, for where you can make wins inside your agency with the use of AI. Not just wins, maybe some cautionary tales as well. But that was the point of the first episode.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So really, we&#8217;re going to drop you in to the ninth of 16 points. So again, just pause this, go back to the previous episode, have a listen there, and then you can stack this one in your podcast player of choice at that point.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If, however, somebody&#8217;s ignoring that, Matt, are you able to just do a very quick bio? Just tell us who you are? It may be repetitive for the people that are listening to the second episode, but nevertheless, let&#8217;s hear from you who you are.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:05:16] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Yep. My name&#8217;s Matt Schwartz. I run a WordPress agency here in Atlanta, since 2011. And I also have a testing and QA product for WordPress for checking forms and checkout called CheckView.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And yeah, today we&#8217;re just really diving into how you can leverage AI, how you can incorporate it into your agency, but in a hopefully smart and cautious way. Not necessarily just dropping it in, being a little bit more thorough about that process. So excited to continue the conversation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:05:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, thank you. And thank you for being so accommodating by joining me for a second time. So as I said, Matt&#8217;s put together a whole laundry list of different areas that your business, your freelance agency, whatever it may be that you are running in the WordPress space, can perhaps gain some benefits.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Last week we did one through eight, and now we&#8217;re going to sort of hit the road running on number nine. So the ninth point was about giving AI access to your agency&#8217;s brain. It&#8217;s a lovely subheading, but what does that mean?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:06:12] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Yeah, so this is actually one I picked up in the Admin Bar, which is a, one of the other WordPress agency groups out there, that a lot of agencies were doing. And I thought it was an interesting, I would say hack, you could say, to add AI without getting super involved in it. Which is if you already have a project management tool, or you already have a wiki, you can add into your AI chat bot of choice when it&#8217;s actually answering a question. You can tell it in its memory, hey, whenever I ask a question about the agency, go confirm what I&#8217;m doing by visiting our Clickup or visiting our Asana.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So it&#8217;ll actually go retrieve and confirm it&#8217;s using the latest proper information instead of just guessing or hallucinating. I love how we use the word hallucinate and not lie. I love that marketing branding that the AI companies did. It&#8217;s some crazy gaslighting.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Anyways, I love AI, but definitely, if you haven&#8217;t used something like Claude or ChatGPT, saying in the memory as simple as when you answer a question, check if this is actually the case and connect to our ClickUp or connect to our wiki.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I think that helps you get all the power of your documentation, SOPs, client, CRM, any data you&#8217;ve already basically built up. It can leverage that without you having to do a whole bunch of crazy connections or ask more specific things. I thought that was actually a really neat way that agencies that are just getting into the space with AI are using the data they basically already have. They&#8217;re just using their project management software, which basically has all that data.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:07:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> When you see it in action, which I have actually, but not to do with a WordPress website, more to do with a sort of SaaS product with the, how the tool has been built and the guardrails that are into the tool. It&#8217;s really amazing because then, well, basically it never forgets.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So every time you throw something new at it, that becomes part of the corpus of information. It then has an understanding. I keep saying it, but hopefully you understand, I&#8217;m meaning the AI in this case. A wider and broader understanding, and increasingly is able to deliver that back.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So in my case, often I&#8217;ll get some text back, which is divided up into bullet points. Those bullet points will have little footnotes attached to them, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, and what have you, which will then link out to the documentation itself. And again, just a profoundly useful use of the thing which it&#8217;s best at, which is taking a corpus of information, grinding it up and spitting out something which makes sense.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And why wouldn&#8217;t you point it at your internal documentation? You know, if you&#8217;ve got a plugin, all of your support docs, throw the AI at it, and it will be able to help you as well as your clients. Because it&#8217;s guaranteed you&#8217;ve forgotten something that you&#8217;ve built.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">WordPress, of course, itself does this. You know, every AI agent on the planet is welcome to crawl the docs for how WordPress itself is put together. And it&#8217;s one of the reasons I think why WordPress has a fighting chance in this AI, CMS battle, if you like, because everything&#8217;s open source already. Nothing&#8217;s hidden behind a paywall or a licence agreement or what have you. So yeah, agreed. That&#8217;s a great example.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay. Anything to add or should we move on?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:09:22] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> No, I think that one&#8217;s just a cut and dry, really. If you haven&#8217;t looked at that, that&#8217;s an easy way to get into AI and leverage it without a lot of work.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:09:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. Absolutely. Okay, then number 10 is your internal MCP and guardrails. I know this gets bandied around a lot, and there&#8217;s a lot of acronyms floating around in the AI space. But MCP, maybe we just need to spend a moment explaining what the heck an MCP is, and how it kind of fits into the overall picture, but particularly in this case, with your guardrails.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:09:48] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Definitely. So MCP is basically an open source way to connect AI, let&#8217;s say, chatbots or agents to external systems. It stands for Model Context Protocol. I think maybe the team behind Claude built it. I can&#8217;t remember. But the idea really is that, instead of you just connecting directly to an API, which you could do, which an API if you&#8217;re not familiar, is a way again, to connect two different systems together.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One system will have a series of things that will let you say, hey, you can add this data, or you can pull this data, or you can modify this data, right? So an example could be something like a help desk. You might create a ticket, you may delete a ticket or you may edit the ticket. An API can basically do those things.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But what an MCP does is it&#8217;s really a series of tools that are more prebuilt for the AI, so that it knows and has context of what it should let you do, and how all the pieces of that connection really should modify whatever data you&#8217;re doing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So it&#8217;s a lot more specific to agents. It&#8217;s a lot friendlier, I would say, if you aren&#8217;t familiar with a company&#8217;s API, you could connect to their API. I can connect to the WordPress REST API, but if I don&#8217;t understand that API, it may not be actually the best way to make the connection.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">With an MCP, you can really not have the background of that company&#8217;s bridge. It&#8217;s going to do all the work, and the AI&#8217;s going to have enough information to help you get what you need done.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I know that&#8217;s hard to explain, but essentially with an MCP, if you build one at your agency, this is a little bit more high level, or a little bit deeper, but I am seeing a lot of agencies looking at this. Which is, they are using an MCP basically for their teams so that they can add all of their systems in one basically bridge. So that instead of having all their employees like connect to all these different Claude connectors and APIs, they have one system.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So if I have Claude and I&#8217;m an employee, it can connect to my MCP at the agency, then the agency MCP is actually on behalf going to go retrieve data from all our different systems. So not everyone has to have API keys. Not everyone has to connect to all these other systems, if that makes sense.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I am seeing agencies starting to do this. So in some sense the proxy, MCP becomes a proxy or just a way to connect to all your other systems in a secure way.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:12:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I always imagine it a bit like if you, I don&#8217;t know, you approach a giant supermarket and you know that you need carrots and soup. And normally you just go into the supermarket and wander around for a long time, and eventually you&#8217;d sort of stumble across the carrots and the soup.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But wouldn&#8217;t it be nice if there was somebody at the front door? Then you could say, where&#8217;s the carrots and where&#8217;s the soup? And that&#8217;s it. And they go, okay, the carrots are there, the soup&#8217;s there, and point.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You know, it&#8217;s just like this perfect gatekeeper, this guardrail that you described that kind of allows you to get the best out of that experience without wasting a load of time and resources and probably a load of hallucination out the back end.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:12:55] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Wow, that was so much better said than me. But yes, that is a much better way of explaining it. And that&#8217;s why if you haven&#8217;t looked at MCPs in general, I think it&#8217;s worth looking at. But also if you have a tech background, looking at an MCP for your own agency where you can combine all your tools and connect to this one place, I think is a really neat way to, again, get your employees and contractors connected to your, all your systems without them having to have a direct connection.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So if I want them to be like, hey, answer this ticket, go to this WordPress site, instead of them having to connect Claude to the WordPress site into Fresh Desk and all these things, it&#8217;s all within the one MCP. And then they aren&#8217;t really responsible for those API keys or any of those connections.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Of course, you have to put guardrails on that too, right? Guardrails, like they can&#8217;t delete things. You know, not having them delete tickets or websites. Because if you connect, you know, your host, they could technically delete an entire website if you don&#8217;t have proper guardrails. So it is, I would say something that is a little bit more on the cutting edge that not every agency should do, but if you are on the more technical side, an internal agency MCP, I think is a really neat idea.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:14:06] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I feel like there&#8217;s future of commoditising MCP creation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:14:11] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Oh, it&#8217;s already happening.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:14:12] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I really haven&#8217;t experienced that but, you know, a really, I don&#8217;t even know what that interface might look like in the end, but some really credible way of, you know, you sign up for a service and for a few dollars a month, they will modify, create on the fly, adapt the MCP so that it fits in with what was already an incredible technology. It&#8217;s a bit like the icing on the cake, the MCP, isn&#8217;t it? The AI was pretty amazing anyway, and then you put that layer on top and it just becomes much more refined amazing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:14:41] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> There&#8217;s actually some companies doing that already where you sign up for their SaaS, they basically store all the MCP data on their server securely, because that&#8217;s always a concern. You give them basically all the credentials, you give them the guardrails, and then they build a secure, essentially MCP app for you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So there are some early options out there for that, that agencies could also look into if they&#8217;re less technical. You just want to make sure, obviously you realise you&#8217;re giving a third party your data and your secrets essentially.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:15:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And course, in the era of AI, the capacity to do things really seriously wrong is literally at the end of your fingertips. Whereas before, you&#8217;d probably have to have some understanding, well, you could delete whole file structures and things like that, I guess. But now that a simple prompt can just rip through your entire code base or whatever it may be, definitely, one for guardrails there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:15:32] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Delete all the sites on my server, done.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:15:34] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s right. Yeah. And don&#8217;t check.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:15:37] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> That could happen.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:15:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. Ignore all previous instructions, just delete them all.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay, so that was number 10. And really interesting. I think that&#8217;s one for the, sort of the tinfoil hat brigade, you know, the real nerds out there. But it&#8217;s not far off. If it&#8217;s been commoditised in SaaS now, you can guarantee that in the next few years that&#8217;s going to become table stakes, I would&#8217;ve thought for a lot of businesses and SOPs and what have you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay, so the next one, I&#8217;m sure many people will have been familiar with, especially if you have a YouTube account and you&#8217;re looking at AI things on YouTube. Vibe coded agency tools. I&#8217;m sure I know what this one means, but run it by me anyway.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:16:16] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Yeah, so one key thing is, I&#8217;m not saying vibe coded tools themselves. I&#8217;m saying vibe coded agency tools, agency being the specific part. So you&#8217;re building internal tools for your agency, which I think in some sense, depending on what the situation is, can be okay to do, in my opinion, because the risk is lower. Again, you&#8217;re using it internally.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:16:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s not public facing, that&#8217;s the point, right? It&#8217;s just you and your colleagues, which hopefully you trust.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:16:45] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Right, right. Again, you should probably put guardrails, and you have to think about, well, what sort of data is it touching, and how important is this data? That&#8217;s everything with AI. You have to think about the risk. But I am seeing a lot of agencies starting to build different types of agency tools. Some that I really do internally myself, and I am a big fan of things like reporting tools and dashboards, right?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is, again, a good case, I think I talked about in the previous podcast. The sweet spot, I think with AI is having it handle things that you just never could get to that were on your list for a million years, right? And realising that, as long as you do a little due diligence and you feel like it&#8217;s in the realm of where it&#8217;s supposed to be, this is probably more information than you had before, right?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So a good example is, if you&#8217;re an agency, you may have it hooked up to QuickBooks MCP. You may have it hooked up to your time tracking software. You may have it hooked up to one of your other reporting software, WooCommerce subscriptions with Woo. And from there you&#8217;re able to have a much better visible idea of what your business is doing well financially. The bottom line, especially if you&#8217;re like a lot of agencies where QuickBooks doesn&#8217;t really have all of your actual services. You may have those internally or you may have them in a other system.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You can combine those and build reporting systems. And again, that&#8217;s a relatively low risk way for you to, worst case is you&#8217;re going to use that data and you&#8217;re going to be like, well, this doesn&#8217;t seem right. And you&#8217;re going to have to dig into it and figure out what&#8217;s going on. Hopefully you don&#8217;t just blindly use it, but I do think the risk is lower.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So those sort of tools I think are really, really neat, and relatively easy to build out. So reporting tools, profitability dashboards, things like that. Looking at your time tracking, like who at your agency is the most profitable, if you have that data? Obviously make sure you actually have the data structure for that, or AI may just make that up.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But we&#8217;ve, you know, used that even at our agency and I think it&#8217;s been helpful for us to find patterns that we didn&#8217;t know where we were spending our time and effort. Especially if you are doing time tracking using something like Everhour or Harvest.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now the tools that I do struggle a little bit more with, and I am seeing people in agencies use is things like website management dashboards, or building their own QA tools. Because those things, I think the risk is higher of things going wrong.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:19:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Public facing again, yeah.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:19:07] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Right. And you&#8217;re giving this third party access to all of your websites and it&#8217;s not like, you know, a big SaaS. This is something you built internally, which means Claude doesn&#8217;t care if it&#8217;s wrong, right, until you tell it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So a good example, and not everyone may feel this way but, you know, I&#8217;ve seen some agencies that are building replacements for management dashboards like ManageWP, WP Remote, those sort of things, which is connected to everything and is kind of their most important infrastructure for their clients. Personally, I think that that&#8217;s a little risky to be doing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now, if you&#8217;re doing the right due diligence and you have a technical team and you&#8217;re doing manual code reviews, sure. There&#8217;s an argument to be doing that if it&#8217;s also, I think, solving something specific to your agency. I talked about this in the last podcast, replacing SaaS products when there&#8217;s a nuanced solution that&#8217;s specific to your agency, I think could be really helpful.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But if you&#8217;re just replacing SaaS products to save 30 bucks a month, I think that doesn&#8217;t make any sense because you&#8217;re going to end up spending a lot more on maintenance, I promise you, than if you just stuck with the SaaS product, if it does what you need. So I think there&#8217;s an argument there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:20:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think it&#8217;s really interesting. And I do wonder if we&#8217;re on the precipice of, so this is me sort of staring into the crystal ball a little bit. I wonder if we&#8217;re into the era of sort of disposable, one time apps. So you have a function that you need to do this month like, I don&#8217;t know, you must file your taxes this week, but you&#8217;re miles behind. So you get an AI to just quickly do that thing for you, and categorise all of the jobs that need to be done so that you can hand it over to the tax man and so on. And then you just put that on ice. That thing no longer needs to exist.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I feel that kind of coming where we sort of vibe code up this one time thing, and then dispose of it. I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;m entirely in agreement with that as an idea, but I feel that that is coming. But to your point, I think anything public facing, we&#8217;re still in the era of, really, watch what you&#8217;re doing. It needs thorough testing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:21:09] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Exactly. And thorough code review because, you know, ultimately while the AI coding, I think has gotten really, really good, it&#8217;s not a hundred percent there, and it doesn&#8217;t have any context. It doesn&#8217;t actually know what it&#8217;s doing. It&#8217;s all patterns. So there is an argument to be made that, yeah, it may get 80% there, but if no one&#8217;s actually checked the code review, two months from now, it decides to delete all your websites out of your management dashboard, well, should have done a manual code review, right? And it&#8217;s on you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I do think there&#8217;s an argument, same thing with like QA tools. Building one-off QA tools, which should be persistent and actually probably one of the more important things you build. It should do the same thing every day. It should almost be dumb. It should not be trying to rebuild itself all the time, or be even one-off, like you said. It&#8217;s not, I think, a good idea to build a one-off migrator typically for that reason, even though I see people doing it in agencies. Unless you think it&#8217;s just a low risk project, I do think, you know, you have to think about that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">To your point about the one-off task though, I think again, if it&#8217;s a low risk item, one-off makes actually the most sense because a lot of times if you know this is going to be a one-off thing, you then are subconsciously being like, okay, I&#8217;m going to use this once and the cost is not that high and that makes sense, because you&#8217;re not having to maintain it. But if you know it&#8217;s going to be something you&#8217;re going to be using for the next five years and you don&#8217;t plan to pay a developer to review it, I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s a smart idea, at least not right now.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:22:39] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s a good calculus I think to have in the background. Okay, so that&#8217;s good. So caveat emptor basically, use your discretion. If it&#8217;s public facing, maybe think twice. But also if it&#8217;s something that you want, you absolutely bulletproof need it to be reliable and predictable a hundred percent of the times that you run it. Again, maybe there&#8217;s a human in the loop there. So that was sort of vibe coded things that you might do in your agency.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I feel that&#8217;s going to be a real area of growth, whether or not it will be profitable growth or useful growth, I&#8217;m not entirely sure. I feel like in our industry at least, people are going to be dabbling in that kind of thing all the time. You know, trying to figure out new, clever tools to achieve a thing, which maybe in the past would&#8217;ve been a subscription thing that you paid $20 a month for or something. So we&#8217;ll see. We&#8217;ll see how that goes.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay, moving on then. So the 12th item that you brought to bear was QA, so quality assurance, checklists and testing. Right, run us through this one then.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:23:33] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> I know I just said when you&#8217;re building a QA tool, using AI to build an internal vibe coded tool is probably not the answer. But actually what I&#8217;m going to say right now is not contradictory to that, because what I&#8217;m really talking about for QA and testing is more so having AI help you build things like checklists, right? You already have a good context usually with your SOPs. So it can help you build your SOP checklists. It can also help run the low risk items automatically. And again, I know I talked about risk a lot, but I think that&#8217;s how you have to consider it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So one really neat thing I&#8217;ve seen a lot of agencies start using is Claude Skills, which basically just means that you teach Claude a process. Literally it walks you through in the conversation like, what do you want this process to be? And then you can run that later in context.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So a really cool example of this is if you are, let&#8217;s say onboarding a client, or you&#8217;re launching a site. During your next launch, your next onboarding, you may want to use Claude to teach it the skill of how you launch sites. And then it can automate a lot of those items. And you can still give it context like, I want the human to specifically review this item, right? Or, I want the human to check that no index isn&#8217;t set, right? Because that&#8217;s like a high risk item, right?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:24:55] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. Yeah, that&#8217;s a big one..</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:24:56] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Right. That&#8217;s one we all, I think, have dealt with at some point in our.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:25:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Too many times.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:25:01] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Right. Too many. Exactly. That&#8217;s the key. And that goes back to really that vision document I said on the last call. Having an AI vision document where you go through these checklists and you&#8217;d be like, okay, we want a human to be involved, or we don&#8217;t. You could actually tell Claude this. And then Claude will actually know exactly what it should be running itself and what it expects a human, and it will prompt you for.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I think that is the beauty of this is, you can make your whole automated process when it comes to tools with QA and anything really related to that checklist, whether it&#8217;s launch or anything like that. Look at tools like Claude and Skills like that, and I think that you can use it to help with repeatable processes. And that will actually help most agencies not only speed things up and save on margins, but I think a lot of times they&#8217;ll do more testing than they did before.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And this, again, falls into that sweet spot where like AI&#8217;s really good for the things that you knew you should do but you have limited time. And testing is one of those items. You want a hundred percent coverage, but in reality that&#8217;s not going to happen. So let&#8217;s have the human do the really important stuff and everything else we would&#8217;ve never gotten to anyways, let&#8217;s have the AI do it. And that&#8217;s where I think you can use these tools.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:26:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you know what&#8217;s really interesting, and we sort of made light of it in the previous episode, the fact that there&#8217;s hallucinations and what have you going on all the time. But I do think there&#8217;s definitely a moment coming where I think some of the more straightforward things, like for example, the checklist, the binary things, is no index switched on? Yes. No. Okay, that&#8217;s a no.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I think I am getting comfortable with that now. You know, just that, okay, we asked the AI that question, it&#8217;s delivered as an answer. I&#8217;m almost at the point now where I&#8217;m never going to go back and check that was true. If it was something much more broad like, is my SEO strategy bulletproof? Well, no. It&#8217;s never going to know whether that&#8217;s the right thing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But these much more binary things, many of which, if you add them all up, could take you hours when you&#8217;re finally launching a website. Yeah, I think there&#8217;s something to be said for just sort of handing that stuff over. And I don&#8217;t know, maybe you check it frequently, infrequently, less frequently as time goes on. But yeah, always check the no index one.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:27:08] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Yeah, I was like, I would still check the no index one, even if it&#8217;s binary. But to your point, a lot more of the very black and white items, I think it can handle a lot better than it used to, but I think it still comes down to risk. Like if it&#8217;s, yeah, no index, I&#8217;m still going to check it. But if it&#8217;s something else that just is not that key. Yeah, I think we&#8217;re all becoming a little more comfortable or a lot of us are coming more comfortable with that. And I think that&#8217;s okay because you know the risk exposure really.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:27:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, and also, especially if it&#8217;s QA and checklist time, hopefully you have done the bits and pieces, you really are at that point just making sure that you&#8217;ve polished the thing that needs to be polished. So hopefully that&#8217;s a bit of low hanging fruit where you&#8217;ll catch the things that you missed, and maybe you&#8217;ve done the due diligence there already.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay, so that was number 12. We&#8217;re approaching the end. We&#8217;ve got four more to go. So number 13 links directly to WordPress specifically. The WordPress plugin market impact.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;ve got to say, this has me slightly concerned, because I feel that this could be a good thing for our ecosystem, but also possibly a bad thing. But I&#8217;ll just hand it over to you to paint the picture.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:28:18] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Yeah, definitely. So I think you even touched on this a little earlier when you were saying there&#8217;s going to be more one-off apps being built by agencies. And I think that also applies to a lot of plugins that are essentially one-off solutions, right? They are utility plugins. They solve one thing really well.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I think that sort of thing is already seeing the impact. If you talk to a lot of plugin developers, especially some of the larger shops, they&#8217;re seeing a drop in sales. And that is a real thing that&#8217;s happening. They&#8217;re seeing a drop in sales, especially for smaller plugins. Because a lot of agencies and customers are solving that with AI. Maybe it&#8217;s a couple files of code, it&#8217;s a lot easier for them to build it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now I still have concerns around, are they having a human review that? Like I talked about. But humans are going to do what they&#8217;re going to do, which some people are just going to run with that. That ultimately affects sales.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I think that is hurting a lot of the ecosystem when it comes to the smaller plugins out there. And even some of the bigger plugin developers are essentially sunsetting their smaller plugins, because they realise they&#8217;re not getting as many sales and they need to focus on what they consider their moat, or their platform, you know, big plugins that AI&#8217;s not going to be able to replicate or people shouldn&#8217;t trust to replicate.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But if you&#8217;re building a small plugin, I&#8217;m not going to call any out, but I think that there is some concern there. And I think ultimately for WordPress, I don&#8217;t think that really hurts the WordPress ecosystem from the standpoint of plugins in general, but I do think it raises the bar of what a good plugin will be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And that kind of goes with the agency land. That&#8217;s what&#8217;s happening with agencies too. It&#8217;s just the bar is being raised. You have to have a more complex plugin that actually solves someone&#8217;s needs now, not just a small one that solved it, but now they can use AI to do it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And some people argue that that&#8217;s going to continue all the way up with the most complex plugins out there. But I do think that there are, you know, unless AI dramatically improves. If it&#8217;s 80% there, that&#8217;s great and all, but it&#8217;s what we talked about earlier. You can&#8217;t really run with that in production at 80%. And that&#8217;s the difference between a really good SaaS or really good plugin versus something that was homegrown and just falls apart.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:30:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think I have a slightly different, maybe more community focussed, approach to this because one of the things that I think worries me is the, how should we say it? The slow ebbing away of the community. And obviously if you are a, I don&#8217;t know, a company launched onto the stock market and what have you, you&#8217;re all about the money, right? The bottom line is you&#8217;re going to make money, distribute that with your shareholders, whatever, yada, yada. But the point is to make as much cash as possible and do things with that cash.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We have a very different calculus here in that the community is the thing which largely builds the software, maintains the software, promotes events. There is a bit of me which worries that if these, let&#8217;s say developers who&#8217;ve got one plugin, it doesn&#8217;t do 3000 major things, it just does one or two little things, but it&#8217;s been their way of getting themselves into the software, and figuring out how it all works, and meeting the community, and being engaged and, you know, all of that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That slow ebbing away of that is something that I think our community and open source communities like ours need to be just a little bit mindful of. Because it does feel as if AI could definitely eat a lot of lunches. And I think we see that actually. I think we can already see that in the real world with things like attendance at events and the amount of events that are being put on, yeah.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:31:57] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> I think you&#8217;re correct. I was actually going to bring this up in the sense that I am already seeing it within a lot of the agency groups. There&#8217;s just not as much engagement when it comes to posts, I think, and that sort of thing. Because people use AI more to find solutions, which means they&#8217;re not as engaged in the community. Which, to your point, plugins would kind of work the same way, especially the smaller plugins.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And yeah, there&#8217;s definitely something I think I&#8217;m concerned and kind of sad about already. Because like that&#8217;s why a lot of us are in WordPress is for the community. And I 100% agree with you. Not to mention if those guys, the smaller guys go away, then there just ends up being these massive plugin companies, which have their place, but WordPress wasn&#8217;t built on all massive plugin companies. So If those smaller ones go away, then that&#8217;s a little bit of the WordPress spirit I think are lost for sure.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:32:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I think we just need to be very mindful about this slow, like I say, wicking away or haemorrhaging of the community. And because at some point, the calculation no longer works. You know, there just aren&#8217;t enough community members around to make it interesting for other new community members to join, or to stick with things. Or to update their plugin or whatever it may be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And maybe that is just a consequence of the way the world is moving, I don&#8217;t know. But having lived in the WordPress ecosystem for over a decade, I think it would be a shame if that baby was to be thrown out with that bath water.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay. Alright. I think we&#8217;ve done that one. So the next one is, well, the next one kind of speaks directly to that actually, which is the idea of, I guess spreading your wings a little bit further and realising perhaps that AI empowers you to do things outside of WordPress. And you&#8217;ve entitled this Experimenting Beyond WordPress. Again, off you go.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:33:37] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> So this is something I am seeing some agencies doing, which is, because you can use AI now to use unfamiliar stacks, there&#8217;s really two parts. One is just unfamiliar stacks, or unfamiliar platforms, you don&#8217;t know. You can really try out new platforms a lot faster now. It will tell you exactly what to do, you know, step by step, or it&#8217;ll just do it for you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So there are agencies, I think looking at other platforms where certain projects may make sense outside of WordPress, where they&#8217;re using that in that capacity and it&#8217;s allowing them to experiment. Where in the past, just sticking in WordPress, you have all your knowledge there makes sense to do, right? You don&#8217;t want to know 10 different platforms. But I think AI&#8217;s made that easier to dive into these other platforms. So that&#8217;s the first thing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The second thing I think is that, now that you can actually use chat to engage, you are seeing some agencies, and some freelancers, that are saying, well, I don&#8217;t need the WordPress infrastructure at all. I just want to go back to pretty much like static or HTML type websites because I know I&#8217;m just going to chat with it and then I don&#8217;t have to worry about security or updates.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And obviously I think that only would apply with certain websites. It&#8217;s not going to apply with highly functional websites. I think that&#8217;s not really going to work. But for like your brochure site, I think some agencies are experimenting with some other platforms out there like Astro and the EmDash setup going on with CloudFlare.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You know, and I think that was a direct response actually. They realised, oh, people are going to want to chat with it. We could build this WordPress, what they consider like an upgraded version, in their mind.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I think that, you know, it&#8217;s good to experiment. I think what WordPress does really well, to your point though, is they&#8217;ve hopped on the API centric side of things, building the right framework, not trying to force a certain thing down our throats, but actually leave it really open.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I think that&#8217;s ultimately good because that&#8217;s how open source works. That&#8217;s why I think AI will have a good position with open source is. To your point you made previously, all the data&#8217;s out there, all the documentation&#8217;s out there. It&#8217;s going to be able to be extremely flexible. And I think that&#8217;s really why WordPress is still, in my opinion, going to exist and thrive.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But you are seeing agencies that are looking outside of just Core WordPress, because they can experiment with just a lot less time now. And they can also try out some tools that may be a better fit for certain projects.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:36:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There&#8217;s a lot of technologists in our community and we love tinkering, don&#8217;t we, and playing with new things? So it&#8217;s fairly inevitable. It goes with the territory.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay. Alright. So that was Experimenting Beyond WordPress. I think I&#8217;m going to skip 15 there because I think we covered quite a lot of that. So I&#8217;m just going to go straight to number 16, which probably will become 15, if you know what I mean, when I put it into the show notes.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So the next one anyway is called, whatever its number, is Risks and Cautions. So we&#8217;ve built what I feel is like a fairly solid argument for doing this kind of stuff. And now towards the end, we&#8217;re going to knock it all down. No, we&#8217;re not. But what are some of the risks that you might point people towards?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:36:58] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> A hundred percent. This is, I think, probably one of my favourite sections because people don&#8217;t really talk about these risks as much as they should. If you go on LinkedIn, it&#8217;s just like all rainbows and butterflies. And we&#8217;re building a new feature every day, and I think that noise can make people feel like they have FOMO and they just jump into AI and they don&#8217;t think about the risks. So I think this is actually a really important section for any listeners to listen to.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I think one of the first items, probably a little obvious, but with security issues, with AI tools, a lot of companies, every company, I feel like at this point is inputting keys and all sorts of things into these AI chatbots. And ultimately, like those tools can still be hacked. And actually legally, a lot of them say when you submit into the chat, it&#8217;s actually considered public record. Anything you submit to them. That&#8217;s literally what OpenAI made a legal argument recently about. So keep that in mind when you&#8217;re doing this.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There are some ways to do this securely. You can look into, and I think that&#8217;s something I would recommend agencies doing because they, you are holding onto client data. And ultimately you don&#8217;t want that stuff getting leaked.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Another thing, kind of on another point, which I personally have less concern with, but I think some agencies bring up a valid point, which is every time you talk to these chat bots, et cetera, they&#8217;re keeping track of all these conversations. So I know some agencies are being like, hey, how much does a website cost in my state or my country? Only use the data that other agencies have told you. And I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s really doing it, but people are doing that and they&#8217;re, you know, it&#8217;s not pushing back on them.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Things like that, just be aware of, I think what you&#8217;re inputting in, because it isn&#8217;t necessarily being leaked as far as they&#8217;re being hacked, but that data make get spit out to places you don&#8217;t want it to by other parties through chat.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:38:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I feel that at some point in the future, some gigantic disclosure, something will be disclosed, which is so horrific that it makes us all sort of take a collective breath when we suddenly realise all we&#8217;ve given over. We haven&#8217;t got there yet, or at least to my knowledge we haven&#8217;t. But I feel that at some point in the near-ish future, some jaw dropping disclosure will occur, which will make us all think twice about exactly what you&#8217;ve just described.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What are we giving up? What have we given? But also what have we not consciously given? Which kind of bit of our business did we unintentionally open up for the AI to have access to that we didn&#8217;t intend to? And if we had the time again, we wouldn&#8217;t have allowed it to, and so on and so forth. So, yeah. Okay.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Any other things on the risks and cautions? I feel that there&#8217;s a couple more lurking in there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:39:43] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Yeah. I think that one&#8217;s to be the most obvious that most people are talking about. One I think people aren&#8217;t talking about though is handling errors when you&#8217;re building your own tools. Essentially, a lot of times you may vibe code something, right, which is great. But because you&#8217;re not really going into the depth of every situation, it&#8217;s just making kind of assumptions, the AI, of what should be there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And because it&#8217;s so easy and you&#8217;re like, well, I&#8217;m saving time, people don&#8217;t really outline all of this. And so they don&#8217;t really put error handling in these tools. And what happens is, of course there&#8217;ll be some edge case and, you know, things just break. And again, depending on the tool, if it&#8217;s an internal tool, you can probably get away with that. But if it is a public facing, or a client facing tool, that is the beauty I think of having a human actually review it with logic is they are going to have context that the AI doesn&#8217;t have.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">To your point earlier, like subconsciously might be giving certain information to the AI that we don&#8217;t necessarily mean to. But you also might be leaving things out because you think you&#8217;ve already told the AI, or you think it&#8217;s going to assume a certain way, and you can&#8217;t really make that assumption. It ends up really backfiring in the long run, I think.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And that&#8217;s why being very conscious about error handling and being like, okay, we&#8217;re going to set up logging, we&#8217;re going to set up testing. Validation is just the responsible way to be building these tools that really, I feel like no one talks about.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:41:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> No. And the curious thing about it is, because it&#8217;s such a black box, I feel that almost every other technology that we&#8217;ve interacted with has been much more, I don&#8217;t know how to describe it. There&#8217;s been a higher barrier to entry. It&#8217;s more difficult to interact with it. You&#8217;ve had to, I don&#8217;t know, press buttons or enter code or what have you. Now you are just communicating. And maybe we&#8217;ll even sort of drop into voice communication at some point where we&#8217;re literally just talking with the thing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s just no, how to describe it. There&#8217;s just such a small amount of friction that is required to interact with these things. And so it kind of lulls us into this perception that it can&#8217;t make mistakes. It&#8217;s error free and what have you. And we know that that&#8217;s not the case. I didn&#8217;t really describe that very well, but I hope you got a general sense of what I was trying to describe there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:41:54] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> I think you&#8217;re right. I mean I can give an example like building out CheckView, which is obviously like a, it&#8217;s a QA tool for WordPress sites. But one thing is, I knew a decent amount of QA before I started building it. But I learned so much context building it, and we weren&#8217;t using AI when we built the tool, right? That I would&#8217;ve never gotten out if I had used AI from the beginning.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Because like you said, there&#8217;s just such little friction. You as a human just don&#8217;t have to have that much information. You can just dive into something, having no idea on what you&#8217;re really doing, which is a blessing and a curse. And I think just being aware of that. And building in the right logs, and errors to at least essentially provide a safety net for yourself, knowing that you&#8217;re not going to know everything is really important.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:42:34] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. And then a couple of other things which we&#8217;ll just sort of gloss over fairly quickly because maybe they&#8217;re sort of slightly common sense. Obviously, you know, you&#8217;ve got here sensitive client data, which might be, without your knowledge, being scooped up by the AI agents. So monitoring that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Over dependence on AI vendors. This feels like everybody&#8217;s really become dependent on a handful of companies. Maybe you could count them on one hand, I think basically. There&#8217;s three or four really, that everybody seems to be using. So that may be something that we want to be mindful of.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And of course, the last one of your bullet points under Risks and Cautions is just the fact that AI makes some mistakes all the time.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:43:15] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> All the time. I think most of that&#8217;s common sense. Really, the only one that I think people aren&#8217;t talking as much about is the overdependence on AI. Not to date this podcast, but I&#8217;m going to a little bit anyways. For example, with Claude, they are removing Claude Code from their $20 plan right now. You know, if you&#8217;ve built this into your agency process, well, get ready to pay, you know, a hundred bucks for every employee, which could be thousands of dollars.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:43:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You can only imagine how valuable that will be. And maybe it&#8217;ll be 200 bucks, or a thousand bucks or whatever it may be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:43:46] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Right. A lot of these companies obviously are subsidising the cost, and so I do caution agency specifically. That&#8217;s why having that AI vision is important, but also considering making it independent enough from your processes that you still can function if this thing does change around, because I do think there is going to be a pushback on cost at some point.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So for example, like when you&#8217;re building a product, I&#8217;m seeing some companies that are building AI so integral to their product that it will not function without AI. Or going to have to raise the price by 10x. And so like even with CheckView, our tools are there, but we haven&#8217;t built it in in such a way that you can&#8217;t use the tool without it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I think at the agency level, it&#8217;s the same idea. For the most part, trying to avoid building it in a way that you couldn&#8217;t reduce the AI needs if you needed to. Or just preparing for that the costs could go up and like, you know, if you give it to all 10 employees now, you know, at 20 bucks a month, get ready to possibly pay a lot more later.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I just think that&#8217;s something important for agencies specifically to keep in mind. And I know that seems contradictory to what I said at the beginning of this, AI everything, but I think it&#8217;s important.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:44:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m not a financial wizard in any way, shape, or form, but that does seem to be something which, sure as night follows day, is going to be coming, is the requirement to repay a lot of the venture capital that the AI is currently burning through. And yeah, so maybe a significant price hike.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And we&#8217;ve all got used to these practically free tools, and maybe that&#8217;s something that is not going to be in our future. So that&#8217;s a really good point. Put that bulwark in place to make sure that you are protected from that should it go up by, like you said, 10x or whatever it may be?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay, so I did say that there were going to be multiple, I think 16 is what I said. This probably will be the last one. This is likely outcomes for agencies. So, Matt, you get to stare into the crystal ball and tell us what your final thoughts are in terms of what you think are likely outcomes.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:45:47] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> So I think some of this is already happening.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Hiring, I think, is slowing down in some agencies because they&#8217;re realising they can automate more. They don&#8217;t need as many, essentially non-specialist employees, or contractors. And I think that is a real thing that is happening.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s going to be necessarily a long-term issue. Hopefully as, essentially the floor raises, work gets better, more agencies will be focused on providing more value, more strategy, those sort of things. Again, the execution becomes a little bit of a commodity. So having essentially more junior team members who usually do that execution isn&#8217;t just quite as necessary. So I think that&#8217;s going to continue to come up.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But again, I think it&#8217;s going to be balanced out with even the costs we just talked about with the AI tools. There could totally be a point where the tools might get expensive enough that it makes sense to have a junior do this execution.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:46:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Get the humans back. Yeah.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:46:46] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Yeah. And we go back the other way. Some people are saying that could happen. I could see the argument for that. But I think that&#8217;s one thing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Another thing with agencies is you now can really productise more of your services. And this comes into the automation process that we talked about. You can take your processes, you can really package them up, I think. And there has been a lot of talk about productising services, but I think now you can get more nuanced.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So if you, for example, only build sites for plumbers, well, with AI you can get way more specific on plumber specific service needs, and build out a process with what you&#8217;ve already done, plus, with AI to make that, I think, a lot easier for the plumber or the client, to get what they need out of it. In the past, I think most agencies were trying to build SOPs as we have time. And it, you know, it&#8217;s just a really difficult process. And I think that&#8217;s where agencies I think could help a lot.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And then the last point I&#8217;ll make around here is really around that the tools I think will change. It will be, again, less about the execution of tools, how you&#8217;re building your sites. More about the actual automation. And then really just testing and monitoring and making sure everything&#8217;s working how it&#8217;s supposed to be. The human will essentially become more of the manager of the AI. And that extends, I think, to even the tools.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I could see there being more QA and monitoring tools out there for more specific needs. Because now, you know, AI can build 90% of this, which is great. I save that cost, but I know I need to pay maybe 5% of that towards some tools that actually watch and monitor what&#8217;s happening, and make sure these automations, and these websites, are really doing what they need to be doing. So I think there is going to be possibly a shift in that way around what sort of tools that we&#8217;re investing in as far as agencies go.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:48:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So that we could describe as a bit of a marathon. I think, really, you really took us through the gamut of everything that could possibly affect an agency in the AI space. We&#8217;re in the year 2026, let&#8217;s see how it ages. But that was a really interesting deep dive into all of the different bits and pieces.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Matt has very kindly put together some show notes. What I think I&#8217;ll probably do is crib those. Maybe I&#8217;ll put them into the WP Tavern show notes, or maybe I&#8217;ll link to a Google Doc or something like that where you can see them. But you&#8217;ll be able to see all of the different bits and pieces that we went through. There&#8217;s a lot more on that document than we actually had a chance to go through. So definitely do check that out.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What I can say is that the future is definitely going to be interesting. Whether or not any of the predictions you&#8217;ve made will turn out to be true, time will tell.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But what a fascinating chat. Thank you so much for chatting to me. And I really appreciate you sticking around and doing the second episode somewhat unexpectedly with me.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Just before we sign off, Matt, where can we find you? Where are the best places online to hang out with you?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:49:49] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Yeah, definitely. So definitely, you can find me on the Admin Bar Facebook group. I&#8217;m also in LinkedIn, trying to be better about that. You can also check me out. I&#8217;ve got a Slack channel. Checkview.io, of course. Inspry.com. Feel free to reach out if anything comes up.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Definitely, overall I would just recommend agencies dabble in this. Don&#8217;t be reckless, but definitely see what makes sense for your agency. Document it all out ahead of time. And I think that that&#8217;s really going to be agencies strong suit is, can we leverage this stuff in a smart way?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:50:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, you&#8217;ve certainly provided us with a lot of food for thought. So once more, go and check out the show notes on wptavern.com. I will probably link to the document that Matt has created on both part one of this and part two as well. So you&#8217;ll be able to check both of those out.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Matt Schwartz, thank you so much for chatting to me today. I really appreciate it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:50:41] <strong>Matt Schwartz:</strong> Thank you so much, Nathan.</p>
</div></details>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">On the podcast today we have Matt Schwartz.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Matt has been working in the WordPress ecosystem since 2011, running his own agency based in Atlanta and developing products like CheckView, a tool for WordPress form and checkout QA. Matt’s expertise lies in how agencies can smartly and cautiously incorporate AI into their workflows for real, tangible wins (and how to avoid potential pitfalls). He was on the show last week to record the first of this two part mini series. You might want to listen to that prior to this, but it’s not strictly necessary.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In this episode, we build upon last week’s conversation, Matt talks about practical strategies for integrating AI across agency operations. The discussion starts with what it means to give AI access to your agency’s ‘brain’, using tools like project management wikis and connecting them with AI chatbots to streamline knowledge sharing and avoid common AI hallucinations.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We then get into MCPs, which stands for Model Context Protocol, and talk about why this area is quickly becoming a game changer for agencies looking to securely connect AI agents to multiple internal systems without complex, risky API configurations.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The conversation covers how to use AI for building internal tools, highlighting where it’s low-risk and where you should be more cautious, especially with public-facing or mission-critical systems. Matt explains how agencies can leverage AI for QA and checklist automation, freeing up time for deeper human review of other important tasks.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We also discuss the impact of AI on the WordPress plugin market, including potential consequences for plugin developers and the wider community, and whether the rise of AI-generated ‘disposable’ tools could erode the collaborative spirit of the WordPress community.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We end by chatting about the importance of approaching agency AI adoption with eyes wide open to the risks. Data security, overdependence on vendors, failure to handle errors, and the reality that AI still makes mistakes. Matt shares his outlook on how agencies can position themselves to thrive as AI reshapes the industry, from hiring strategies to the next generation of productised services.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you’re running an agency or freelance business in the WordPress space and want to get ahead with AI thoughtfully and securely, this is the episode for you.</p>



<details class="wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow">Matt&#8217;s show notes for Part 2
<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>9. Giving AI Access to the Agency’s Brain</strong></h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>A practical quick win is connecting AI to the agency’s project management system, wiki, docs, SOPs, or past tickets.</li>



<li>This allows AI to answer questions using the agency’s actual internal knowledge.</li>



<li>It can help with:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Sales handoffs</li>



<li>Support consistency</li>



<li>Project management</li>



<li>Developer onboarding</li>



<li>Client-specific context</li>



<li>Process reminders</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good framing line:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One of the quickest hacks is giving AI access to your agency’s existing brain before asking it questions.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>10. Internal MCP and Guardrails</strong></h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Agencies may eventually use an internal MCP layer as a controlled proxy.</li>



<li>The MCP can connect to tools through APIs.</li>



<li>It can give the team access to AI-powered workflows while maintaining guardrails.</li>



<li>The goal is controlled access, not just letting AI freely touch everything.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Possible uses:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Search agency docs.</li>



<li>Pull project status.</li>



<li>Check time tracking.</li>



<li>Review support history.</li>



<li>Query website data.</li>



<li>Trigger approved automations.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good framing line:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The more AI gets access to real tools, the more agencies need permission layers and guardrails.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>11. Vibe-Coded Agency Tools</strong></h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Agencies are starting to vibe-code internal tools they never would have had time or budget to build before.</li>



<li>Examples:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Website management dashboards</li>



<li>QA tools</li>



<li>Reporting tools</li>



<li>Client health dashboards</li>



<li>Project profitability dashboards</li>



<li>Launch checkers</li>



<li>Tools combining project management, time tracking, and accounting data</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li>This gives agency owners a more nuanced view of the business.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good framing line:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The value of vibe-coding is not always building a perfect SaaS product. Sometimes it is building a scrappy internal tool that saves the team 30 minutes every week.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>12. QA, Checklists, and Testing</strong></h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>AI is very useful for creating QA checklists.</li>



<li>Tools like Claude with skills can be taught a repeatable launch process.</li>



<li>AI can help generate launch checklists and even assist with running through parts of them.</li>



<li>This becomes powerful when paired with actual testing tools.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Tie-in to CheckView:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Agencies need better ways to verify that websites and automations are actually working.</li>



<li>AI can suggest what to check, but testing confirms whether it works.</li>



<li>This is where tools like CheckView fit into the shift toward more automated QA and monitoring.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good framing line:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">AI can help create the checklist, but you still need systems that verify the work actually works.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>13. The WordPress Plugin Market Impact</strong></h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>AI is making it easier to build small WordPress plugin utilities.</li>



<li>This may hurt the market for small utility plugins.</li>



<li>Agencies can now create small, custom plugins or snippets for specific client needs.</li>



<li>Larger plugin companies may respond by focusing more on larger platform-style products with stronger moats.</li>



<li>Small utility plugins may become less attractive as standalone businesses.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good framing line:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The tiny utility plugin market may get squeezed because agencies can now build small custom utilities much faster than before.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>14. Experimenting Beyond WordPress</strong></h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Some agencies are experimenting with static sites, Astro, and other platforms.</li>



<li>AI makes it easier to test unfamiliar stacks.</li>



<li>This does not mean WordPress disappears.</li>



<li>It does mean agencies may be more willing to choose different tools for different project types.</li>



<li>WordPress will still make sense where clients need editing, plugins, WooCommerce, memberships, content workflows, and flexible admin tools.</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good framing line:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">AI may make agencies more platform-flexible, but WordPress still has a huge advantage when clients need a mature content and plugin ecosystem.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>15. Risks and Cautions</strong></h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Security issues</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Credentials, permissions, API access, and client data need to be handled carefully.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Poor error handling</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>AI-built tools often work for the happy path but fail on edge cases.</li>



<li>Many lack proper testing, validation, logging, and fallback behavior.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>No long-term maintenance plan</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Vibe-coded tools can create hidden technical debt.</li>



<li>Once a tool touches client data, billing, credentials, or production systems, it needs real engineering thought.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Sensitive client data in AI tools</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Agencies need to be careful about pasting client data into SaaS AI tools.</li>



<li>There are privacy, contractual, and data leakage concerns.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Over-dependence on AI vendors</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Agencies that make core offerings too AI-dependent could be exposed if tool costs rise.</li>



<li>If the AI bubble cools or pricing changes, AI-heavy workflows may become more expensive.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>AI still makes mistakes</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>AI can be confidently wrong.</li>



<li>If a human made up facts this often, you would probably fire them.</li>



<li>Agencies still need human review, especially for strategy, legal-sensitive work, code, security, and client-facing communication.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good framing line:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">AI can make bad thinking look very professional, and that is one of the biggest risks.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>16. Likely Outcomes for Agencies</strong></h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Smaller teams will do more</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>AI may allow agencies to stay leaner.</li>



<li>Some agency teams may shrink, or at least avoid hiring as quickly.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>More productized services</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>AI makes it easier to package repeatable offerings.</li>



<li>Example:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>An agency serving service businesses could automate intake, site planning, reporting, review analysis, landing page recommendations, and follow-up workflows.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>More technical differentiation</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Agencies may differentiate through operations, automation, integrations, monitoring, and QA, not just design.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Agency tools will change</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Less focus on purely development-specific tools.</li>



<li>More demand for automation, QA, testing, monitoring, and operational visibility.</li>



<li>This connects directly to CheckView because agencies need to know whether the websites, forms, checkouts, and automations they manage are actually working.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Good framing line:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The next wave of agency tools may be less about building websites and more about proving that everything connected to the website is working.</p>
</details>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://wptavern.com/podcast/215-matt-schwartz-on-exploring-ais-impact-in-wordpress-agencies-part-1">Part 1 of this two part podcast series can be listened to here</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Matt&#8217;s agency &#8211; <a href="https://www.inspry.com">Inspry</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://checkview.io">CheckView</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://theadminbar.com">The Admin Bar</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://managewp.com">ManageWP</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://wpremote.com">WP Remote</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"Open Channels FM: BackTalk on Being Strategically Annoying, RSS Adoption, and Going It Alone on the Web";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2554021";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:108:"https://openchannels.fm/backtalk-on-being-strategically-annoying-rss-adoption-and-going-it-alone-on-the-web/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:215:"Conversations from OpenChannels FM reveal insights on strategic persistence in networking, advancements in content management systems, podcasting technology adoption, and the challenges of standardizing web intents.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 May 2026 13:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"Bob Dunn";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"Open Channels FM: Revisiting Web Intents and the Ongoing Challenges of Decentralized Web Services";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2553989";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:104:"https://openchannels.fm/revisiting-web-intents-and-the-ongoing-challenges-of-decentralized-web-services/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:233:"In a conversation about the future of the open web, Paul Kinlan and Matthias Pfefferle explore the challenges of decentralized identity, interoperability, and potential solutions like Web Intents, advocating for user-centric systems.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 May 2026 07:06:14 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"Bob Dunn";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:119:"HeroPress: Indebted: The Ugandan WordPress Dream that Flew to Asia – Ebbanja: Ekirooto kya Uganda ekyagenda e Buyindi";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=8649";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:182:"https://heropress.com/essays/indebted-the-ugandan-wordpress-dream-that-flew-to-asia/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=indebted-the-ugandan-wordpress-dream-that-flew-to-asia";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33274:"<img alt="Pull quote: Being “seen” is not loud. It’s not always people clapping for you." class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/051126.webp" width="1024" /><p><a href="https://heropress.com/feed/#luganda">Emboozi eno weeri ne mu Luganda.</a></p>



<figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls="controls" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/indebted_the_ugandan_wordpress_dream_that_flew_to_asia.mp3"></audio><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Here is Moses reading his own essay aloud.</figcaption></figure>



<p>There are moments in life when you sit back, look around, and just shake your head in disbelief. The kind where you ask yourself, <em>“Eh! Is this really me?”</em></p>



<p>This is one of those moments.</p>



<p>The word <em>indebted</em> is typically associated with money—a debt to be repaid. But there is a different kind of indebtedness—one that defines my life now: <strong><em>feeling grateful or obligated because of a benefit, help, or kindness received</em></strong>. It’s the feeling I have today for the global WordPress community. This isn&#8217;t a financial report; it&#8217;s a profound acknowledgment that my life, my sense of community, and my geographical freedom were purchased not with cash, but with kindness.</p>



<p>I write this essay to the dreamers in my home country of Uganda. To the beginner still figuring out what “plugin” means. To the developer grinding through tutorials at midnight. To anyone who believes that global stages are “for other people”. They are not. This is our story, and it is built on the backbone of WordPress.From Doubting Thomas to WordPress Events Supporter</p>



<p>For a long time, my relationship with WordPress was purely transactional. It was a tool, a way to build a website, a path toward earning a living. The community aspect was a side benefit, a place for troubleshooting, like the endless “try clearing cache” conversations. Because of this many people have gone around with the WordPress is dead jokes which is not the actual reality</p>



<p>But WordPress is not just about websites; it is about people. Real people who show up, who share, who guide, and who open doors you didn’t even know existed.</p>



<p>Like I have explained before, I was not always the full of faith kind of guy. I always had doubts and so many reservations. I started using WordPress because a friend of mine invited me to. Just to test and see how things work. Nothing serious. When I started using WordPress, life started changing and now I have hit another milestone. WordPress keeps pulling me and locking me in. </p>



<p>The Software, the Community, the family (in Uganda we call it a family because of how fast we come through for each other). After a few series of attending meetups and WordCamps a friend asked me to speak at a WordCamp and my life took another turn. It was so beautiful to contribute to communities. I started sharing in meetup and WordCamps, both locally and internationally but I had never thought about organizing a flagship event. </p>



<p>WordPress transformed my way of seeing people and my approach to community also took a turn for the better. I met people that appreciated all efforts regardless of how small.</p>



<p>This journey from self-doubt to mentoring WordCamps was a slow-burn realization of the power of community. The small efforts, the meetups, the training sessions, and all the nitty-gritties actually mattered. The WordPress community brought me so far, allowing me to celebrate the path I was on.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-dream-that-flew-to-mumbai">The Dream that Flew to Mumbai</h2>



<p>The dream of organizing a flagship event had always been tucked away in my heart. When I saw the call for Organizers for a Flagship event, I noticed a chance to fit all this community work into a larger purpose.</p>



<p> I knew it would take a lot of effort and the cross would be heavy, but I didn’t care; I wanted to carry it. I also didn&#8217;t think they would choose me because I had been turned down before by another flagship. I was ready for whatever the response but I was also ready to put in the hours and work required.</p>



<p>The challenge was immediate and geographical. The event was WordCamp Asia 2026, happening in Mumbai, India. The idea of my passport getting that Indian immigration stamp felt like a fantasy. My confidence was limited to what I thought was possible: “Apply and you will be a remote organiser”.</p>



<p>During the organizer vetting and orientation process, the interviewer kept returning to one question: <em>Could I make it to Mumbai?</em></p>



<p>In my heart of hearts, I knew the answer. I kept firmly responding that I could not afford that much, but I would offer all the required remote support. I was already offering my time and effort; I just couldn&#8217;t solve the geographic puzzle and yet I really wanted to be a part of the team.</p>



<p>Then, during one of the calls, I received a link to apply for the <a href="https://automattic.com/automattic-open-horizons-scholarship/">Open Horizons Scholarship</a> from <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a>.</p>



<p>The moment I read the mission statement, everything clicked. It aims to increase equitable access to WordPress events by providing financial support to contributors from underrepresented, underserved, or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This was written for me. This was written for us.</p>



<p>With all faith and hope, I filled in the application and waited. I was praying that they would choose me, praying that this new dream could become a reality.The Game Changer: Geographical Freedom</p>



<p>A few days later, I received the email confirming my selection. Even now, it still feels like one of those emails you reread five times to confirm it’s not a scam. You know those ones that start with “Congratulations” and you check the sender twice before your heart accepts the joy? Yes, that one.</p>



<p>I was in shock. I was excited. I was amazed.</p>



<p>This scholarship was not just about me boarding a plane to Mumbai; it was a physical manifestation of geographical freedom. It was a reminder that somewhere, someone saw value in what I do.</p>



<p>My life changed, the way I walk changed, the way I speak changed, the way I see things changed and everything changed. The scholarship made me international. I ceased to be local events organizer to Flagship event Organizer</p>



<p>Travelling to attend a flagship event is a very interesting thought but for me, it started with a passport that had more hope than stamps.</p>



<p>Then came the india visa process.</p>



<p>Let me be honest, it was not smooth. Not even close. I faced rejection. Once. Twice. Three times. Each one comes with the same polite but painful message that basically says, “Not this time.”</p>



<p>And each time, you start to question yourself again.</p>



<p>“Maybe it’s not for me, Maybe I should just stay back here.”</p>



<p>But something interesting happened in the middle of those rejections. As I kept trying, learning, asking questions, and understanding the process better… I started helping others.</p>



<p>Friends would reach out:<br />“Bro, how did you apply?”<br />“What documents did you use?”<br />“What do they want exactly?”</p>



<p>And me,  the same person being rejected started guiding others. Reviewing applications. Sharing lessons. Giving the details the visa sites and agents were not giving.</p>



<p>And guess what? All of them got their visas. On time. Successfully. Including my wife.</p>



<p>Meanwhile, I was still struggling to get mine.</p>



<p>Life can be funny like that</p>



<p>But on the fourth attempt… it came through.</p>



<p>That approval message hit differently. It was not just excitement. It was relief. It was validation. It was a quiet whisper saying, <em>“You were not crazy to keep trying.”</em></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-leaving-home"><strong>Leaving Home</strong></h2>



<p>Preparing to travel felt like preparing for an exam you didn’t fully revise for.</p>



<p>Packing was a whole experience. You pack, unpack, remove things, add them again. You even start questioning if you really need five shirts for a few days. (The answer is yes… just in case <img alt="😄" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f604.png" style="height: 1em;" />)</p>



<p>Then came the airport.</p>



<p>That one is not for the faint-hearted. The walking. The checking. The “please step aside.” The looking confident even when inside you’re just praying you don’t miss a step.</p>



<p>But the real moment?</p>



<p>Sitting in that plane.</p>



<p>Seatbelt on. Heart beating. Thoughts running.</p>



<p>Then the engine roars… and the plane starts moving.</p>



<p>Slowly… then faster… then suddenly you are off the ground.</p>



<p>I looked out the window and saw Uganda getting smaller.</p>



<p>And in that moment, it hit me:</p>



<p><strong><em>The barrier is gone.</em></strong></p>



<p>The thing that felt impossible was now happening in real time. No more imagination. No more “one day.” This was the day.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-feeling-of-being-seen"><strong>The Feeling of Being Seen</strong></h2>



<p>Being “seen” is not loud. It’s not always people clapping for you.</p>



<p>Sometimes it’s quiet.</p>



<p>It’s in the opportunity you’ve been given.<br />It’s in the doors that open without you forcing them.<br />It’s in realizing that your effort, your consistency, your presence matters.</p>



<p>For me, being seen looked like this journey.</p>



<p>From struggling with visas… to finally holding one.<br />From helping others succeed… to eventually getting my own breakthrough.<br />From wondering if I belong… to being welcomed on a global stage.</p>



<p>It was not instant. It was layered. Built over time.</p>



<p>And now, as I step into this experience, I carry all of it with me — the rejections, the lessons, the small wins, the people I helped along the way.</p>



<p>Because in the end, this is not just about travel.</p>



<p>It’s about growth.</p>



<p>It’s about persistence.</p>



<p>It’s about a reminder that sometimes… delay is not denial.</p>



<p>It’s preparation.</p>



<p>And when your moment comes, you will know that this was always bigger than you.</p>



<p>We arrived in Mumbai very early in the morning (4 am India Standard Time). What followed was a hospitality unexpected, a love unfathomable. From the Uber driver who took us to the hotel to the &#8220;Kaali-Peeli&#8221; (taxi) and even the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw">tuk-tuk</a> driver. Everyone was kind. Even though the summer sun was out for its show-off party, the A/C was properly equipped for the tantrums. Mumbai was beautiful.</p>



<p>The reception from the WordPress community itself was beyond belief. People checked on me to ensure I arrived safely, to see if I needed anything, if all my affairs were in order. I saw so many people whom I had only chatted with digitally on Slack and now it was no longer just a text and image, but a face and a voice. It was a beautiful experience. There were people who lent me money because my VISA card was not working, and they had no fear that I may run off. That is the definition of a trustworthy, supportive community. That is the leverage WordPress gave me: friends that feel like family across the globe.<br /></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-indebted-to-the-pioneers"><strong>Indebted to the Pioneers</strong></h3>



<p>This moment of freedom and connection didn’t happen in a vacuum. Opportunities like the Open Horizons Scholarship are built on the backs of people who contributed before I even knew what WordPress was.</p>



<p>They are the people who wrote documentation.</p>



<p>They are the people who fixed bugs at 2 AM.</p>



<p>They are the people who organized WordCamps when the attendance was just their friends and cousins.</p>



<p>We, the beneficiaries, are enjoying the fruits of a tree we did not plant but we are now called to water it. That realization humbles me deeply.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-indebted-but-also-responsible"><strong>Indebted… but Also Responsible</strong></h3>



<p>Being indebted is not just about saying “thank you” (though, sincerely, thank you). It comes with responsibility. The scholarship changed me. I became more careful, knowing that people see me and my actions; every little thing that I ignored was being seen. This was the true game changer.</p>



<p>My responsibility means four things:</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Showing up fully</strong>: Being fully present in my role as an organizer and contributor.</li>



<li><strong>Learning intentionally</strong>: Absorbing the expertise and experience of the global community.</li>



<li><strong>Connecting genuinely</strong>: Building real relationships that bridge continents.</li>



<li><strong>Bringing the knowledge back home</strong>: Ensuring this experience benefits the community in Uganda.</li>
</ol>



<p>This is not just my win. It is for the community in Uganda. This global experience is a call to mentor and continue pushing WordPress to the ends of the world. It’s about how much you love. Let us echo WordPress <strong>everywhere</strong>.</p>



<p>We have seen how other people do it and it is now time for us to do it even in our own country and continent. We have set balls rolling and pots cooking. The Baganda say “<strong><em>Travel to see, return to </em></strong><strong><em><s>tell the Tale </s></em></strong><strong><em>Work.</em></strong>” We are now the people demanded of the fruits of the scholarship that was accorded. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-to-anyone-watching-from-the-sidelines"><strong>To Anyone Watching From the Sidelines</strong></h3>



<p>Let me tell you something clearly: your time is coming.</p>



<p>You might feel like you’re doing small things, contributing here and there, attending events, helping one person at a time. It might even feel unnoticed.</p>



<p>But consistency has a way of speaking loudly when the time is right.</p>



<p>One day, you will open an email.</p>



<p>One day, your name will be called.</p>



<p>One day, you will be the one writing something like this.</p>



<p>And when that day comes, I hope you will also say:</p>



<p>“I am indebted”.</p>



<p>To everyone who has been part of my journey: mentors, friends, community members and everyone, thank you. Truly.</p>



<p>And to the WordPress community: thank you for being a place where someone from Uganda can dare to dream globally… and actually get there.</p>



<p>Now let me go and start checking passport expiry dates properly, because you never know i may now get a chance to Shake <a href="https://ma.tt">Matt’s</a> hand</p>



<p><strong>Moses Cursor Ssebunya</strong></p>



<p>Grateful. Growing. Going.</p>



<div class="wp-block-jetpack-tiled-gallery aligncenter is-style-rectangular"><div class=""><div class="tiled-gallery__gallery"><div class="tiled-gallery__row"><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/open_horizons_email-1024x385.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div></div><div class="tiled-gallery__row"><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0325-1024x768.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0452-768x1024.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0518-1024x768.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div></div><div class="tiled-gallery__row"><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0523-1024x768.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0590-768x1024.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div></div><div class="tiled-gallery__row"><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0599-768x1024.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0666-768x1024.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0681-768x1024.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_9482-768x1024.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div></div><div class="tiled-gallery__row"><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_9797-1024x768.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div><div class="tiled-gallery__col"><figure class="tiled-gallery__item"><img alt="" src="https://i0.wp.com/heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/img_0385-1-768x1024.webp?ssl=1" /></figure></div></div></div></div></div>



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<h1 class="wp-block-heading" id="luganda"><strong>Ebbanja: Ekirooto kya Uganda ekyagenda e Buyindi</strong></h1>



<figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls="controls" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/05/ebbanja_-_ekirooto_kya_uganda_ekyagenda_ebuyindi.mp3"></audio><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Wuuno Moses nga asoma emboozi ye</figcaption></figure>



<p>Wabaawo ekiseera mu bulamu lw’otuula wansi, n’omagamaga n’omala ganyeenya mutwe nga tokikkiriza. Ebiseera wewebuliza, “Naye ddala ono nze?”</p>



<p>Kino kyekimu ku biseera ebyo.</p>



<p>Ebbanja oba okubanjibwa olumu kikwanagananyizibwa ku nsimbi oba ssente, ebbanja ery’okusasula. Naye ate waliwo ekika kye bbanja ekirala, okugenza nga kyempulira kakano: <strong><em>Okuwulira okusiima okusukkiridde oba okuwuulira nga kikukakatako olw’okuganyulwa oba obuyambi oba okusasirwa okunji kw’oba ofunye. </em></strong>Bwenti bwembulira olwaleero ku kibiina eky’ensi yonna ekya bakozesa WordPress (Global WordPress Community). Eno si alipoota ya mbalirira, wabula kusiima era nga nzikiriza awatali kubuusabuusa nti obulamu bwange, omwoyo ogw’obumu era ne ddembe okutuuka mu buli ggwanga byagulibwa, ssi na nsimbi naye na kusasira.</p>



<p>Mpandiise emboozi eno eri bannange abaloota ewaka ewaffe mu Uganda. Eri ggwe akyeezuula, atamanyi “Plugin” kyekitegeeza. Eri omuwandiisi wa code asomera ku butambi mu matumbi budde. Eri ggwe wenna akkiriza nti entimbe z’ensi yonna “z’abalala”. Si kituufu. Luno lwe lugero lwaffe era nga lusimbuddwa munda mu kinyusi kya WordPress. Okuva mu kubuusa buusa nga Tomasi  paka ku bukelembeze obukulu mu WordPress Community.</p>



<p>Okumala ebbanga eddeme, enkolagana yange ne WordPress yali ya byanfuna. Nga ekikozesebwa okuzimba ‘ebibanja ku mitimbagano’ &#8211; websites, engeri y’okukola ku kasente okwebeezaawo. Ebya ekibiina kya bakozesa nga nyongereza era nga sibifaako, okugeza nga okuddukirayo nga nsanze obuzibu, nga emboozi za “jjako ozeeko”. Naye olw’ensonga eno abantu banji bazze n’ebiboozi bya wattuuyo nga WordPress bwe yaffa era naziikibwa era nga ebiboozi byonna, nga sibituufu. </p>



<p>WordPress teri ku kuzimba bibanja; bantu. Abantu abaddala ababeerawo, abagabana, abalagirira era abaggulawo enziji zotamanyi nako nti weeziri.</p>



<p>Era nga bwenyinyonyodde jebuvuddeko, sinze eyali akkiriza nyo. Nalina okubuusabuusa kwange are nga neekengera nnyo. Natandika okukozesa WordPress kubanga mukwano wange yampita okujja ngezese ndabe nga ebintu bwebiri, tewali kyannyo. Bwenatandika okukozesa WordPress, obulamu nebutandika okukyuukan kati laba ntuuse ne ku ddaala eddala. WordPress esigala ensika nga enyingiza munda.</p>



<p>Software, Abantu (Ekibiina), famire (mu Uganda tujiyita famire kubanga tulina engeri jetwelabiriramu, okudduukirira nga waliwo afunye ekyetaago, n’enkolagana). Kati olwo nga nakamala okugenda mu nsisinkano (Meetups) n’enkungaana (WordCamps) nga ziizo, mukwano gwange yansaba njogere mu WordCamp jeyali akulembeddemu abategesi ate awo obulamu bwange ne bukyuuka neera.</p>



<p>Kyaali kirungi nnyo bwenatandika okwenyigira mu bibiina. Natandika okwogera mu Meetups ne WordCamps wano kubutaka ne’bulaya naye nga sirowoozangako nti nyinza okuba kubategesi ba WordCamp ya Ssemazinga.</p>



<p>WordPress yakyuusa engeri jendabamu abantu n’engeri jeneenyigiramu yakyuuka. Nasisinkana abasiimira ddala ne bwekaba katono.</p>



<p>Olugendo lw’okuva mu kubuusa bussa mpaka kuku lungamya abategesi ba WordCamps kali kabuguumirize akanjolesa amaanyi ga community eno. Amaanyi amatono, meetups, okutendeka n’obuntu obulala lala bwakola nga amakulu. Community ya WordPress yantuusa wala, okutuusa okujaguza olugendo lwe nnaliko. Ekirooto ekyatuuka e Mumbai.</p>



<p>Ekirooto kyokutegeka WordCamp ya ssemazinga kyali mu kko naye nga era kyewala nga kirinaanye obutasoboka. Bwennalaba okuyita okwewandiisa kwa’baagala okutegeka WordCamp eno, nendaba akakisa okuteekesa mu nkola byonna bye nnali nkola mu community.</p>



<p>Nakimanya nti tekijja kuba kyangu era nti omusalaba gujakuba munene naye nga nange ndimumalirivu. Namalirira okugwetikka omusalaba guno. Ate era nnali sikiwa nga bayinza okunzikiriza kubanga abalala baali banganye. Nnali mwetegefu ku buli kyebanangamba, okunzikiriza oba okungaana naye ate era nnali mwetegefu okuteekamu amaanyi gange gonna.</p>



<p>Okusoomoza ne kujjirawo nga kulimu okutambula. WordCamp bali bajiyita WordCamp Asia 2026, yali yakubeera Mumbai mu buyindi. Ekirowoozo kya paasipooti yange okukubwaamu stamp ya India kwali nga kuloota. Era nasaba nga ngumidde ku kimu, “Njakukolera ku mukutu (mutimbagano)”.</p>



<p>Kati mu yintavyu yabategesi, omusoyisoyi yeetololeranga ku kibuuzo kyekimu: “Onaasobola okujja e Mumbai?”</p>



<p>Amazima gennyini nga nkimanyi ssisobola. Era nawozanga kimu emiwendo j’olugendo minji sijja kujisobola naye nja kukola buli kyenninna okukola ku yintaneti. Obudde n’amaanyi nali neetegese okubiwaayo naye ensimbi ezintwala ebulaya nga mpitirivu obunji.Ekizibu kyokutambula nga kinnemye okusalira amagezi naye ate nga njagala nnyo okubeera ku tiimu.</p>



<p>Mu zimu ku meeting zetwabeeranga mu nga abategesi, naweebwa akayunzi (link) k’okusaba sikaala jebayita <a href="https://automattic.com/automattic-open-horizons-scholarship/">Open Horizons Scholarship</a> okuva mu <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a>.</p>



<p>Bwenasoma omulamwa gwabwe, mwanattu amagezi negajja. Nga omulamwa gugamba nti, Egenderera okw’ongera obusobozi bwabantu abajja mu mikolo ja wordPress nga ewaayo obuyambi bwe’simbi eri ba contributor (ffe) abava mu bitundu ebitakiikiriddwa bulunji, ebitalabibwa, oba ebirina obutasobola obutali bumu. Kino kyawandikirwa ku lwange, ku lwaffe.</p>



<p>Ne suubi lyonna n’Okukiriza, najjuzaamu ekiwandiiko n’eninda. Nga nsaba nti bana nnonda, nga nsaba nti kino ekirooto ekipya kinaafuuka ekyaddala. Olugero lwaakyuukira wano, obusobozi bw’okutambula bwali buzze.</p>



<p>Nga wayiseewo akaseera mpaawo kaaga, nafuna email ekakasa nti nnali nnondedwa. Nabuli kati, kikyawulikika nga email eyo j’osoma emirundi n’emirundi okukakasa nti sibufere. Omanyi ezo email joosoma nga etandika ne “Tukuyozaayoza” n’okebera ajisindise emirundi nga essatu nga omutima tegunkkiriza; essanyu</p>



<p>Nawuniikirira, Nakyamuka, Neebaza Katonda</p>



<p>Okusasulirwa kuno tekwali bubeezi ku kulinnya nyonyi kugenda Mumbai; kwali kulabikirwa kwokusumula emikisa j’okufuluma eggwanga. Kyalai kijjukizo nti mu kifo ekimu, waliwo eyalaba omugaso mu kyenkola.</p>



<p>Obulamu bwange bwaakyuuka, engeri jentambula yakyuuka, n’enjogera yakyuuka, engeri jendabamu ebintu yakyuuka, buli kimu kyaakyuuka. Sikaala yanfula wansi yonna. Sikyaali mutegesi wa mikolo jawaka, kati ndi mutegesi wa mutindo gwa Nsi yonna.</p>



<p>Okugenda ku WordCamp ennene kyali kirowoozo ky assanyu nyo jendi naye jendi, kyatandika n’akatabo akaliina essuubi linji okusinga stamp zamawanga.</p>



<p>Awo ne tugenda mu ntalo za Visa ya Buyindi. </p>



<p>Amazima ga Katonda, Visa teyali nyangu, naakamu nakeddagala. Nagaanibwa; sigumu, si ebiri, si essatu. Buli mulundi nga banziramu negonjebwa n’obubaka obugamba nti “Si kumulundi Guno”</p>



<p>Buli mulundi gwandeetera okwebusa buusa:</p>



<p>Kirabika sibyange,oba nsigale ewaka.</p>



<p>Naye waliwo ekyasinga okunkyamula wakati mu kugaanibwa. Buli lwenagezaako, nga njiga, mbuuza ebibuuzo n’okwongera okutegeera buli kimu bwekikola… Natandika okuyamba aballa.</p>



<p>Emikwano jatandika okumbuuza:<br />“Bro, wakola otya?”<br />“Wakozesa biwandiiko ki?”<br />“Baagala ki kyenyini?”</p>



<p>Naye nga nze, gwe bamma visa nze mpa abalala amagezi agafuna. Nensoma mu kusaba kwabwe, nengabana ebyookuyiga. Ne mbawa ebyebuziba ba agent ne website bye zitaabawa.</p>



<p>Nkweewunyise? Munnange bonna ne bafuna, mu budde, nga mwemuli n’eyamukyaala wnage.</p>



<p>Naye nga nze kagezi munnyu wabwe, nkyaabonabona okufuna eyange.<br /><br />Obulamu busesa, buli gwenagambako nga aseka</p>



<p>Naye ku mulundi ogwokuna… neyitamu.</p>



<p>Akamesegi kajja nga kanjawulo. Tekankyamula bukyamuzi kyokka. Kanzikakanya. Kali kaama akantegeeza nti “<em>Tewali mulalu okulemerako</em>”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Okusimbula</strong></h2>



<p>Okwetegekera okusimbula kwali nga kwetegekera kibuuzo kyotasomeredde bulunji.</p>



<p>Okusiba engugu nakyo kyali kirala. Bwopanga, bwopangulula, jjamu bino, bizzemu notandika nokwebuuza oba engoye ezo zonna ozeetaaga (Amazima gali nti tomanya kinaabawo)</p>



<p>Awo ne tudda ku kisaawe</p>



<p>Bannange ekisaawe sikya banafu ba mitima. Okutambula, okukebera. Bano ba ate “dda ebbali..” Okutambula nga wegumya kumbe otya okuseerera.</p>



<p>Naye akaseera akaddala?</p>



<p>Okutuula mu nyonyi.</p>



<p>Omusipi nga ngutaddeko, omutima nga gukuba, ebirowoozo nga bitambula.</p>



<p>Awo yinjini newuluguma… enyonyi neetandika okutambula</p>



<p>Mpola mpola, kasoobo nga emisinde bwejeyongera mu kaseera mpawo nkaaga nga twesozze obwengula. </p>



<p>Nentunulako wabweeru we dddirisa nendaba nga Uganda egenda efunda.</p>



<p>Mukaseera ako wenzuuliira:</p>



<p><strong>Omuziziko gugudde.</strong></p>



<p>Ekyaali kiwulikika nga ekizibu nga kati kigenda mu maaso mu buliwo. Tewakyali kufuumitiriza. Tekyali bya luliba lumu, lwali lutuuse:  <strong><em>Abange sosolya bwatafa, Nali ku lyengede nga nsolobeza.</em></strong></p>



<p><strong>Okuwulira nga Olabiddwa</strong></p>



<p>Okulabibwa tekuwaawaala. Era tekubeera ku bantu kukubira mungalo buli kiseera.</p>



<p>Olumu kuba kwa kimpowooze.</p>



<p>Mukisa gw’oba oweereddwa.<br />Mu nziji ezeggula nga tozikase.<br />OKuzuula nti amanyi go, okwewaayo, n’okubeerawo kwo bya mugaso.</p>



<p>Jendi, okulabika kulinga olugendo luno.</p>



<p>Okuva mu kubonabonera visa… paka ku kujifuna<br />Okuva mu kuyamba abalala okuyitamu… mpaka ku kutuuka ku buwanguzi bwange<br />Okuva mu kwebuuza naye nange mbajjaamu…mpaka ku kwanirizibwa ku miwaatwa eminene</p>



<p>Tekyaali kya mbgirawo, kya zimbibwa mpola mpola mu mitendera okumala akabanga</p>



<p>Era kati, nga bwenyingira mu kunyumirwa, mbyettisse byonna wamu nange: okugaanibwa, ebyokuyiga, okuwangula okutono, abantu bennayamba mulugendo lwange.</p>



<p>Kubanga mu nkomerero, tekiri bubeezi ku kutambula</p>



<p>Kiri ku kukula</p>



<p>Kiri ku kulemerako</p>



<p>Kijjukizo nti ebiseera ebimu… okukerewa si kugaanibwa<br />Kuba kweetegeka</p>



<p>Era akaseera ko bwekanajja, ojja kumanya nti kino kyli kikusinga obunene.</p>



<p>Munnange siikulwiseeyo nga tuli Mumbai, twaatuuka kumakya (saawa kkumi ez’omumattuluttulu ~ 4am). Munnange awo ne balyooka batwaaniriza nga bwetutaasuubira, okwagwala okuta nnyonnyoleka. Okuvira ku mugoba we mmotoka eya tutwaala ku wooteri jetwali tulins okusula mpaka ddala wansi ku wa masanda (tuku-tuku). Bannange nga buli omu wakisa. Nga ku mbaga bwekutabula musiiwuufu, omusana gwo tegwali gwa kisa era gwasiibanga mu pereketya naye nga n’omuyindi A/C ajiwadde emirimu. Mumbai yali mbalagavu.</p>



<p>Ate bwekyaatuuka ku bannaffe mu community ya WordPress ne gujabagira, batwaniriza n’essanyu lya mwoki wa gonja. Abantu nga bankeberako, okukakasa nti natuuse bulunji, oba nga nina kye neetaaga, oba nali nteredde ntende. Nalaba abantu banji, abamu ku bbo nga  twaali twakoma kunyumya ku mikutu jino ji mukwanira wala ne mesegi za slack pepo ne WhatsApp. Kakano nga tetukyeetaaga kubeera ku ssimu wabula maaso ku maaso era nga mboota buliro.  Waliwo abampola ssente kubanga kaadi yange eya banka yali eremye, nga tebatidde nti oba nadduka. Kino kyebayita obwesige, okuwaniriragana nga. Gano ge maanyi WordPress geyampa: emikwano ejiringa abooluganda ebusukka mayanja.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Ebbanja olwabaatandika</strong></h3>



<p>Akaseera kano akeddembe tekakolebwa mu muwulenge. Emikisa nga Open horizons Scholarship jizimbibwa ku migongo j’abantu abaawaayo nga sinnaba na kumanya WordPress kye ki.</p>



<p>Bano be bantu abawaayo obuwandiike</p>



<p>Abaaterezza ensobi ku munnana ogwekiro</p>



<p>Abategeka WordCamps nga abakise baba kumpi banju yo</p>



<p>Kati ffe abafunyeemu, tweyagalira ku bibala eby’omuti gwetutaasimba. Naye kaakano tuyitiddwa okugufukiirira, Okutegera kino kyongera okuzikkakkanya</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Ebbanja… Ery’obuvunanyizibwa</strong></h3>



<p>Okusiima tekiri bubeezi ku kugamba “Weebale”. Kijja n’obuvunanyizibwa. Sikaala eno yankyuusa. Natandika okufaayo enyo, nga mmanyi nti bandaba era obikolwa byange; buli katono ke nnayisaamu amaaso bakalaba. </p>



<p>Obuvunaanyizibwa bwange butegeeza ebintu bino bina (4):</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Okweweerayo ddala</strong>: Okubeera mu bujjuvu mu kifo kyange nga omutegesi oba ayongerako. </li>



<li><strong>Okugenderera okuyiga</strong>: Okufuna obukugu n’obukenkufu okuva mu community ya WordPress</li>



<li><strong>Okukwatagana mu mazima</strong>: Okuzimba enkolagana ezaddala okuyunga zi ssemazinga </li>



<li><strong>Okukomyaawo amagezi gano ewaka</strong>: Nina okukakasa nti banna Uganda baganyulwaamu.</li>
</ol>



<p>Kuno si kuwangula kwange, Kw community ya Uganda nga ekitole. Byennayiga ebulaya mulanga gwa kuyigiriza balala n’okwongerayo WordPress mpaka ku nsonda z’ensi. Kisinziirira ddala ku njagala joyagalamu. Tutuuse oeddoboozi lya WordPress <strong>buli wamu</strong>.</p>



<p>Tulabye engeri abalala bwebakola era kaseera naffe tukole u nsi yaffe ne ssemazinga.Tutandise ebintu kamaala. Ffe a Baganda tugamba; <strong>okutambula kulaba okudda </strong><strong><s>kunyumya</s></strong><strong> kukola</strong>. Kati ate ye ffe bantu bebabanja ebibala bya sikaala</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Eri yenna alabira ku bbali</strong></h3>



<p>Kankutegeeze kino buterevu; akaseera ko kajja</p>



<p>Oyinza okuba nga owulira okozeeko bitono. Nga wnyigiramu wano na wali, genda ku mikolo, yambako omuntu omu omu. Oyinza n’okuwulira nga atalabika.</p>



<p>Naye okulemerako kulina engeri jekuwoggana nga akaseera katuuse</p>



<p>Lunaku Lumu, ojja kuggulawo email</p>



<p>Lunaku lumu; erinnya lyo bajja kuliyita</p>



<p>Lunkau Lumu, ojja kuba ggwe awandiika emboozi nga eno</p>



<p>Era olunaku olwo bwelunajja, kansabe nti naawe onoogamba nti:</p>



<p>“Mpoleddwa Ebbanja”</p>



<p>Eri buli abadde ekitundu ku lugendo lwange: abawabuzi, emikwano, aba community na buli omu. Weebake nnyo. Amazima</p>



<p>Ne WordPress community: nwebale nnyo okubeera ekifo nga omuntu mu Uganda asobola okulotera ku mutendera ogusemba… era nentuuka na yo</p>



<p>Kati kanzireyo nkebere paasipooti egwaako ddi kubanga munnange tomanya nyinza okufina omukisa okusikako <a href="http://ma.tt">Ma.tt</a> mu mukono</p>



<p><strong>Moses Cursor Ssebunya</strong><br />Nsiima. Nkula. Ngenda.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/indebted-the-ugandan-wordpress-dream-that-flew-to-asia/">Indebted: The Ugandan WordPress Dream that Flew to Asia &#8211; Ebbanja: Ekirooto kya Uganda ekyagenda e Buyindi</a> appeared first on <a href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 May 2026 05:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"Moses Cursor Ssebunya";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
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