WordPress.com, Automattic’s website hosting platform, will now feature a built-in WordPress AI assistant, the company announced Tuesday. This feature is designed to work inside a website to understand its content and layout, allowing website owners to make changes using natural language commands.
With the new tool, you can edit a website’s layout, style, or other patterns by giving commands to the AI assistant, then watch the changes appear on the website as it works. Even these guidelines may not be precisely tailored to the challenges, the company notes. Instead, you can use more general language, such as “make this section more modern or spacious,” “change the colors of my site so they’re brighter and bolder,” or “give me more font options that look clean and professional.”
You can also direct the AI to add or modify your layout and instruct it to do things like “add a contact page” or “add a referral section below this section”. However, the company notes that its modifications work with block themes, not classic ones. If you use the second one, the assistant will not appear in the editor.
AI WordPress Assistant can also update site content, such as asking it to rewrite your bio to make it sound more confident or translate a section into another language.
The AI can also act as an editor, offering headline suggestions, fact-checking, and other grammar and editing suggestions. This aspect is available through the block notes editor that arrived in WordPress 6.9, where you can collaborate with teammates in the editor. You can now pull AI into this workflow by typing @ai followed by your requirements. AI will provide its answers here, including relevant links and other information where it cites external sources.
Meanwhile, Visual Assistant uses Google Gemini’s AI Nano Banana models, which can be used to create new images or edit existing ones. Use the AI helper, available as a new “Generate Image” button in the media library, to specify image requirements such as aspect ratios or dictate image styles.
The company notes that the WordPress AI assistant is an optional feature that users can enable if they choose. To do this, they will need to visit their site list after logging in, click on the site name and then click on Settings. In settings, they scroll down to “AI Tools” and turn on the “Enable AI Assistant” setting.
Customers who purchase a website with AI website builder will have the assistant activated automatically.