How to use AI sensibly for WordPress websites

How to use AI in WordPress

So now that we know the aspects in which AI can be helpful when it comes to WordPress websites, it’s time to figure out how to use it. There are several ways to incorporate AI into your WP installation and we will explain them to you. 

AI Plugins and pagebuilders for your WordPress websites

In the world of WordPress development, AI plugins and pagebuilders promise a revolution. These tools use artificial intelligence to improve various aspects of your website. Some of the most popular AI plugins for WordPress include AI Engine, AI Power or RankMath. 

They can, for instance, analyze content and provide optimization suggestions to make your website more suitable for search engines. This can improve the findability of your site in search results and generate more organic traffic. In addition, an AI plugin for WordPress can help personalize the user experience by customizing content based on user behavior and interests. They can also help with the creation of forms using ready-made templates.

Sounds cool but all these functions are not really out of the ordinary, right? The thing with AI plugins for WordPress is that they can streamline and automate basic actions for you. But taking a closer look you realize that they don’t offer a lot of functionality.  Especially when it comes to more profound features or elements like linking forms to other sites or using more dynamic templates, they reach their limits. 

Unfortunately it is almost the same with pagebuilders. Let’s take the AI tools by Divi or Elementor. Even though we are talking about very well known and sophisticated pagebuilders, their AI features are kind of unsatisfactory. Just like with AI plugins, you can tell that the AI pagebuilders lack depth when it comes to different design options and a more complex functionality. 

Let’s say you want to create a form. AI in this case can only do the basic standard form. If you need deeper functionality such as CRM connections or different conditions, AI can’t help you with that. You either have to accept the most basic way of doing things or manually take care of other functionalities yourself. So AI isn’t really a great help here. 

What about Chat GPT?

There are several ways to integrate Chat GPT directly into your WordPress website. You can either use browser extensions with GPT technology (e.g. Merlin or Voilà). Or you can also use Chat GPT in WordPress via a plugin that also uses OpenAI’s GPT technology.  

When it comes to functionality, Chat GPT can basically do the same as the AI plugins can do for your WordPress installation. Besides being an obvious helping hand when it comes to content creation or optimization, Chat GPT is popular for chatbots. Chat GPT is also used for: 

• helping you create basic website outlines or design a website and templates.
• giving recommendations for tools, libraries and resources to streamline the development process and increase efficiency.
• helping you with specific programming concepts or creating code snippets and examples to help implement certain functions or features. 

Again, the Chat GPT AI for WordPress is nice to have but not really very useful yet. It basically only saves you one copy and paste step and that’s it. Just like with the plugins and pagebuilders there is barely any new, extended functionality. This means that using AI may not be enough to fulfill all the requirements you have for your WordPress website. 

Should I use AI for my WordPress websites?

You can probably already guess the answer to this question. It depends. While AI offers great help for beginners, there is still not a lot of functionality there for more experienced WordPress users. The main benefits of using WordPress and AI may be: 

• AI enables the automation of recurring tasks such as content optimization, customer interaction and security monitoring
• By using AI, WordPress websites can gain a competitive edge by responding faster to trends, delivering personalized content and improving the user experience.
• AI can support newbies and even create an entire WordPress website for people with lesser knowledge in this field. 
• AI-powered tools offer advanced analytics and optimization capabilities that make it possible to continuously improve website performance. 

However, all these advantages are not really any news and can be found in other plugins or tools. And just like with any other software or program, there are some disadvantages that we need to discuss. 

• Many advanced AI tools and services can be expensive, especially for small businesses or freelancers. 
• The use of AI can raise privacy concerns, especially when sensitive data such as personal information or user behavior is analyzed. 
• Although AI offers many potential benefits, current functionality is still limited. Many AI models can perform certain tasks well, but they are often unable to solve complex problems or make creative decisions.

The potential of AI for WordPress

It’s safe to say that the current hype around AI in WordPress websites unfortunately often leads to disappointment. While current AI features offer certain benefits such as SEO optimization and image generation, they are not yet heavily integrated into WordPress and offer little added value.

However, AI has a lot of potential that still hasn’t been realized yet. And serious software development is needed to do so. The future could be a dynamic website that automatically adapts to individual users and continuously optimizes itself. But this  requires a separation of layout, design and content as well as an effective integration of AI generators such as ChatGPT. 

The current AI tools we know are certainly good, but their application in WordPress installations has so far been a little disappointing. At Greyd we see it as our challenge to develop powerful AI functions that exceed the capabilities of current tools or human possibilities. To make AI a real game changer in your WordPress websites. 

If you are interested in learning more about the development of WordPress feel free to sign up for our newsletter. With Greyd you can actively witness the further development of WordPress and AI and will benefit from it in the long run.