The future of WordPress in 2026 – WP-Tonic episode 997 recap

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What is the future of WordPress in 2026 was the main topic of the episode 997 of WP-Tonic podcast. Guest speaker was Raitis Severis, our Head of Product and here’s how it all went.

The talk itself shed some light on WordPress challenges & opportunities in 2026. From AI integration to security – hosts Jonathan Denwood and Kurt von Ahnen, together with Raitis discussed what’s shaping the platform’s future and there are some specific points we wanted to expand to.

WordPress is infrastructure

WordPress is no longer a “web publishing tool” – it’s infrastructure that’s used by 60.0% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 42.8% of all websites. With those numbers comes big responsibility. When you power that much of the web, you’re no longer just shipping features but influencing business continuity, education platforms, media operations, e-comms, government services, thousands of agency workflows.

This is why the 2026 conversation around WordPress should include a question like:

How does WordPress evolve responsibly at infrastructure scale – while still remaining open, flexible and competitive?

That’s the lens through which the next phase of growth needs to be viewed. And this is where one of Raitis’s key points hits right.

Today, every professional has their own stack and, in 2026, they are looking for tools that blend perfectly with the rest of their stack, which is the most important thing and is often overlooked by many WordPress products. This is where real responsibility – and real opportunity – lies. Making sure that the whole ecosystem works well – together.

The AI illusion

In 2025 what everyone was thinking was “We need to add AI feature to our product”. Many products added AI for visibility and to hop on trend, but sustainable growth requires more than that, as Raitis pointed well.

“And now in 2026, we realize it’s not enough and people start to look back at the basics, to ensure how things work together. The smooth integration ensures that it is easy to use your product. We tend to think we’re big and important, in reality, we’re just a piece of the puzzle for users, regular or professionals.”

So, smooth integration and thinking about AI in terms of is it helping professionals and how it can create shortcuts in their day-to-day operations.

We particularly liked his pro AI tip:


How we see the future AI implementation within WordPress, it will not:

  • Replace architecture thinking
  • Replace UX judgment
  • Replace accountability

But automate repetitive tasks, accelerate drafting, improve workflows – something all the participants agreed on.

Education as long-term growth

During the talk, Jonathan asked Raitis to share some behind the curtains challenges or issues we’ve faced in the last 18 months and Raitis pointed one universal to all challenge, which is:

How to get people outside WordPress start using WordPress?

When we’re talking about customer onboarding, we all focus on explaining and showing how amazing our UI and UX are. But we don’t pay enough attention to the fact we are just a piece of WordPress puzzle and we need to educate people to get around WordPress before start using our product. That lack of knowledge is what slows down WordPress growth, but this is starting to change due to WordPress Foundation initiatives they started. Learn WordPress, WordPress Credits (that we are a part of), Campus Connect – aim to lower the entry barrier and make WordPress more approachable to students, creators and future professionals.

Investing in education and community is what builds long-term sustainability. It creates better users, stronger professionals and more thoughtful product development across the WordPress space. This is what we see as one of the most underestimated opportunities WordPress has in 2026.

Wrapping up

A lot was covered in this conversation (especially around AI) – far more than can fit into a single article. For all the points and takeaways, we recommend watching the full episode.

Before closing, it’s worth touching on one final point that possibly reflects the broader ecosystem shift.

When asked about Elementor and its move toward a more professional market, Raitis emphasized that without full visibility into their internal strategy, it’s impossible to be certain about their long-term direction. However, he observed that their positioning appears to signal different ambitions – potentially an effort to decouple more from WordPress over time.

As an example, he noted that on their website, visitors need to scroll through a significant portion of the page before encountering any reference to WordPress. In his view, messaging decisions like that are rarely accidental – they usually reflect a deliberate strategic direction.

And that observation ties back to the central theme of the episode: in 2026, major players in the ecosystem are thinking beyond features and go toward positioning, platform identity, long-term trajectory.

As for WPBakery, we have our Roadmap live within the Customer Center, where we share what we’re working on, what’s coming next and can say that some big things are about to be rolled out pretty soon! Follow us on socials to not miss the announcement.

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