AI in WooCommerce Isn’t Magic, It’s an API

I had a client call last week, super excited. He’d been reading about AI and wanted to know if we could build an assistant for his WooCommerce store. Something that could answer customer questions, maybe even help him write product descriptions on the fly. My first instinct was to tell him to cool his jets. Honestly. Building a custom AI that can safely interact with a live store is a minefield. Total nightmare fuel.

You can’t just hook up a large language model to your database and hope for the best. You need rules. You need to define exactly what it can and can’t do. My mind was already racing through the custom endpoints, the security checks, the endless prompt engineering… it sounded expensive and fragile. But then I remembered the announcement about the WooCommerce MCP Beta. And that changed the conversation. It’s not just marketing fluff; it’s the beginning of a proper framework.

What the Heck is the WooCommerce MCP Beta?

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. In plain English, it’s a system designed to give AI assistants a clear, structured way to understand and interact with a WooCommerce store. Instead of guessing, the AI is given a list of “abilities.” Think of it like a REST API, but for AI actions. The core of this is the new WordPress Abilities API. You, the developer, define what’s possible. The AI can only perform the actions you explicitly register. That was the kicker for me. It turns a chaotic concept into a manageable engineering problem.

For instance, instead of trying to teach an AI how to process a refund, you’d register a `refund_order` ability. The AI would then know it has this tool in its toolbox and under what conditions it can use it. It’s a fundamental shift from open-ended conversation to structured, predictable actions. The full scope of this is still being explored, which is why the upcoming office hours mentioned on the WooCommerce Developer Blog are worth a look for any serious Woo dev.

<?php
// This is a simplified example of how you might register an ability.
// It's not final, but it illustrates the concept.

if ( function_exists( 'wp_register_ability' ) ) {
    wp_register_ability(
        'woocommerce_get_product_stock',
        [
            'description' => 'Retrieves the stock quantity for a specific product SKU.',
            'parameters'  => [
                'type'       => 'object',
                'properties' => [
                    'sku' => [
                        'type'        => 'string',
                        'description' => 'The product SKU.',
                        'required'    => true,
                    ],
                ],
            ],
            'callback'    => function( $args ) {
                $product = wc_get_product_by_sku( $args['sku'] );
                if ( ! $product ) {
                    return new WP_Error( 'product_not_found', 'Product with that SKU does not exist.' );
                }
                return $product->get_stock_quantity();
            },
        ]
    );
}

So, What’s the Real Takeaway Here?

Is this something you should roll out for a client next week? Absolutely not. It’s a beta. For developers. But it’s the direction things are heading. The takeaway isn’t that AI is going to magically run your store. The point is that we finally have a structured, secure way to start experimenting with it. It’s about building a proper API layer for AI, not just letting a chatbot run wild.

• It provides a secure bridge between AI and your store’s data.
• It forces you to define concrete actions (abilities) instead of vague goals.
• It standardizes how AI assistants will work within the WordPress ecosystem.

Look, this stuff gets complicated fast. If you’re tired of debugging someone else’s mess and just want your site to work, drop my team a line. We’ve probably seen it before.

For my client, I told him the tech isn’t quite there for what he wants, but for the first time, I could show him a clear path for how we’ll get there. And that’s a much better conversation to have.