I’ve seen a lot of “game-changers” come and go in the WordPress ecosystem over the last 14 years. Usually, they’re overhyped plugins that bloat your database. But the WP AI Client proposal for WordPress 7.0 is different. It’s not a flashy feature; it’s infrastructure. And as someone who has spent far too many hours cleaning up conflicting AI SDKs in client builds, this is the foundation we’ve been waiting for.
Recently, the core team published a merge proposal to bring a provider-agnostic AI API directly into Core. This isn’t about shipping a “ChatWP” button in the dashboard. It’s about creating a consistent interface so that developers can call generative AI models without caring if the site owner is using OpenAI, Anthropic, or a local Llama instance.
Why We Need a Provider-Agnostic API
Right now, the WordPress AI landscape is the Wild West. If you want to build an AI-powered feature, you’re likely bundling a massive PHP SDK or writing custom wrappers for specific APIs. If another plugin on the same site does the same thing, you’ve got duplicated dependencies and a maintenance nightmare.
The WP AI Client solves this by acting as a middle layer. It provides a standardized PHP API, a fluent Prompt Builder, and integrated credential management. Specifically, it works alongside the Abilities API (which we started seeing in WordPress 6.9 and beyond) to handle complex tasks like function calling and model discovery.
How the Prompt Builder Works
The technical implementation is solid. It utilizes a fluent builder pattern that returns WP_Error objects instead of throwing exceptions—thankfully following WordPress conventions. Here is a look at how you’d actually use it in a custom plugin or theme once it’s merged into Core.
<?php
/**
* Example of using the WP AI Client to generate a meta description.
* This assumes a provider (like OpenAI) has been configured via a plugin.
*/
function bbioon_generate_post_summary( $post_id ) {
$post_content = get_the_content( null, false, $post_id );
// Use the core helper function to build a prompt
$response = wp_ai_client_prompt()
->text( "Summarize this content in 150 characters: " . $post_content )
->model_preference( 'gpt-4o' )
->generate();
// The API returns a WP_Error if something fails (auth, network, etc.)
if ( is_wp_error( $response ) ) {
error_log( 'WP AI Client Error: ' . $response->get_error_message() );
return false;
}
return $response->get_text();
}The Beauty of “Non-Goals”
Furthermore, I’m impressed by what this proposal doesn’t do. It doesn’t ship with pre-bundled API keys or a default provider. It doesn’t force a UI assistant on users. It simply provides the plumbing. This preserves the “plugin first” philosophy of WordPress while ensuring we don’t end up with a fragmented ecosystem of incompatible AI tools. You can track the progress of this on Trac ticket #64591.
Security and Privacy: The Hard Truth
We need to talk about the messiness of data privacy. One of the biggest concerns for my enterprise clients is where their data goes. The WP AI Client address this by ensuring no outbound calls happen by default. Everything is capability-gated, and secrets are stored securely within the WordPress credential system, preventing leaks via REST or logging. For more on this roadmap, check out our previous look at navigating the road to 7.0.
Look, if this WP AI Client stuff is eating up your dev hours, let me handle it. I’ve been wrestling with WordPress since the 4.x days.
Final Takeaway for Developers
If you’re building plugins today, start looking at the GitHub repository for the WP AI Client. Even before the 7.0 merge, understanding this architecture will save you from refactoring hundreds of lines of code later. This is the transition from “hacking AI in” to “building on a platform.”
