Every few months someone announces that WordPress is dead. Usually in a tweet. Usually from someone selling a different website builder.
It isn't. WordPress still runs a huge chunk of the web, and it isn't packing its bags any time soon. But I do think something real is happening, and it's more interesting than another "WordPress is dead" hot take.
WordPress isn't dying. The way we build websites with WordPress is.
The Old Formula (and Why It Worked)
For years, building a small business website went roughly like this. Install WordPress. Choose a theme. Add plugins. Customise until it looks a bit less like the demo. Launch.
And honestly? It worked. It was cheap, it was quick, and it put millions of businesses online that would otherwise have had a Facebook page and a prayer. I've built a lot of sites that way myself. No shame in it.
The whole model rested on one idea: writing custom code is slow and expensive, so you assemble a site from parts other people already built. A theme for the look. A plugin for the contact form. Another plugin for the slider nobody asked for. Another plugin to fix the speed problems caused by the first three plugins.
AI Changed the Economics
Here's the shift. AI is changing the economics of web development.
Today a developer can generate layouts, write custom code, draft content, troubleshoot problems and prototype features dramatically faster than even two years ago. The stuff that used to take a week of fiddling can take an afternoon.
Which leaves us with an uncomfortable question:
How much of the traditional WordPress workflow do we actually need anymore?
If custom code is suddenly cheap, why install a 40MB theme to get a hero section and three buttons? Why stack fifteen plugins when you could just build the two features you actually need, cleanly, and own the result? The assembly line made sense when hand-building was expensive. When it isn't, the assembly line starts to look like a very elaborate way of doing things the long way round.
WordPress Isn't Going Anywhere, Though
Let me be clear, because someone will quote this out of context. I don't think WordPress is going away.
Its ecosystem is enormous. Its flexibility is still valuable. Your marketing person already knows how to use it. And millions of businesses rely on it every single day to publish blogs, update prices and post that "we're closed on Monday" notice.
That's not nothing. That's a lot.
But I think its role is changing.
From "a WordPress Website" to "a Website That Uses WordPress"
The future may be less "Let's build a WordPress website."
And more "Let's build a website, and use WordPress where it makes sense."
That sounds like a small change in wording. It isn't. It flips who's in charge.
WordPress could increasingly become the CMS behind the experience, rather than the thing that dictates how the experience is built. It's the engine you use to manage content, not the body kit that decides how your car looks, how fast it goes and which mechanic you're allowed to visit.
In practice that might mean a fast, custom front end your visitors love, with WordPress quietly sitting behind it so your team can still log in and edit a page without calling a developer. Or it might mean WordPress for the blog, and something lighter for everything else. The point is you choose, based on what the business needs, not on which theme had the nicest demo.
That's a much bigger shift than WordPress simply competing against Wix, Shopify or Webflow. (If you're weighing those up right now, my WordPress vs Wix comparison is a good place to start.)
The Real Threat Isn't Another Builder
Here's the bit I keep coming back to.
The biggest threat to WordPress isn't another website builder. It's making the traditional process of building websites unnecessary.
Builders compete on features. You can always add a feature. But if the slow, plugin-stacking, theme-wrestling process itself becomes pointless, no feature saves it. The parts of WordPress that survive will be the parts that are genuinely good: content editing, a massive community, and the fact that you can host it anywhere and actually own it.
The parts that won't survive? Probably the bloated "does everything" themes, and the business model of agencies charging premium prices to install them.
As a web developer, I think this is one of the biggest changes our industry needs to start talking about honestly, instead of either panicking or pretending nothing is happening.
What This Means If You Own a Small Business
You don't need to rip out your WordPress site tomorrow. Please don't. But next time you're planning a build or a website redesign, ask your developer a couple of questions. How many plugins will this need, and why? What happens if one of them stops being updated? Could this be simpler?
A good developer will have good answers. A great one will tell you which bits don't need WordPress at all. That's how I approach WordPress website design these days: WordPress where it earns its place, clean custom work everywhere else, and everything in your name.
So, What Do You Think?
Is WordPress entering its next evolution, or is AI slowly making the traditional WordPress workflow obsolete?
I genuinely want to hear your take, whether you're a developer, an agency owner or someone who just wants their website to stop breaking every time a plugin updates. And if you're wondering what this means for your own site, send me a message. I'll give you a straight answer, no theme upsell included.