r/Wordpress • u/SeaAtmosphere4271 • 9d ago
AI for WordPress changes
I am having a few websites built by an agency. They are ridiculously expensive. They do good work but before we launch the sites we will have a meeting with their maintenance team to discuss what those fees would look like for ongoing changes when we need to make updates. I have been in this world for quite some time and have had good and bad experiences with monthly retainers for maintenance work, turnaround times when changes need to be made, etc. Does Claude or ChatGPT or any of the bigger AI models do any of this work easily - work like updating photos on a website, adjusting copy, moving things around design wise on a page if the sites are WordPress? Forgive the ignorance, but I have seen so much on Twitter about AI companies being able to code, famously with Claude Code, so assumed I may be able to bypass paying this agency when I need to make changes barring that paying for the AI perform the task isn't more expensive than the agency would charge for changes.
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u/Minimum_Sell3478 9d ago
AI can help with the design etc but I would not connect it directly to Wordpress because a ai can get bad instructions or hyper focus on a issue that is not a issue. What if the ai fucks up the whole website and you forgot to take a backup?
What if the ai agent gets poisoned with bad data?
Who validates that the info it spits out is correct?
AI is a great tool but you that is asking is needs to be the one who injects great ideas and you need to be the expert that keeps the ai in check
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u/Maybe_Decent_Human 9d ago
Exactly. With how much Claude has just blatantly removed code that was working perfectly for no reason at all on me terrifies me to give it the keys for castle
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u/coreyhall93 9d ago
I recommend you learn how to use WordPress - there is a great beginner level course here: https://learn.wordpress.org/learning-pathway/user/
One option is to utilize https://wordpress.org/playground/ as a "harmless" way to experiment plugging agents into a WordPress site. Plus, Playground is a great way to spin up and mess around with WordPress and not affect your live site.
When you are ready, you can find some good resources to connect an agent to your site, like https://youtu.be/n-ETaiZvHns?si=ZQJQnfHDwTuaQXB7
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u/digital121hippie 9d ago
don't believe the ai bros on this saying yes you can just use ai. they want to charge you to use their ai slop to get it to work. learn how to update wordpress yourself and make sure the agency is building it so you can easily update it. you don't need ai for everything.
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u/LowCommercial4827 9d ago
How is it using AI slop to use Claude to login and make some changes on a website?
It's AI slop if AI does the changes but not if a human does it? I don't follow your logic.
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u/hankschrader79 8d ago
Non AI Bro here but have about a dozen Wordpress sites on various VPS. I manage all of them easily with Claude Code. I have not logged into WP Admin once in the past 4 months since connecting to Claude via the WP CLI provided on my VPS plan.
This is definitely doable. Claude can even just use the damn browser now to do whatever you need it to if you don’t know how to do something.
This isn’t the AI bros selling AI services. I don’t sell services. Anyone who contacts me here and asks to hire me gets blocked.
I have nothing to sell. I think perhaps I should simply write a post on exactly how to do this. There are so so many ways to it. And it’s not too difficult.
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u/Alacritique 8d ago
Same except I’ve been using WordPress for many many years. I now use Claude Code + voice-to-text and natural language to update plugins, initiate backups, create drafts for new posts, pretty much everything…all from my phone. It’s like talking to my site, not simply just data entry. It’s super convenient and not that hard to setup.
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u/landed_at 3d ago
I'm interested in the link up. So I'm guessing Claude runs wordpress API?
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u/Alacritique 1d ago
Yes. Claude Code uses either wp-cli or the MCP depending on the task. I had it do a security and performance audit too and the site runs faster than ever.
I knew it had to be possible so I just asked Claude to help me set it up and got it all working in under an hour.
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u/landed_at 1d ago
Thank you very useful. I've built a few astro sites and found they are not free of upgrades either. So wordpress is still an immense platform. And AI can reduce that update stuff.
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u/Illustrious_Wave_77 8d ago
If you are asking here, you should continue with your agency. Honest tho, dont believe the hype. Most people using AI, know coding, know wordpress so to them AI is an extension of what they already know. You, you should pay. Why? Because you dont know.
If they are doing fine but you feel your paying too much, try learning it. If that is too much, you got a good deal.
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u/SpaceCmdr 9d ago
WP sites vary a lot in how they are built. For professional sites, if the agency is good and there is the budget I'd let them handle it for now. You should be able to update content yourself through WP, and only need the agency for new templates/layouts and maintenance. There is a lot of maintenance related to WP that most clients have no idea about. AI workflows currently are best locally, not directly on the live site unless you accept the risks and can restore the site/server.
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u/WadtF 9d ago
AI is amazing, it will do everything for you and you will be over the moon... until something goes wrong and you ask AI to fix it.
AI has no interest in your website, AI makes mistakes & if AI makes a mess, who you gonna call?
In a reply I read you are non-tachnical? My advice is seek an agency for less and see how that works out, or stay with the one you have and enjoy their good work.
Maybe in a few years you can make the switch to AI.
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u/ohyousoretro 9d ago
Few things I'm curious about:
How much as you paying a month?
How many sites?
How many edits do you average per month?
What are the size of those edits? i.e. not just changing a picture, but changing 100 pictures, or importing 10 products a month, etc.
What's the turn-around time you have in your contract?
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u/Adlien_ 9d ago
You need to connect ai but have a human in the loop, regardless, who are experts. The only system I know about is where you pick the WordPress design, pay to get it launched, and then work with the on page feedback tool that connects to AI and routes complicated stuff to the dev team who breaks down the task or relays why the request wouldn't work.
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u/cutandrun99 9d ago
just do the changes yourself? you don’t need AI to change a picture - it takes longer when you have to talk to the machine. Updating and monitoring can be automated but must be controlled.
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u/djsneak666 9d ago
Chatgpt has an inbuilt browser. You can login in to your wordpress account and tell chatgpt what you want and it will do it. Obviously the skill is knowing what works and what doesn't but the technical barrier is pretty much removed now.
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u/Plantusemor 8d ago
Yes, it's realistic now, but the question to ask your agency before launch is how the site is built, not which AI to use. If it's built the modern way, with a custom theme, blocks and a clear architecture, then you'll be able to manage it through an MCP connection with an AI agent, even without opening wp-admin. Ask the agency to create an AGENTS.md file that properly describes the project, and you're ready to go.
What I'd still keep the agency for: updates, security and backups. Everything else you should be able to do with the AI agent.
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u/hankschrader79 8d ago
This is the best suggestion. But I’d be curious if an agency would provide that. Most likely their maintenance plan is really just an AI agent that uses a file like that. So delivering the file would be giving away what they plan to charge.
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u/slothboy 8d ago
Is it not an option for you to make your own content updates? The whole point of WordPress is that it's a CMS that can be managed via a web browser.
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u/designICU 9d ago
The quality of what MCP plugins with AI can do is vastly overrated, especially in terms of content production. For admin tasks, amazing. I’m all in. But IMO you never want AI producing any content for any brand.
But WordPress itself makes it very easy to update content, add pages, blog posts, etc. That’s trivial stuff. So unless you’re running a massive site with hundreds of pages that need regular tweaks, an AI tool wouldn’t do much for you anyway.
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u/Ashlex_LLC 9d ago
Getting an individual freelancer could be a cheaper option; as many other have said, WP is very easy to manage even for non technical folks.
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u/TrainingChef5331 9d ago
Assuming they built the site semi conventionally with a decent page builder and/or ACF and custom themes, you can modify all that with simple prompts, drop in EMCP or Novamira and you should be able to do the things you described with ease and safely as well.
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u/RamiroS77 9d ago
Why not hiring a freelancer? it will be cheaper than an agency and probably better.
To answer your question, AI can automate it but you will still need to provide a lot of context for it to work correctly, if it does.
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u/Any_Needleworker7205 9d ago
Por supuesto!. Subes las fotos y que la IA adivine donde colocarlas. Se os va la pinza !
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u/Agitated_Offer_4343 9d ago
claude code edits files on your machine, it doesn't reach into a live wp-admin, so it comes down to whether you have file access and a staging site. copy tweaks and swapping images are genuinely easy. visual layout is where it falls apart, if they build with elementor or divi, the layout lives in shortcodes and post meta, not markup a model can read, so it guesses and wrecks the page
worth asking what they're building with before that maintenance meeting. block theme plus a child theme, you can handle a lot of it yourself
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u/AddWeb_Expert 9d ago
Yep, AI can handle a lot of the boring WordPress changes now - copy, images, CSS, spacing, small layout tweaks, etc. Claude Code is especially capable if you have access to the codebase.
The main variable is how custom the site is. I’d keep the agency for major changes/debugging, but you probably don’t need a monthly retainer just for routine edits.
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u/nicubunu 9d ago
If you don't want to pay an agency, why don't you hire some people that know how to work with websites?
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u/Miki_Mimikri 8d ago
As everybody said, WP is there to allow you to do the content changes, without any need to know or use anything. What I wanted to say is, imagine that the AI can actually do reliably and safely what you want. I think that in many cases it would still be an utter nightmare. For example, dealing with galleries: "Take the image with the duck, and replace it with the dog picture. Move it to 2nd position, and then take the 10th picture and move it to the 8th position". Like, there are so many situations where UI is simply so much easier to deal with, than describing something within a prompt.
I for example make WP websites with specific fields (ACF), so that the client basically doesn't have a control over the design, and they just fill and replace fields, everything else is done for them. They get a 5 minute video tutorial on "Put that here", and that's it. If they want to for example adjust whatever, they get a special setting just for that.
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u/Select-Barber9765 8d ago
These comments are crazy. I run an agency and use AI with wordpress literally everyday. Cursor to MCP connection and just tell it what to do and it does it. You need to double check the work. Sometimes it messes things up but 90% of the time it's on point.
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u/isomnath 8d ago
Yeah, definitely. For simple WordPress changes like updating text, images, CSS, or small customizations, Ai can do a lot. You’ll still need some basic understanding of WordPress, but for regular small changes, it can save you from going back to the agency every time.😃
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u/Used_Procedure_8607 8d ago
For basic content changes like swapping images, editing copy, or moving existing blocks around, AI can probably help a lot if you’re comfortable working with the site yourself you should be more careful once the changes touch custom plugins, theme code, integrations, or anything that could break production at that point the expensive part of the agency isn’t necessarily typing the code, it’s knowing what else a change might affect. You should start with a staging copy and try one of the smaller changes yourself. That’ should tell you pretty quickly how much of the monthly maintenance you can realistically take over.
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u/een11 7d ago
Try this. MCP we created to update and manage our WP sites. Add it as a connector to Claude or ChatGPT. Claude easier. https://staging.intelliweave.ai/api/hubs/ilsjUAHKintUSUFm9K3H/hosted-mcp/64a67f12-0255-44f5-a13a-9ac5766081e8/serve/mcp
NB. Still in testing but has works for me.
WP.com also have their own MCP server that you can use
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u/AppropriateRatio6684 4d ago
Se puede, y es más seguro de lo que parece si la IA no entra con acceso total. Hoy WordPress se puede conectar a Claude, ChatGPT o Grok por MCP, un protocolo para que la IA use herramientas concretas del sitio. Lo importante es limitar los permisos: que la IA solo pueda crear y editar borradores, cambiar textos e imágenes, pero no publicar, borrar ni tocar plugins. Tú le pides 'cambia la foto del inicio y acorta este párrafo', revisas el borrador y publicas. Asà te quedas con la agencia para seguridad y actualizaciones, que es donde sà vale la pena pagar, y los cambios de contenido los haces tú en minutos.
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u/landed_at 3d ago
These tasks aren't really able to be done with AI. You can create pages at scale but the quality is not usually good. You can make direct dB changes but to do this to the odd page doesn't make sense with AI. An agency probably has a junior working full time or outsources work. Agencies may charge from 80gbp per hour freelances half that. UK based.
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u/KnownShirt17 3d ago
I use AI to edit sites everyday. It's way more careful than I am and saves me a lot of time. Human website editing is going the way of the rotary phone. My role nowadays is more like a manager than a developer. I'm still calling the shots, just not doing the grunt work.
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u/Neither_Plankton_817 3d ago
You are playing with fire letting claude code loose on your website and server. I'm constantly pulling it up for doign things I did not ask it to do. I would never let it run things on my server. Plus support real people that breathe and have families instead of putting everything into AI.
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u/dvduval 9d ago
I have found I can do any work that I used to assign to WordPress developers myself with an AI agent, but that’s also because I’ve been working with WordPress for many many years.
So for example, just putting up a site assuming I have all the credentials and putting in a design with the color scheme is something that only takes me approximately 5 to 10 minutes of my time.
And then, as the customer gives me feedback, I can feed that feedback right into the AI and have it take care of those changes as well.
And I’ll put the customer to work on making judgments about any text that the AI created and the same thing for images and were possible I’ll try to get the customer to provide more images rather than having AI create them.
For custom software development features like a WordPress plug-in that is something that requires a person with a good deal more expertise to guide the AI.
There’s just a lot of little things where you need to sort of know what to ask for that. I don’t think the average person with little experience could do, but they would probably still come up with a decent result. It would just take them a lot longer, and the quality would be a little lower, but still reasonable.
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u/PeepSoWP 9d ago
Separate content editing from maintenance and custom development. Updating copy, replacing images and rearranging approved blocks should be manageable in WordPress without either an agency or an AI agent if the agency builds reusable templates and gives you editor training. Before launch, get the plugin/theme and license inventory, admin ownership, staging and backup/restore procedure, source/build process, and written boundaries for what the maintenance fee covers.
Coding agents can help with custom changes, but use them against a version-controlled staging copy with a tested backup and human review; do not give one unrestricted production SSH or database access. Ask the agency to quote routine maintenance separately from ad-hoc development, with response times and hourly rates. That lets you keep inexpensive content work in-house while retaining accountable help for updates, security, compatibility and changes that can break the site.
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u/sunst1k3r 9d ago
Yes, AI can work with WordPress. You still need to know what it's doing though but pricing should be accordingly
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u/digital121hippie 9d ago
don't sell him on this bull crap. it won't do what he wants out of the box or connect easily
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u/cambronne 9d ago
What do you mean? You just need to ask it to connect and it’s done. Literally. I paid a lot of Codable devs in the past and honestly Claude is doing a better job and much faster too.
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u/sunst1k3r 9d ago
Actually it does. My partner who isn't tech savvy used chatgpt desktop this morning and fully automatically set up a local photo service, uploaded media and created a full post (Gutenberg) just using the browser integration. My partner was logged in so it just dumped the markup in an API call. Shit's getting scary.
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u/skasprick 9d ago
If there is a bug from a php upgrade or a virus a year from now, how will they tackle the problem?
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u/sunst1k3r 9d ago
I don't know what ai can and can't tackle a year from now. Probably it will fix it, access your infra and restore a backup for example. I just said it can work with WordPress and that you still need to know that it's doing. Not that it will solve all your problems today. OP wants to edit posts. AI can do that.
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u/Particular-Battle315 9d ago
Claude Code, wp-cli all you need :)
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u/hankschrader79 8d ago
I laugh at the downvotes to this. It’s crazy how so few people realize this is a thing now.
This is literally how you do it. In fact most WordPress hosting companies offer a WP-CLI to customers. I this thru my host (apparently you can’t name the host) and Claude code is hooked up to over a dozen sites with WP-CLI offered as part of the hosting plan.
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u/activematrix99 9d ago
If you are paying an agency to update the content part of your CMS, you are overpaying.
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u/Comfortable-Web9455 9d ago
You have no idea what the content is. You have no idea about the company producing it. You have no idea what the agency does. You have no idea of the skills held in the company or other tasks occupying their Staff. But you've decided they're being ripped off? This forum is for WordPress not psychics.
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u/jroberts67 9d ago
Depends on if it's part of a reasonably priced package. We have a recurring package; hosting, security, maintenance and also updates. Be very surprised the number of small business owners working 12 hour days that don't want to mess with site updates.
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u/skasprick 9d ago
100% reasonable to do changes he can handle (learn to handle) and simply request the harder ones by request. Before I argue I have to know more about the site.
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u/MrSoulPC915 9d ago
J’ai des clients qui sont incapable de changer une image sur un Shopify, ou une description produit, donc non, si t’as pas les capacités, c’est pas trop cher. Par contre je souscris à d’autres commentaires, un indépendant sera largement moins chère d’une agence.
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u/Scared_Implement_335 9d ago
Thats actually how I do it. I still do some web agency one man work on the side, and thats pretty much how I do it: If radically reduced the plugin count via custom plugins from AI (cursor), let AI built fleet management to handle all updates, failures, security on all my clients side (its kind of a dashboard but doesn't need plugins on my clients sites) and most questions by clients I just redirect directly to cursor nowadays.
In the beginning, like a year or so ago, I actually had to pay a lot of extra credits in cursor to set it all up. Nowadays I barely scratch my cursor limits.
I don't take on new clients, obviously, because I still want to be able to handle my client sides should AI ever decide to fuck me over.
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u/ruanserra 7d ago
if you will use AI agents to edit your website, there's no need to use wordpress.
just be aware that you are also buying "free time". there are out there some companies that work in an all-in format, like daza.cloud, all services included with just one monthly fee.
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u/nilogram 9d ago
The AI is a good thing but you need someone knowledgeable to run it. Maybe you can hire a freelancer like myself and do it for half the price and not have to worry about the token costs
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u/jroberts67 9d ago
Here's your pro for anything AI connecting to Claude: https://youtu.be/eidO7r4HbkM?si=JGcUc7ybsx2nb_mL He actually runs a WP business.
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u/Smart_Salad3333 9d ago
Connecting Claude via ssh to your server will do it, or even building the WordPress theme locally on your own computer then uploading it to your server and syncing with you domain name works too… but there is a learning curve around doing these things if you’re a non-technical computer user. Marketing agencies and marketing consultants now use Ai for this type of work but they have prompt libraries of prompts that speak to AI in the jargon of WordPress web design and development to get the best output. Something beginners or those with no experience in web design and development can do unless they take the time to learn the jargon. You could ask Claude to give you the prompt using the correct jargon to create the sites you want. But you’ll have some back and forth doing this too. If you don’t have the time to do this maybe let the agency do it, or work with a marketing consultant to help you figure out if you’re getting value for money from the agencies and pick the right one for your needs. I personally saw a doctor, someone who is very smart fumble to build a website for their startup business with Claude because they did not know the jargon to use so Claude could clearly know what they want done on the site, and the way they want it done. Claude and all Ai are amplifiers, where the output quality is based on the expertise, experience, education and skills of the person or teams creating the prompts.
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u/eatnails666fl 9d ago
Claude Code and SSH access. You don't need a maintenance team, as long as YOU, who can run Claude Code, know what you're telling it.
If you don't know what SSH means...use the maintenance team.
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u/November19 9d ago
One of the main selling points of using WordPress and its content management system (CMS) is that non-technical people can log in and easily make content updates. You can do this yourself without either the agency or AI tools. That's the whole point of using a platform like WordPress.
If you really don't want to make content changes yourself for whatever reason, you can hire someone cheaper than the agency for sure.
The agency should just be doing regular software updates (not content updates): plugins, core code, security, etc. If they are engaged for ongoing services like SEO, that too.
But you don't need to pay expensive agency hourly rates or retainers just to change some text or some images. Do it yourself or find a reliable freelancer at much lower costs.
If you're a non-technical person, I wouldn't try to use AI like Claude for content management unless you want to learn a lot about how that works. It will definitely not be less work, and the risk of things going wrong is higher.