WordPress.com has launched a new AI-powered website builder in early access that can create your WordPress web page, including fully written text, layout, generated images, and more. WordPress.com claims that the AI website builder can create “beautiful, functional websites in minutes”. However, it can’t yet do the heavy lifting of building e-commerce sites or sites with “complex integrations,” but the company assures that such capabilities will be available in the near future.
To get started with the free trial of WordPress AI Site Builder, you’ll need a WordPress.com account, and while you won’t need a credit card to use the tool, you’ll need to purchase a WordPress.com hosting plan to make the site usable, which starts at $18 per month (less if you pay for a full year or more).
The builder works by entering prompts into a chatbot, so you can tell it you need a personal or business site, describe what you want the header to look like, what colors you like, and more. WordPress.com says that if you’re as specific as possible in the first query, you’ll get better results, but the chatbot may ask you for information like your business name and location. It will then create a website for you with AI-generated headlines, images, and text. After that, you can keep asking the chatbot to customize the colors, styles, photos, and information you want to include.
I tried it and created my own fake website for a retro video game store. I ended up with a very simple but user-friendly site with sections such as Discover, Events, and Visit Us. It featured a collection of random images of a game room generated by artificial intelligence, including one of a girl leaning on a CRT and playing an unknown puzzle game similar to Tetris. He also introduced the “Sega Saturday Showdown” event, which you can register for (along with a completely unrelated image of a woman holding a box of Christmas cookies).
Once the site is built, you can then move it to WordPress.com hosting, where you can continue working on it manually or revert to the AI builder. The tool only works for new WordPress instances and cannot yet be used for existing sites.
The new tool comes as WordPress.com owner Automattic laid off 16 percent of its workforce last week. Automattic also faced a lawsuit initiated by WP Engine, a hosting company that offers several tools, including templates, to help create and manage a website.
