AI is back in focus with many new launches like Angie from Elementor, Aida AI Builder from one .com, new AI App Hosting from Hosting .com, and reasoning if AI is pushing down WordPress market share. Also, a bunch of new plugin launches like Power Coupons Pro and Enhanced Pattern Manager.
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What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- Aida AI + WP Builder… Liza Bogatyrev shared (LinkedIn) about the launch of the Aida AI website builder for WordPress, from the one .com team. You can type to describe the type of website you need, and AI powers will generate a website powered by WordPress. Also, you can kickstart using an example, and for free.
- Angie + Agentic AI… the team at Elementor has launched Angie, agentic AI purpose-built for WordPress. To get started, just describe what you want to build, and Angie Code creates it. Test drive is using the free Angie plugin in the plugins repository.
- Hosting .com + AI App Hosting… Ben Gabler shared (Links X) about the team at Hosting .com launching an all-new AI Application Studio and Hosting platform. This should be useful for non-technical users who want to build applications through natural language prompts, and developers who generate code with AI tools and are looking for infrastructure or a place to deploy the result.
- Twentig One Theme… Yann Collet has launched Twentig One, a new free WordPress block theme. This lightweight theme is built for Full Site Editing – features flexible templates, post formats, color presets, font pairings, and fluid spacing. It comes with four starter sites: Business, Portfolio, Blog, and Personal – and more starter sites soon.
New Plugins: Power Coupons Pro & Pattern Manager
Power Coupons Pro… the team at CartFlows has launched Power Coupons Pro, which lets you set complex WooCommerce discount rules in no time. You can create auto-applied coupons, BOGO offers, and cart incentives that trigger at exactly the right time when shoppers are ready to buy.
Enhanced Pattern Manager… Zack Pyle over at SnippetNest has released Enhanced Pattern Manager, which replaces the default pattern browser with a visual card grid where you upload your own screenshots, drag-and-drop to organize, manage categories, and control exactly which patterns your editors and clients can see.
New Plugins for Divi, The Events Calendar, & BuddyX
Contact Form Extender + Divi… the team at Cool Plugins has released Contact Form Extender for Divi in the plugins repository. This enhances the native contact form module in Divi with useful fields and features, including a file upload field, country code dropdown, and more. It also functions as a Divi Contact Form DB solution, securely storing Divi form submissions inside your WordPress database.
MapSwap + The Events Calendar… András Guseo has released MapSwap for The Events Calendar plugin, which replaces Google Maps with OpenStreetMap on ‘single event’ pages of The Events Calendar. No API key required, no usage fees, no restrictions – just fast, reliable, and free maps powered by OpenStreetMap.
Jetonomy + BuddyX… till date, BuddyX users have had to use bbPress for discussion forum functionality. Now BuddyX has its own forum solution with the recent launch of Jetonomy, a free open-source WordPress forum plugin. It has custom database tables, 6 trust levels, Q&A spaces, idea voting, 61+ REST API endpoints. The pro version includes reactions, messaging, polls, analytics, and badges.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- Plugins Team Participation… new plugin submissions rose from 100 – 150 per week to over 200 per week in 2025. In 2026, new plugin submissions have exceeded 500 per week, hence the need for more helping hands. The call for contributors and/or organizations that are willing to contribute to the Plugins Team is open – do join.
- Lax Abilities Toolkit… Lax Mariappan shared (Links X) the release of the Lax Abilities Toolkit (GitHub) plugin that connects your website to any MCP-compatible AI client. It is built on the WP Abilities API (WordPress 6.9+) and the MCP Adapter plugin, and exposes your posts, pages, categories, tags, and media library as structured tools that AI clients understand natively.
- Gutenberg + Styling… 22.8v update brings improvements to the real-time collaboration feature and button pseudo-state styling in Global Styles. Also, site logo and icon management now has its own dedicated screen in the Design panel.
- WordCamp Asia Buzz… check out why freelancers should attend the WordCamp Asia 2026 event. Also, details of the after party celebration are now available with the ‘crazy for disco’ theme.
- WordCamp US Organizers… WordCamp US 2026 is scheduled to happen in Phoenix, AZ, on August 16 – 19, 2026. The call for organizers is now open until April 3, 2026, to help make WCUS 2026 a success. Also, the new event website is coming soon.
WordPress Core Updates & Buzz
WordPress 7.0 Release Candidate 2 is now available for download and testing. The final WordPress 7.0 is scheduled for release on April 7, 2026.
- WordPress 7.0 RC phase, check out policies for core committers.
- Read WordPress 7.0 Source of Truth edition at Gutenberg Times.
- More on prep for WordPress 7.0 release at WordCamp Asia 2026.
- Courtney Robertson on real-time collaboration coming in WP 7.0
- More Core Buzz
- Matt on plugins ability to hook into the left nav wherever they want.
- WordPress 6.9.2 lookback: What did not go well and action points.
- JavaScript API for client-side abilities like navigating, inserting blocks.
- WordPress 7.0 feature built-in AI Client, provider-agnostic PHP API.
New: MetaBox, SureForms, WP Simple Pay, & Foodica
Meta Box + iFrame support… 3.6v is introducing block API version 3, which loads the editor in an iframe for moving to modal-based editing. Now you can provide predefined block lists that you can easily use, edit, remove, or even create your own from scratch. Also, you can now customize the position of block editing toolbar like: at the top of the screen, in a fixed position, or directly above each block.
SureForms + Quizzes… 2.6.0v has introduced Quizzes feature, allowing you to build scored quiz forms with correct answers, score tracking, and result-based flows directly inside SureForms. Also, added file upload and signature field access control with role-based restrictions in SureForms Premium.
WP Simple Pay + Style Forms… now you can style your payment forms with the Form Style tab added to the form editor. You can start by picking one of 8 ready-made theme presets – Default, Sunset, Forest, Ocean, Monochrome, Sunshine, Coral, or Minimal. Further customize specific colors and styles as per requirement.
Foodica PRO + Minimal Layout… 5.0v is a big update bringing a new Minimal layout, which is clean and editorial design that gives your food blog a quieter and more refined look. Also, there are three Homepage Layouts and 20+ new Block Patterns to quickly get started with your website layout.
Quick Bits 👍
- Matt shared (Links X) WP+AI in new look Miriam Schwab’s site.
- Mike McAlister shared (Links X) new Ollie WP & Ollie AI is coming.
- David McCan reviewed new Mosaic Builder for WordPress users.
- Bridget Willard asked latest WP Things, got useful replies (Links X).
- Dark mode (Links X) coming to WordPress Studio, by Antonio Seja.
- WP Packages is working the way open source should, by Jonathan.
- Is WordPress’s market share is slipping due to AI in the ecosystem?
- WordPress Conversations
- Healthy conversations on contribution, Nik McLaughlin & Brian.
- Lee Jackson talks to Dan & Nathan on creating podcasting plugin.
- 100th episode of Seriously, BUD? show with AI-generated hosts.
- WordPress on YouTube
- Imran previewed new & free link shortening GT Link Manager.
- The ‘Build a $10,000 Website’ AI scam nobody calls out, by Paul.
- Check preview of Site Mapper, a free & useful tool for WP users.
New AI Features: WP Security Ninja & Gato AI
WP Security Ninja + AI Connectors… WP Security Ninja plugin has added support for WordPress 7.0’s new AI connector flow. Users testing WordPress 7 beta can use the new AI Security Advisor to generate structured AI-based security audits from real Security Ninja data.
Gato AI + Self Hosted Translations… now you can stop spending money on AI credits and translate your content using a self-hosted LLM. The 17.1v has added support for self-hosted LLMs to run your own model, like with Ollama.
CRM & Email: Groundhogg, MailOptin, & SureContact
Groundhogg + Flow Model… Adrian Tobey explained in detail how the flow model works in Groundhogg’s Flow builder. Also, how are Groundhogg’s flows are more reliable, faster to build, easier to edit, simpler to debug, and offer more flexibility.
MailOptin + Integrations… Collins Agbonghama has released 2.2.77.0v update for MailOptin, adding new integrations for SendPulse and Bento email services. Also, added a filter to remove the footer section from email template DOM.
SureContact + eCommerce Conditions… SureContact has added new eCommerce related conditions across Dynamic Lists, Filters, and Branches for – Total Purchases, Total Spent, Average Order Value, and Last Purchase.
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