There is a certain smell in the air these days. No, it’s not the smell of burning servers or the stale coffee from a late-night deployment. It’s the scent of panic.
I was reading a discussion online recently -one of those “is the sky falling?” threads where developers gather to collectively hyperventilate- and it struck a chord. A developer had built a functional app for a local sports team using Google’s latest AI model in about 15 minutes. Naturally, the conclusion wasn't “Wow, that’s a handy tool,” but rather, “In three years, I will be obsolete, destitute, and living in a cardboard box behind a data centre.”
It’s a valid fear, I suppose. But let’s take a breath and look at this with a bit of practical realism, shall we? As someone who has spent years fixing the “innovative” messes clients bring to me at Code Clinic (aff), I have a few thoughts on whether our robot overlords are actually ready to take the keys to wp-admin and beyond.
The “Magic Button” Fallacy
We’ve seen this before. Remember when Wix and Squarespace were going to kill WordPress? Remember when page builders were going to make hand-coding extinct? Yet, here we are.
The current hysteria revolves around the idea that because an AI can spit out a block of code in seconds, the role of the developer is dead. But let’s be real: generating code and engineering a solution are two very different things.
I recently had a client—let's call him “Gary”—who decided he didn't need to pay our hourly rate for a custom plugin. He asked ChatGPT to write a plugin that handled dynamic pricing based on user roles and moon phases (don't ask). He proudly installed it. The site immediately crashed.
Why? Because the AI imported a library that didn't exist, assumed a database structure that wasn't there, and didn't sanitize most of the input fields. It was spaghetti code, but served with a garnish of confidence. Gary didn't save money; he paid us double to perform an emergency exorcism on his site.
The 90/10 Rule (Or Why You’re Still Safe)
There is a concept floating around that I quite like: AI is great at the first 90% of the work, but the last 10% -the part that actually makes it production-ready- is where the human earns their keep.
AI is a fantastic assistant. I use it. I’m not a Luddite. If I need a complex Regular Expression (Regex) to filter out spam bot comments or emails addresses, I am not writing that from scratch. Life is too short. If I need a boilerplate setup for a custom post type, I’ll let the AI draft it.
But here is the catch: you have to know enough to spot when it’s lying to you. And it lies. Constantly and randomly, and then it doubles down.
I’ve seen AI invent WordPress hooks that sound plausible but don’t exist. I’ve seen it suggest SQL queries that would make a security auditor weep. If you don’t have the foundational knowledge -the sort of stuff you actually learn while studying Multimedia & Internet Technology or just by grinding through years of breaking (and fixing) things- you won’t catch these errors until your client’s site is redirecting to a Russian gambling farm.
The Security Nightmare
Let’s talk about security, shall we? AI models are trained on the internet. And as we all know, the internet is full of bad code. When you ask an AI to write a function, it doesn't necessarily care about WordPress coding standards or nonces or much else. It cares about completing the pattern.
If you blindly copy-paste AI code into a plugin, you are essentially rolling the dice on Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) or SQL Injection vulnerabilities. A “real” developer knows that you never trust user input. An AI just wants to please you by making the error message go away.
This is where the “salvage project” economy comes in. I am seeing more and more work coming in from clients who hired “developers” that were essentially just prompt-jockeys. The sites work for a week, and then they collapse under the weight of unoptimized queries and conflicting scripts.
Content: The Soulless Void
It’s not just code. The content side of WordPress is getting flooded with AI sludge too.
“Write me a blog post about the benefits of organic soap.”
The result? 352 words of grammatically correct, perfectly structured, utterly boring text. It reads like it was written by an alien who has studied humans but never actually met one. It lacks idiom, it lacks cultural reference, and it lacks opinion. Or, it goes all out on clearly fake “relatable” anecdotes.
Google’s algorithms are already starting to pivot towards “Experience”. They want content written by humans who have actually used the soap, dropped it in the shower, and have a story to tell about it. AI can't fake that “down to earth” experience. It can mimic the style, but it can't fake the soul.
The Verdict: Adapt or Die (But Mostly Adapt)
So, should you be using AI? Absolutely.
Use it as a super-powered autocomplete. Use it to explain what that obscure error log means. Use it to brainstorm ideas when you’ve been staring at a blank screen for three hours.
But do not make it you -dare I say it– primary reference (I refuse to use the term “source of truth”).
If your entire value proposition as a developer / designer / agency is “I can write HTML syntax,” then yes, you are in trouble. But if your value is “We can understand a client’s messy business requirements, translate them into a technical architecture, ensure it’s secure, and maintain it for the next five years,” then you are fine.
The tool has changed. The job hasn't. We used to use Dreamweaver; now we use VS Code and Copilot. The goal is still to solve problems for people who don't understand or even care about how the internet works.
As long as clients like Gary exist -clients who think they know what they want but actually need someone to save them from themselves- we’ll be in business. But, more than this it's about using the available to tools in the most optimal & professional way. Adaptation is the key to your success not just your survival. People will always need developers & designers and all the associated roles. What they won't need is a slow, overpriced, relic that refuses to move and adapt with the times.
Accept that AI is here. Use it to your advantage.
Just maybe double-check that SQL query before you push to production, yeah?
