Navigating Drupal AI

The current state of Drupal AI

Drupal CMS launched in January 2025 with Drupal AI. 

Since then, there has been considerable innovation in the contributed AI module ecosystem, along with numerous blog posts, videos, and conference talks on the topic. 

• Introduction to the Drupal AI Module - FreelyGive - June '24

• Meet the AI Automators in Drupal CMS - Marcus Johansson @ DrupalCon Atlanta - March '25

• Overview of the Drupal AI Initiative - The Modern Web Architect - June '25

The Drupal AI Initiative

More recently, Drupal announced the official Drupal AI initiative, which provides vision and direction for the Drupal community, directing efforts towards product innovation in Drupal core and Drupal CMS, as well as the contribution module ecosystem.

 Notably, the initiative provides:

• An open framework to encourage innovation
• Open governance and leadership
• Funded work initiatives

Across the board, there is a strong focus on responsible AI, including:

• Flexible integrations without vendor lock-in
• Human oversight, such as approval processes and audit logs

This represents a solid path for future innovation and the maturation of a governance model not found in other products.

Areas of focus

Content Editor Improvements

We’ve been using AI to support coding development over the past few years and have witnessed the productivity improvements it brings. That’s why we see the potential for enhancing content editor productivity with AI features.

AI-assisted content generation provides:

• Content summaries - automatically generating a summary of a long-form article.
• Image alt-text generation - which analyses the content of an image and creates alt-text to meet accessibility standards.
• Content tag suggestions to facilitate categorisation and content organisation.
• Content rewrites to match different tones of voice.

It’s worth noting that these automated features require human governance and control, as well as review and approval, but they can also speed up laborious tasks.

Areas of future growth to watch include:

• AI-assisted SEO optimisation, which provides suggestions for SEO content improvements
• AI-enhanced page building and component generation

We’re very excited about the Experience Builder initiative the next step in evolution for Layout Builder, that several PNXers, including Lee Rowland’s are actively contributing to. 

Experience Builder will introduce a powerful, modern drag-and-drop page-building tool that shifts how we build sites in Drupal. The first beta release is due in July and will include direct integration with Drupal AI.

End User Improvements

Users have become accustomed to interacting with websites and applications using natural language and conversational modes. AI-enhanced features that will meet these expectations in Drupal include:

• Semantic search for better results - where the meaning and intent of the query are understood
• Search result summaries that provide AI-generated overviews of a search query, similar to those offered by Google.
• Conversational search, facilitated by an interactive chatbot-style search for site information.

Keep an eye out for future growth in AI personalisation, where content suggestions will be provided based on user preferences and viewing history.

Skpr platform support 

We’re also looking at how the Skpr hosting platform supports AI integration. Two areas that are already of interest are AWS Bedrock and OpenSearch.

• AWS Bedrock can be used as a Drupal AI provider to keep your data private, with Skpr providing the service endpoints and flexible customisations.
• Using OpenSearch enables semantic search through the vector database and AI model integrations via configurable plugins (or hosted with AWS Bedrock).

How we intend to approach AI

We plan to use and implement AI for our clients in a way that boosts productivity, enhances the user and editorial experience, while remaining open, flexible and responsibly governed.

We are already integrating AI into the digital experiences we create. We embrace its potential to enhance everyone’s capabilities and will always guide it towards the best outcomes for you, your customers and our people. Coupled with our deep knowledge, expertise and involvement in Drupal Core, our approach to AI ensures that your sites will outpace and outperform the competition. 

Talk to us about how we can use AI to enhance your next website project.

Further reading

• Bringing Drupal AI into your DNA - How to Learn, Use and Contribute to the Drupal AI Ecosystem - FreelyGive - YouTube
• Accelerating AI innovation in Drupal - Dries Buytaert
• Drupal AI Strategy Document - Drupal Association
• Drupal AI Academy - Training and upskilling resources to get going with Drupal AI
• Workflows of AI - A collection of various workflows with Drupal AI