What happens when AI stops generating pages and starts generating design systems?
Over the last few months I’ve become convinced of three things.
First, AI is incredibly good at HTML. Not “surprisingly decent” good. Genuinely good. It can produce layouts, components, responsive designs, and entire interfaces faster than most humans can. I wrote more about that in AI Is Extremely Good At HTML (And Maybe We Should Stop Fighting That):
Second, ChatGPT might be the best WordPress page builder I’ve ever used. Not because it replaces WordPress, but because it dramatically speeds up the design process. You can explore ideas, iterate on layouts, create a design system, and generate pages in a single conversation. I wrote about that here:
Third, I don’t think the future of WordPress is competing with AI. I think WordPress should become the place where AI-created experiences are managed, edited, published, and maintained. That’s a philosophy I’ve been exploring for a while:
Those three ideas have led me to the next thing I’m building.
My Very Opinionated Approach To AI And WordPress
Most AI website builders are trying to replace WordPress.
I’m not.
I think AI is becoming incredibly good at generating designs. In many cases it’s already faster than traditional page builders.
At the same time, most people don’t actually want to edit HTML.
They want to change a headline.
Swap an image.
Update a button.
Publish a blog post.
Create a new page.
Those are very different jobs.
Designing a website and maintaining a website are not the same thing.
I think AI should design the website.
Humans should look after the content.
That’s where WordPress comes in.
WordPress already has excellent workflows for publishing, editing, permissions, revisions, media management, and content ownership.
So rather than asking AI to become a CMS, I’d rather let AI generate the design system and let WordPress do what it has always done best.
This won’t be the right approach for every website.
Some sites need deeply bespoke functionality, complex block editing, custom workflows, or carefully hand-crafted design systems.
But for certain use cases, I think it could be very powerful.
Marketing pages.
Campaign sites.
Landing pages.
Small business websites.
Product pages.
Fast prototypes.
Sites where the design needs to look polished, but the content still needs to live somewhere sensible.
That feels like a very natural space for WordPress.
If AI can generate beautiful designs, and humans can easily edit the content inside them, that feels like a very interesting place to explore.
Introducing Vibe Design System
Vibe Design System is a WordPress plugin I’m currently building.
The goal is simple.
Let AI create and maintain the design system.
Let WordPress manage the content.
The plugin acts as a bridge between the two.
AI generates the design language for the site.
WordPress stores the pages, media, and content.
Humans continue editing their sites using familiar WordPress workflows.
One Design System For The Entire Site
At the centre of the plugin is a single site-wide design system.
That design system contains:
- Global CSS
- Colour tokens
- Typography rules
- Spacing scales
- Shared header
- Shared footer
- Version history
Think of it as the website’s source of truth.
Instead of every page carrying around its own styles, every page references the same design system.
This means an AI agent can make site-wide design changes without touching the underlying content.
From Mockup To Design System
This is the workflow I’m most excited about.
Imagine uploading a mockup.
Not a page.
A design.
Maybe it’s a screenshot from Figma.
Maybe it’s a design generated by ChatGPT.
Maybe it’s a rough concept from a designer.
The AI analyses that design and extracts:
- Colours
- Typography
- Layout rules
- Components
- Spacing scales
- Global CSS
Most AI tools stop after generating a page.
I want the AI to generate the system behind the page.
Once that design system exists, future pages can be generated against it automatically.
The result is a site that feels coherent rather than a collection of disconnected AI-generated pages.
Pages Store Content, Not Design
When a page is deployed, it stores semantic HTML.
The design lives elsewhere.
That’s deliberate.
The page contains the content.
The design system contains the presentation.
This separation creates some interesting possibilities.
You can redesign an entire website without rewriting the content.
You can update a colour palette once and have it apply everywhere.
You can improve navigation without editing every page.
You can evolve the visual identity of a site while keeping the content intact.
Editing AI-Generated Pages
One challenge with AI-generated HTML is editing it afterwards.
Most people don’t want to open a code editor just to change a heading.
That’s why I’ve already built a WordPress plugin called Visual HTML Editor:
It allows editors to click into AI-generated HTML and update text, images, buttons, and links visually without touching the markup.
The AI generates the structure.
Humans edit the content.
Both get to do what they’re best at.
Why WordPress Still Matters
A lot of AI website tools seem determined to replace content management systems.
I think that’s a mistake.
WordPress already solves publishing, revisions, media management, URLs, SEO, permissions, hosting, and content ownership.
Those are difficult problems.
AI doesn’t need to replace them.
It needs to work with them.
That’s why Vibe Design System treats WordPress as the deployment target rather than the thing to replace.
The AI focuses on design.
WordPress focuses on running the website.
An Experiment Worth Exploring
Vibe Design System isn’t finished, but it should be soon.
Right now it’s an experiment.
A collection of ideas I’m trying to turn into something useful.
Some of those ideas will probably change.
Some may turn out to be completely wrong.
But the question feels worth exploring.
If AI is becoming incredibly good at generating designs, and WordPress is incredibly good at managing content, what sits between the two?
My current answer is a design system.
A layer that allows AI to own the design while humans continue to own the content.
That’s what I’m building next.
We’ll see where it leads.
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