Livestream: Kadence AI Launch with Ben Ritner and Zach Tirrell

Welcome to an exciting journey into the future of content creation! On Friday, Jan 19, 2024, we hosted our first livestream event of 2024! This event was a launch celebration of our newest tool: Kadence AI. In this post, we’ll be taking you through our discussion from this event where we dove into all things Kadence AI including how it originated and where it’s heading. We are so excited about getting Kadence AI out into the world and this event was such a fun way to kick-start its launch.

Introduction // Setting the Stage (0:00 – 2:28)

We started this event addressing the absence of Kathy, former marketing director at KadenceWP. Kathy has moved on from Kadence and she will be deeply missed. Though it is very likely that we will still see her around as Kathy remains to be one of Kadence’s biggest fans. We gave the caveat that this livestream may be a total disaster without her, so be prepared for things to go wrong! 

With Kathy leaving, we shared the exciting news that we have brought in a new marketing manager – Roxy! We are so excited for the fresh perspectives and insights that Roxy is bringing to our team. We feel she will be an amazing fit for this role. 

The Birth of Kadence AI (2:28 – 13:49)

Next, Roxy introduced Zach Tirrell, general manager at StellarWP. Zach oversees many of the projects that Stellar is involved with and has a lot of insight as to how AI will impact WordPress as a whole, and specifically how it will affect the Stellar brands. 

While Kadence AI is the topic of this conversation, we want it to be known that we are thinking about AI from a grander perspective than that of just Kadence. Much of the backend of Kadence AI was built by a third-party dev team to be able to branch outside of Kadence and integrate with our partner brands and other areas in WordPress. 

Zach dives into discussion about where AI fits within Stellar and WordPress. Getting over the initial hurdle of starting a website, or creating a course (in the case of LearnDash) prevents many people from ever taking off. AI, and more specifically Kadence AI, provides a powerful user experience that allows people to get over that “blank page syndrome” and onto the thing that they were there to do. Kadence AI is not only getting people past that white page, but in many ways it’s the “death of lorem ipsum”, as Zach states. “The ability to put placeholder text that’s actually targeted to your brand, that’s on message, is so much less distracting.”

Behind the Scenes of Kadence AI (13:49 – 19:40)

Ben pulls back the curtain and gives us insight as to where Kadence AI originated.  He explains how it wasn’t actually the Kadence team that came up with the resources for Kadence AI, but rather an agency that is part of our family of brands. They created infrastructure that would fuel Kadence AI. As Ben and the team began to utilize these resources they came across quite a few hurdles that led to the delay in launching Kadence AI. One of those hurdles was that “AI is very hard to get consistent results from.” The team also had to learn how to create a new structure for how the design library and starter templates work which was no small feat. And lastly, Ben dives into the biggest hurdle: “by far our biggest challenge ended up being the licensing and the credit piece.” This involved switching to an entirely new licensing system while maintaining backward compatibility. All on top of figuring out a crediting system that works well.

While these hurdles delayed the launch of Kadence AI, it did allow our team to release Kadence AI Powered Starter Templates at the same time that Kadence AI was launched, which was not a part of the original plan. 

AI Credits (19:40 – 25:25)

We’ve gotten many questions about how credits work and how to purchase more credits. The bottom line is that we feel that we are very generous with our credits and we don’t foresee many people using all that we’re offering with our bundles. Our intention is not to bring in revenue with credits, but to give you more than enough. That said, if you do run out of credits we will have an option to purchase more. You can read more about credits under the “Great Questions” section on this page. 

Where is AI Going? (25:25 – 36:39)

Zach gives his take on where he feels AI is going and what its effect will look like on WordPress as a whole. He feels that the areas where we will get the most benefit from AI is when we need a “buddy” to not only get started, but to go farther than we could have without it. AI is not the death of agency, but rather a powerful tool that helps us expand our reach and enhance content creation. 

Ben talks about the power of the AI feedback loop and how this iterative approach helps us expound on our content and get the best outcome. When you ask AI to improve on something, it usually does! AI gives us the ability to move our data around and take something that already exists and make it better. 

Live Demo – Where We’re Headed (36:39 – 43:30 )

Ben dives into AI Powered Starter Templates and what we can expect in the future including more layouts and more content within each template. Our goal is to add that extra step that helps you. Where before we were taking an existing website and copying that locally, we’ve changed our system to be much smoother and overall a better UI experience. Ben also dives into inline copy and how AI can enhance even simple text. 

Q&A (43:30 – 59:58)

• Can AI generate content for individual pages?

Yes, within the design library you can generate content for individual pages and sections. 

• Can you limit usage of AI to client sites?

Yes, in the latest update we added an option to disable AI in the config file. 

• AI generated content and SEO?

Telling the AI generator what keywords you want emphasized per page is crucial when building out a site with AI and doing this well can really boost your SEO. 

• AI in other languages?

This is coming very soon! It should be live within several weeks of this livestream event. 

• Will there be new starter templates with greater AI functionality?

Yes, there will be new ones! We have changed the format of how we generate starter templates and you can expect to see new templates and layouts in the coming months. 

• Will third party cloud creators be able to take advantage of AI features in the future?

Yes. We are in the middle of figuring out how to do this, but we plan to have it implemented very soon. 

• AI and site performance?

AI itself doesn’t necessarily improve performance, but our patterns are getting better which will bring performance improvements. Where before we needed more nesting, we don’t need as much anymore. This is happening as Kadence itself is getting better. 

• AI generated images?

Images generated by AI will not only have alt text, but also a title that has been changed to be something that is both SEO and accessibility friendly. 

• Can you set the language on a per-block basis?

There isn’t a path for this specifically, but we have played around with inline editing allowing you to translate text. 

• Will the AI credits you can buy be a one-time purchase or subscription based?

They will be available for one-time purchases and they won’t expire. 

Conclusion (59:58 – End)

We are so very excited that Kadence AI is finally here! It’s evident that this new tool is set to revolutionize content creation in WordPress and we’re in for the ride.  Stay tuned for more updates and explore the limitless possibilities that AI brings to the world of web development!

To stay connected with the happenings at Kadence, join our ever-growing community! When you’re a part of Kadence, you’re not alone. Our vibrant community is waiting for you.