Brian Coords, a developer advocate at WooCommerce, spoke with Nathan Wrigley on the Jukebox Podcast about the product’s direction, WordPress’ changing priorities, and how AI plus block-based editing are reshaping e-commerce.
Background and role
Brian has been involved in the WordPress ecosystem for more than a decade, with experience in agencies, nonprofits, and journalism for WP Tavern before joining Automattic. In his DevRel role at WooCommerce he connects engineers with the wider developer and agency communities. His work includes writing and updating documentation, hosting office hours, monitoring the code repository, and helping communicate releases and roadmap changes to developers and partners.
Perspective on WordPress and pace of change
Brian is optimistic about WordPress’ gradual, foundational approach. Rather than chasing rapid, sweeping changes, WordPress focuses on solid core building blocks and lets third-party builders and plugins innovate around them. That deliberate cadence, he argues, supports long-term stability for a platform that powers a significant portion of the web. He also recognizes external pressures such as AI and shifts in the wider internet, but believes WordPress is refining its focus and adapting where it matters.
Joining Automattic and WooCommerce’s positioning
After joining Automattic, Brian gravitated to developer relations and toward WooCommerce. He describes the product as clearer and more purpose-driven following a recent rebrand. Internal reorganizations at Automattic have emphasized aligning shared efforts and bringing WooCommerce work closer to WordPress core teams, enabling more cross-team collaboration across the company.
What DevRel does at WooCommerce
WooCommerce’s DevRel team blends technical expertise with communication skills. Positioned inside Automattic’s marketing organization, the team has access to design and promotional resources while remaining tightly linked to engineering. Their outputs include docs, tutorials, videos, office hours, and community engagement in Slack. The goal is to give extension authors, agencies, and partners like Stripe practical guidance and timely information about changes and experimental work.
Global reach and language challenges
WooCommerce powers stores worldwide, each with unique needs around payments, shipping, and taxes. While many merchant-facing resources and the software itself are translated, developer-focused content is still largely English-centric because of the DevRel team’s size. The community Slack has over 30,000 members and active contributors who provide feedback and pull requests. Brian notes a challenge: many store owners don’t closely follow WordPress channels, and can be dispersed across Facebook groups and other platforms, making outreach harder.
Rebrand and marketing approach
The rebrand aims to present WooCommerce as a modern e-commerce solution that can compete with SaaS alternatives, not just as a WordPress plugin. Automattic has increased investment in targeted marketing—ads, podcasts, and events that reach e-commerce professionals and agencies—though its marketing model differs from large SaaS vendors because of WooCommerce’s marketplace model and free core plugin.
Open source trade-offs
Open source brings trade-offs: broad adoption, community contributions, and flexibility come with challenges in centralized support and brand control. WooCommerce supports stores whether or not they pay the company directly, and the ecosystem includes competing extensions. Brian views the trade-offs as worthwhile, since store owners retain control and freedom to customize or migrate, while Automattic and the community continue to maintain and improve the platform.
How DevRel engages developers
The team uses multiple channels—Slack for quick exchanges, office hours, videos and docs for deeper guidance, and direct collaboration programs with agencies. They issue calls for testing experimental features and rely on community testing and contributions. DevRel focuses on being present where developers and store builders gather, while acknowledging there’s still opportunity to reach the many store owners who aren’t following WordPress closely.
Roadmap priorities: blocks and AI
Two major priorities are tighter integration with WordPress core, especially block-based editing, and exploration of AI-driven features.
– Blocks and Gutenberg: WooCommerce has invested early in block-based store building. The aim is to improve the editor and store-building blocks so templates and visual customization are better for all users, which requires contributing improvements upstream into Gutenberg and coordinating with WordPress editor teams.
– AI and store management: WooCommerce is experimenting with ways for AI to interact with stores. One prototype lets AI agents authenticate and perform tasks such as adding products, editing descriptions, or adjusting pricing, with safeguards and permission prompts. These features are early-stage and often used in demos, but they point to two directions: backend automation and discovery-driven shopping.
Two AI directions
1) Backend automation: using AI to update product catalogs, generate copy or images, and handle routine adjustments to save merchant time. 2) Discovery and shopping: AI-driven assistants and chat interfaces could surface product recommendations and change how users find and purchase items, affecting ads, product feeds, and how stores expose structured data for discoverability.
Challenges, trust, and business model shifts
Brian emphasizes trust: automated ordering and recommendations must avoid costly mistakes, maintain transparency for merchants, and protect customer experience. As chat and search platforms surface products directly, merchants may face new distribution channels and competition for visibility, prompting shifts in business models and marketing strategies.
Automattic and AI initiatives
Automattic has already launched public AI tools such as an AI site builder on wordpress.com and Telex for block creation, and uses AI internally for support and knowledge work. It’s unclear whether the company is training large proprietary models at scale, but they are integrating AI into products and workflows.
Where to find resources and Brian
Developer resources live at developer.woo.com, which links to docs, Slack, and newsletters. Brian’s site is briancoords.com and he is active on Twitter and YouTube.
Summary
WooCommerce is concentrating on deeper integration with WordPress core via block-based tools, expanding marketing and brand positioning, and investing in AI for both store automation and discovery. The platform’s open source nature and global diversity make the ecosystem complex but resilient, supported by an engaged community and ongoing DevRel efforts to help developers and merchants adapt to these changes.