Robby McCullough, co-founder of Beaver Builder, joined the Jukebox Podcast to reflect on nearly 12 years of building a page builder, the arrival of AI, and what the future of WordPress workflows might look like.

A founder’s perspective

Robby describes Beaver Builder as one of the original page builders in the WordPress ecosystem. What began as a way to speed up agency work and hand editable sites to clients has matured into a product used by designers, developers, and non-technical site owners alike. Robby’s personal life has been busy too — a new baby and a house move — yet the company keeps humming along.

Taking AI slowly

Beaver Builder didn’t rush to add superficial ‘AI features’ when everyone was slapping on GPT-based helpers. Robby says they were glad to wait. Early integrations often felt like token features — generate a heading, tweak copy — but recent advances have produced more capable, agentic tools that can write code and meaningfully assist in building experiences.

Because the new generation of models is more useful, Beaver Builder is experimenting seriously with AI: both to accelerate internal development and to offer new workflows inside the product. Robby stresses that their approach is cautious — prototypes first, public announcements only once features are ready — to avoid overpromising.

Two AI workflows

Robby outlines two directions they’re exploring. One is import and convert: take a static page produced by an AI or another tool, drag it into Beaver Builder, and convert it into editable modules inside the builder. The other is an in-context agent: a chat-driven assistant that works inside a page or component (for example, a pricing table) to update copy, change features, or rework design without leaving the editor.

These ideas aim to combine the speed of AI-driven creation with the durability and editability of a visual editor.

Why WordPress still matters

Robby and Nathan agree WordPress offers deep plumbing — drafts, featured images, metadata, extensibility — that AI-first static generators or single-shot builds don’t always replicate. For many use cases, WordPress remains invaluable because it’s designed for long-term maintenance, customisation, and complex needs beyond a five-page brochure site.

There’s also a learning argument: WordPress is a great platform for developers to explore backend and frontend concepts when they need to solve real problems. The danger with fully agent-driven workflows is losing that hands-on exposure to how sites are constructed.

The role of the page builder

Even if AI can create convincing pages from prompts, the need for an intuitive visual editing layer seems likely to persist. Robby imagines page builders pivoting more toward post-creation editing and maintenance: a place to tweak layout, swap images, adjust spacing, and make incremental updates without re-prompting an AI for every small change. In short, AI can accelerate creation, but builders will stay relevant for fine-grained control and client handoff.

Craftsmanship and nostalgia

Both guests acknowledge a bittersweet element to the shift. Robby misses some of the craftsmanship involved in designing and coding by hand, even as he enjoys the productivity gains AI grants. He likens modern iterations to using agentic tools to explore design variations quickly, and then using the visual editor or code to refine and learn.

Personal notes and experiments

Robby shares smaller stories that humanise the conversation. He’s been experimenting with AI to automate tedious tasks related to his ham radio hobby, using chat tools to parse local repeater lists into CSVs for his radio. He’s also embraced dictation and chat workflows while caring for his baby, finding that speaking prompts and letting an agent do longer-running work fits his one-handed life as a new parent.

Concerns about human connection

A recurring theme is the social cost of automation. Agentic tools can mimic human collaboration and provide instant assistance, but Robby worries about replacing real human interactions with faux-human agents, especially for people who work alone. Nathan and Robby both hope for a renewed appetite for in-person community — WordCamps, meetups, and face-to-face conversations — as a counterbalance to increasingly screen-based work.

Business anxiety and optimism

Robby admits the industry has faced repeated existential scares — from early skepticism about visual builders to the arrival of Gutenberg — and sees AI as another inflection point rather than an immediate death knell. He’s optimistic: many WordPress sites and businesses won’t flip overnight, and there will always be niches that need extensible, maintained platforms.

Robby’s approach to AI features is pragmatic: support bring-your-own model keys, avoid locking customers into opaque, token-based systems, expose markup and CSS for developers who want to learn and tweak, and build assistant workflows that enhance rather than replace human control.

Looking ahead

The conversation ends on a hopeful note: the web will keep changing, perhaps in ways we can’t predict, but there’s value in both speed and craft. AI can make creation dramatically faster, but humans will still need tools for editing, maintenance, and meaningful collaboration. For Beaver Builder, that means blending powerful agentic workflows with an open, editable experience that preserves the advantages of WordPress.

If you follow Beaver Builder or are curious about how AI will reshape site building, the episode offers a measured view from someone who’s been in the field since page builders first emerged and is now steering through another major transition.

Nathan Wrigley interviews Robby McCullough, co‑founder of Beaver Builder, about the product’s evolution, how the team is approaching AI, shifting site‑building workflows, and what’s next for the WordPress ecosystem.

Background and timeline

Beaver Builder is entering its twelfth to thirteenth year as a WordPress page builder. Robby and his team began as an agency and created the builder so clients could edit their own sites instead of relying on developers for every change. Lately Robby has balanced product work with major personal events — a newborn and a move — while steering the company forward.

A cautious approach to AI

Rather than rushing to bolt “AI” onto features, Beaver Builder waited while early LLM integrations proved to be more window‑dressing than substance. Robby argues that adding lightweight AI—like auto‑generated headings—has limited value; meaningful benefits arrive when the underlying models and tooling can solve problems that previously weren’t worth building around.

Two experimental AI directions

The team is exploring two main ideas. First, what Robby calls “vibe coding”: take an externally generated landing page and import it into Beaver Builder, turning it into a fully editable page in the builder so users can drag, tweak, and publish immediately. Second, an in‑context chat agent that works inside an existing page or site, focusing on a specific region (for example, a pricing table) and helping with copy, layout, or markup adjustments. Both concepts are experimental and being kept internal until they’re ready.

Page builders versus AI site generation

Robby and Nathan agree that page builders are far from obsolete. Builders removed a large amount of friction from site creation, enabling many more people to make sites and likely contributing to WordPress’s adoption. AI that can spit out entire static sites quickly is useful for one‑off brochure pages, but WordPress’s extensibility and administrative plumbing—drafts, images, metadata, plugin ecosystem—still give it a strong edge for projects that need longevity or customization.

Transparency over black boxes

Beaver Builder intends to avoid turning the product into a closed, tokenized black box. They want AI features that expose front‑end code—markup and CSS—so developers and learners can inspect, modify, and improve what the AI creates. Robby envisions users bringing their own AI key or agent, granting it access to Beaver Builder while retaining the ability to see and change the generated code.

Craft, nostalgia, and the role of hands‑on skills

Both hosts reflect on the loss of hands‑on practices—manual HTML/CSS, pixel‑level work in design tools—replaced by faster, more automated workflows. Nathan compares the shift to preferring carpenters over flat‑pack furniture: a tradeoff between artisan skill and speed. Robby still enjoys iterative design: he uses AI to generate ideas quickly, then tunes CSS and layout by hand. He’s found agentic tools helpful to learn modern CSS techniques like grid and variable fonts. They don’t expect craftsmanship to disappear entirely: some people will remain specialists, and many projects will retain traditional workflows.

Maintenance and the lifecycle of sites

Nathan points out an often‑ignored issue: maintenance. Creating a site quickly is one thing; keeping it running and relevant over years is another. Page builders could become the editing and maintenance layer for sites initially produced by AI, serving more as ongoing managers than as mere generators. Robby agrees, noting WordPress’s strengths for long‑term customization and business‑critical sites.

Business planning amid fast change

They discuss the uncertainty product teams feel as AI capabilities accelerate. Robby describes himself as a hopeful optimist but acknowledges that the industry has faced existential scares before—Dreamweaver’s reputation, Gutenberg’s introduction, predictions of page builders’ death—and yet adapted. Both recognise that rapid AI progress could still force significant shifts in how products are designed and supported.

Practical AI use and personal stories

Robby shares everyday examples of how AI helps: using dictation when caring for his infant to capture ideas, and a side project using ChatGPT to scrape local ham radio repeater info and produce formatted CSVs. These anecdotes illustrate how AI can eliminate tedious tasks and boost personal productivity.

Social effects and community

They also worry about social consequences. Agentic tools that simulate collaboration might reduce real human interaction. Nathan and Robby hope for balance: digital tools should augment work and creativity without replacing in‑person community. They miss WordCamps and the bonds formed by travel and meetups, noting a decline in events since the pandemic and expressing hope for a revival.

Closing perspective

Beaver Builder aims to integrate AI thoughtfully—skipping hype, focusing on practical features that remain transparent, and enabling users to learn from and tweak generated output. Page builders will likely continue to serve as important editors and maintenance layers, while WordPress’s extensibility remains a major advantage for complex or long‑term projects. Both hosts finish with cautious optimism: excited about new capabilities, aware of cultural tradeoffs, and hopeful that craftsmanship and face‑to‑face community will endure alongside evolving tools.