AI Is Changing WordPress Agencies Faster Than We Think

This episode of The WP Minute’s Agency Action podcast gets into what happens when AI starts doing the work WordPress agencies have traditionally billed for. Toby Cryns and Kurt von Ahnen talk about using Claude to rebuild WordPress sites, the shrinking size of some development projects, and what happens when clients can build functioning apps themselves with AI. They also dig into the bigger questions: How do you price work that AI can do in minutes? What does a WordPress developer actually need to bring to the table? And how do agencies hire people who can think beyond a task list? The conversation eventually moves from AI to the realities of agency growth — accountability, hiring, delegation, profitability, and knowing when adding more people actually makes the business harder to run. Chapters 00:00 Is Elementor Going Bye Bye? 01:45 What Happens When AI Builds the Website? 04:21 How Do You Make Money When Everything Changes? 05:43 The Human Still Needs to Be in the Loop 06:23 What Is a WordPress Developer Now? 08:06 The New Developer: More Than Just Code 09:45 AI Is Turning Clients Into Builders 11:31 Is Consulting the New Agency Service? 13:16 The Hidden Cost of AI Tools 15:37 How Do You Price AI-Powered Work? 17:35 Are Websites Becoming Commoditized? 19:22 When Does Agency Growth Become a Problem? 22:00 Hiring People Who Can Actually Think 25:00 Can You Teach Judgment? 29:34 When Does Scaling Hurt the Agency? 30:11 Building Accountability Into the Business 32:49 When Is It Time to Let Someone Go? 34:24 Client Stress + Staff Stress 35:02 What Does Agency Success Actually Mean? 37:51 Adaptive Challenges and the Moving Goalposts 40:04 Final Thoughts