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What’s new in AI 0.8.0 (23 APR 2026)?

AI 0.8.0 has been released and is available for download! “What’s new in AI…” posts (labeled with the #ai-release tag) are posted following every AI plugin release, showcasing new features included in each release.

We’re pleased to announce the release of AI 0.8.0, the latest update to the canonical plugin powering AI-powered features in WordPress. This release introduces new editorial workflows, deeper integration with Guidelines, and improvements to the overall admin experience. This release also promotes Image Generation and Editing to a full Feature and introduces dashboard widgets that surface AI capabilities and Connectors information directly in the WordPress dashboard.

What’s new in 0.8.0?

New Experiment: Refine from Notes

This release introduces a new Refine from Notes experiment that automatically applies editorial feedback to your content.

Instead of manually reviewing Notes and making edits one by one, this workflow lets you leverage AI to:

  • Generate Review Notes on your content (using the previously released Review Notes experiment)
  • Automatically apply changes from those Notes to post content
  • Refine posts more efficiently with fewer manual edits

This supports more streamlined editorial workflows and moves toward more agent-like content refinement experiences.

New AI Dashboard Widgets

AI 0.8.0 introduces the first set of AI dashboard widgets, bringing AI insights and capabilities directly into the WordPress dashboard.

This includes:

  • AI Status widget showing plugin onboarding steps, then Connector and Feature / Experiment configurations
  • AI Capabilities widget highlighting available Abilities and configured Connector model capabilities
  • A new extensible framework for registering additional dashboard widgets

These widgets improve discoverability and help site administrators quickly understand what AI capabilities are available on their site.

Promoted Feature: Image Generation and Editing

Image Generation and Editing has been promoted from an Experiment to a Feature.

That means:

  • It’s now considered stable and ready for broader use
  • It appears in the Features section of the AI settings screen
  • It continues to support supported image-capable models

As part of this transition, references to older DALL·E models have been removed in favor of newer image generation models, including gpt-image-2.

Respect Guidelines Automatically

AI abilities can now integrate with Gutenberg’s Guidelines experiment, allowing generated content to respect site-wide editorial standards.

This enables:

  • Consistent tone and style
  • Alignment with editorial expectations
  • More predictable AI-generated outputs

When Guidelines are configured, supported abilities automatically use them as part of their generation workflow.

Improved Title Generation Workflow

Title Generation now uses a modal interface, allowing users to preview and refine suggestions before applying them to a post.

This update makes the workflow more flexible and safer by allowing:

  • Multiple regeneration attempts
  • Inline editing before applying changes
  • Better control over final output

Additionally, Title and Excerpt Generation have been improved to prevent unwanted formatting, such as:

  • Conversational preambles
  • Wrapper quotes
  • Markdown artifacts
  • Meta commentary

These improvements are especially noticeable when using smaller language models.

Bulk Enable or Disable Experiments

Managing Experiments is now faster with support for bulk enabling and disabling Experiment groups.

This is especially useful for:

  • Testing workflows across multiple Experiments
  • Quickly toggling features during development or evaluation
  • Managing large sets of capabilities more efficiently

Improved AI Settings Experience

Several UI improvements refine the overall settings experience:

  • Improved visual hierarchy makes card titles more prominent
  • Button loading states now match WordPress standard loading patterns
  • Feature descriptions now clearly list supported AI provider models
  • Accessibility improvements to modal workflows
  • Review Notes now appear only on supported post types

These changes make the interface clearer and more consistent with WordPress design patterns.

Performance Improvements for Review Notes

Review Notes now send reduced context during processing.

This helps:

  • Reduce token usage
  • Improve performance
  • Lower overall model costs

These changes are particularly helpful on larger content workflows.

Additional Improvements and Fixes

Other notable improvements include:

  • The legacy AI settings ai page now redirects automatically to the new ai-wp-admin page (powered via wp-build)
  • Added support checks using wp_supports_ai() before initializing Features or Experiments
  • Improved dependency error handling in asset loading
  • Modernized internal string handling using str_starts_with() and str_contains()
  • Deferred requirement error messages until translations are available
  • Refactored bootstrap and asset loading systems for improved reliability
  • Updated testing documentation to match the current test setup
  • Updated blueprint configuration to use WordPress beta versions

These updates improve overall stability and compatibility across environments and help streamline development workflows and maintain consistency across the codebase.

What’s next in 0.9.0?

Work is already underway on several features and refinements planned for 0.9.0, including:

Several early prototype experiments are also being explored, including type-ahead suggestions, extended provider support, integration with Gutenberg’s experiment Media Editor, Connector Usage Approvals, and tools like the AI Playground and deeper MCP integration. These concepts are still exploratory, but they help test how AI could support real workflows across WordPress. We encourage users and developers to review and test these ideas and share feedback so the most valuable experiments can mature and land in upcoming releases like 0.9.0.

Thanks to contributors!

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this release, including:

@dkotter, @jeffpaul, @n1schay, @laurisaarni, @gziolo, @justlevine, @ankitmaru, @jorgefilipecosta, @juanfra, @theskinnyghost, @dharm1025, @rajat1192, @vishwa99, @takshil, @iamadisingh, @kaavyaiyer, @soean, @wildworks, @priyankagusani, @ekamran, @gohelkunjan, and others involved in review, testing, and 234 commits between 0.7.0 and 0.8.0. Your help and feedback are what make these Features and Experiments possible.

Get involved

As always, we welcome feedback, testing, and contributions from the community. Whether you are interested in editor UX, APIs, accessibility, performance, or AI ethics and policy, there are many ways to participate.

You can explore the 0.8.0 release today, review open issues and pull requests, and help shape what comes next.

Props to @westonruter for reviewing this post.

#ai-experiments, #ai-features, #ai-plugin, #ai-release, #aiex-release, #canonical-plugins, #core-ai