Discover how Drupal applies AI and how it could play an active role in your AI stack at DrupalCon Vienna.

The Drupal community recently announced the Drupal AI Initiative, which focuses on enhancing existing AI capabilities in an ethical, transparent, and flexible manner. Several companies have joined the initiative, altogether contributing over $600,000 in funding and personnel salary at this time. And the team continues to expand! This has long been in the making, so of course we've added strategic programming to DrupalCon Vienna to get you up to speed.

While many valuable AI sessions are available, seven sessions from the AI makers themselves are particularly noteworthy. It’s remarkable that all these sessions are included in a standard DrupalCon ticket!

1. For a comprehensive overview of the initiative, its strategy, and user benefits, consider the AI strategy and application session by Christoph Breidert and Frederik Wouters.

2. For a hands-on experience with AI content generation, AI workflows, agents, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Christoph and Frederik will also host a nearly two-hour workshop for live practical application.

3. Individuals interested in delving deeper into AI agents, but without coding experience, will find a dedicated session by Marcus Johansson, the architect behind them, titled "Building AI Agents without coding".

4. You have the AI building blocks, but how will those work together in a workflow? Jasper Lammens covers this using Drupal's ECA module for configuration and even relying on Drupal's support for the AI Model Context Protocol. This session will demonstrate the use of AI for chat, text-to-speech, and more.

5. Despite all of these capabilities, what if the AI Agent you need is not available? Vincenzo Gambino will guide developers on creating new AI Agents, Tools, and Assistants from scratch using the ai_agents module. This workshop will focus on designing intelligent features that respond to users, providing attendees with practical skills and working code.

6. For situations where an AI-made site configuration change did not yield the desired results, Fabian Bircher will present a session on various approaches to undo, including the new Config Checkpoint UI module.

7. Last, but definitely not least, Experience Builder's first stable release is expected at DrupalCon Vienna! The AI integration being built will provide easy ways to create pages and refine content. James Abrahams says the AI Agent Swarm is coming to Experience Builder and nothing in Drupal will ever be the same again! 

Sessions are not the only reason to come to DrupalCon. The Drupal AI funding companies are among the event's sponsors, so you can talk to each at their booths. The AI team will also be in the contribution room collaborating on improvements, and will hold targeted discussions in Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions that will show up on the live schedule later.

DrupalCon Vienna is the place to immerse yourself in the latest Drupal AI developments and be part of what is coming next! Regular ticket prices are only available until the end of September, so buy your tickets now!

Discover how Drupal applies AI and how it could play an active role in your AI stack at DrupalCon Vienna.

The Drupal community recently announced the Drupal AI Initiative, which focuses on enhancing existing AI capabilities in an ethical, transparent, and flexible manner. Several companies have joined the initiative, altogether contributing over $600,000 in funding and personnel salary at this time. And the team continues to expand! This has long been in the making, so of course we've added strategic programming to DrupalCon Vienna to get you up to speed.

While many valuable AI sessions are available, seven sessions from the AI makers themselves are particularly noteworthy. It’s remarkable that all these sessions are included in a standard DrupalCon ticket!

1. For a comprehensive overview of the initiative, its strategy, and user benefits, consider the AI strategy and application session by Christoph Breidert and Frederik Wouters.

2. For a hands-on experience with AI content generation, AI workflows, agents, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Christoph and Frederik will also host a nearly two-hour workshop for live practical application.

3. Individuals interested in delving deeper into AI agents, but without coding experience, will find a dedicated session by Marcus Johansson, the architect behind them, titled "Building AI Agents without coding".

4. You have the AI building blocks, but how will those work together in a workflow? Jasper Lammens covers this using Drupal's ECA module for configuration and even relying on Drupal's support for the AI Model Context Protocol. This session will demonstrate the use of AI for chat, text-to-speech, and more.

5. Despite all of these capabilities, what if the AI Agent you need is not available? Vincenzo Gambino will guide developers on creating new AI Agents, Tools, and Assistants from scratch using the ai_agents module. This workshop will focus on designing intelligent features that respond to users, providing attendees with practical skills and working code.

6. For situations where an AI-made site configuration change did not yield the desired results, Fabian Bircher will present a session on various approaches to undo, including the new Config Checkpoint UI module.

7. Last, but definitely not least, Experience Builder's first stable release is expected at DrupalCon Vienna! The AI integration being built will provide easy ways to create pages and refine content. James Abrahams says the AI Agent Swarm is coming to Experience Builder and nothing in Drupal will ever be the same again! 

Sessions are not the only reason to come to DrupalCon. The Drupal AI funding companies are among the event's sponsors, so you can talk to each at their booths. The AI team will also be in the contribution room collaborating on improvements, and will hold targeted discussions in Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions that will show up on the live schedule later.

DrupalCon Vienna is the place to immerse yourself in the latest Drupal AI developments and be part of what is coming next! Regular ticket prices are only available until the end of September, so buy your tickets now!

Being a certified Drupal partner and long-time supporter of the Drupal community, we at Factorial understand the responsibility that comes with sponsoring and attending events across the globe. After being awarded the runner-up of the Sustainability Award at DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 and, we want to share some of the practices and insights that helped us to reduce our environmental footprint—and hopefully inspire others to do the same.

Why sustainability is important

Setting aside the usual arguments, this topic deserves special attention, as the Drupal community is accustomed to events such as DrupalCon Europe, which take place in a different location each year. This makes it all the more important to consider environmentally friendly ways of travelling, staying and using event-related materials for catering or marketing purposes.

"With an event that changes place and country every year, we as sponsors and members of the Drupal community have a special responsibility when it comes to our climate. We're happy to inspire others to make lower-emission choices so that the CO₂ impact of DrupalCon remains as low as possible."
— Niklas Franke, Marketing & Community Manager at Factorial

How we reduced our ecological footprint

A Modular, Reusable Booth: We developed a modular booth concept that can be reused and resized for any event—from 2 to 10 square meters—without needing new construction. Every element of our booth—from the screws to the frames and printed panels—is reusable, foldable, and easy to transport. This approach helps us minimize waste while staying flexible and cost-efficient.

Sustainable Merchandise: As we welcome and actively promote climate-friendly alternatives, our T-shirts, tote bags, and other branded items are made exclusively from certified organic cotton. We work only with partners who align with our environmental and ethical standards.

Smart and Sustainable Travel: Several team members traveled to DrupalCon via public transportation, including one from the UK who traveled more than 2000 kilometers from Bristol to Barcelona and back. We also booked a hotel, certified for its sustainability efforts, right next to the venue, allowing the team to walk to the conference—eliminating the need for taxis or rideshares.

Work meets Vacation: During our visit to DrupalCon Barcelona, we encouraged our colleagues to combine vacations and private stays with the conference visit. In this way, we were able to reduce additional climate-damaging measures such as flights and contribute to reducing our team's carbon footprint.

Our Tips for Greener Events

As a second-place winner of the Sustainability Award in 2024, here are some practical takeaways for other companies looking to reduce their environmental footprint at events like the DrupalCon Vienna 2025:

• Design for reuse: A modular booth setup can grow or shrink depending on your needs—no waste, no fuss.
• Prioritize sustainable merchandise: Fewer, higher-quality items made with eco-friendly materials go further.
• Support public transport: Encourage slower, greener travel—and make it feasible by offering time or financial support.
• Choose walkable accommodations: Proximity to the venue cuts down on emissions and makes life easier for your team.
• Combine business and leisure travel: One trip, many purposes—less travel, more balance.

We’re honored by the recognition at DrupalCon—and more motivated than ever to keep improving. Sustainability is a shared responsibility, and together we can make our community events smarter, greener, and more future-friendly.

Let’s lead by example. See you at the next DrupalCon—with new ideas, and a lighter footprint.

About Factorial

Factorial is a software agency dedicated to creating state-of-the-art user experiences with open-source technologies. As active contributors to the Drupal community, our team of 50+ experts combines technical excellence with a deep commitment to accessibility, usability, and sustainability. We don’t just build digital ecosystems — we aim to build them responsibly.

Blog Author: Niklas Franke, Marketing and Community Manager at Factorial

As mentioned a few weeks ago, the new Contribution Records system is being integrated into our current Drupal.org issues, with the main goal still being the move to GitLab issues.

We have had for a few weeks view-only links pointing to the new system. The moment to start editing that information in the new system, and therefore no longer in the Drupal.org issue itself, is the next step.

When we do the switch, all credit information will be managed in the new system. Maintainers will be able to assign credits, and contributors will be able to set their organization attributions (as employer and/or customer), and save their default values for future attributions.

All issue participants are brought automatically from the Drupal.org issue to the Contribution Record, so you won't need to add contributors twice.

As a maintainer, you'll only need to decide who you give credit to.

And as a contributor, you'll only need to review your attribution. 

If you want to report bugs or give feedback you can do it via the issue queue for the Contribution Records module.

As mentioned a few weeks ago, the new Contribution Records system is being integrated into our current Drupal.org issues, with the main goal still being the move to GitLab issues.

We have had for a few weeks view-only links pointing to the new system. The moment to start editing that information in the new system, and therefore no longer in the Drupal.org issue itself, is the next step.

When we do the switch, all credit information will be managed in the new system. Maintainers will be able to assign credits, and contributors will be able to set their organization attributions (as employer and/or customer), and save their default values for future attributions.

All issue participants are brought automatically from the Drupal.org issue to the Contribution Record, so you won't need to add contributors twice.

As a maintainer, you'll only need to decide who you give credit to.

And as a contributor, you'll only need to review your attribution. 

If you want to report bugs or give feedback you can do it via the issue queue for the Contribution Records module.

Let’s be honest: It’s not always easy to be part of a global community. And the last few years have made that clearer than ever.

The Drupal Community Working Group (CWG) is here to help create a more supportive and inclusive community for everyone. We uphold our Code of Conduct, and support community members navigating tough situations. We’re also working behind the scenes to build proactive systems of care and recognition. It’s challenging work, but it’s deeply meaningful.

We’re currently looking to expand our team.

Why now?

Because communities don’t just maintain themselves. They need caretakers. And the world we’re building today needs people who can hold complexity with care, especially in open source.

You might be a good fit if you:

• Stay calm under pressure, even when tensions run high.
• Are comfortable listening without rushing to fix.
• Know when to step forward - and when to take a break.
• Understand the importance of confidentiality and trust within the community
• Believe in the kind of leadership that puts people first.

We know that strong communities are built on diverse lived experiences. We welcome volunteers who bring thoughtful insight from navigating exclusion, invisibility, or underrepresentation in open source or digital communities.

Job Roles:

• Community Health Team Member – Help develop and run initiatives like workshops, resources, and tools that strengthen communication and community well-being. This role is a pathway to deeper involvement with the CWG, including the Conflict Resolution Team.
• Conflict Resolution Team (CRT) Member – Guide community members through conflicts, mediate, and help uphold community standards. Ideal for those who have experience or interest in community care and support.

If this resonates with you, or if someone you know would be a great fit, please get in touch at drupal-cwg@drupal.org. A better community depends on people like you.

Join our Drupal Slack channel (#community-health) to connect with the community and check out our upcoming office hours to learn more.

Wednesday, September 3, 2025 at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 1900 UTC

Find your local time here: https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

Let’s be honest: It’s not always easy to be part of a global community. And the last few years have made that clearer than ever.

The Drupal Community Working Group (CWG) is here to help create a more supportive and inclusive community for everyone. We uphold our Code of Conduct, and support community members navigating tough situations. We’re also working behind the scenes to build proactive systems of care and recognition. It’s challenging work, but it’s deeply meaningful.

We’re currently looking to expand our team.

Why now?

Because communities don’t just maintain themselves. They need caretakers. And the world we’re building today needs people who can hold complexity with care, especially in open source.

You might be a good fit if you:

• Stay calm under pressure, even when tensions run high.
• Are comfortable listening without rushing to fix.
• Know when to step forward - and when to take a break.
• Understand the importance of confidentiality and trust within the community
• Believe in the kind of leadership that puts people first.

We know that strong communities are built on diverse lived experiences. We welcome volunteers who bring thoughtful insight from navigating exclusion, invisibility, or underrepresentation in open source or digital communities.

Job Roles:

• Community Health Team Member – Help develop and run initiatives like workshops, resources, and tools that strengthen communication and community well-being. This role is a pathway to deeper involvement with the CWG, including the Conflict Resolution Team.
• Conflict Resolution Team (CRT) Member – Guide community members through conflicts, mediate, and help uphold community standards. Ideal for those who have experience or interest in community care and support.

If this resonates with you, or if someone you know would be a great fit, please get in touch at drupal-cwg@drupal.org. A better community depends on people like you.

Join our Drupal Slack channel (#community-health) to connect with the community and check out our upcoming office hours to learn more.

Wednesday, September 3, 2025 at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 1900 UTC

Find your local time here: https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

Today, we are delighted to announce the addition of ten new Drupal AI supporting organisations, known as “Makers”. Now we have a total of $175,000 in funding, significantly strengthening the capacity to build on Drupal’s position as the best open-source AI-powered CMS.

Dominic De Cooman announces the new makers (opens in new window)

Being a Maker means more than providing funding.

Each agrees to allocate staff dedicated to advancing key areas of the initiative, ensuring that development can accelerate at pace and remain firmly aligned with the real-world of businesses, agencies, and marketers worldwide. With these new makers, at least 15 full-time staff are now dedicated to advancing Drupal AI.

The latest Drupal AI Makers (in alphabetical order):

• Anonymous sponsor (Gold)
• Axelerant (Gold)
• Elevated Third (Silver)
• ImageX (Silver)
• Joshi Consultancy Services (Gold)
• Morpht (Gold)
• QED42 (Gold)
• SeeD EM (Gold)
• Zivtech (Gold)
• Zoocha (Gold)

View the complete list of Drupal AI Makers.

What having new makers means

This is the largest single wave of AI Makers since the Drupal AI Initiative began. The combined funding and staff contributions mean:

• Faster delivery of core AI features for Drupal
• Better documentation, governance, and community enablement
• Stronger global representation from agencies across regions

With each new backer, our collective capacity grows. Together, we are shaping AI capabilities that are open, responsible, and designed to create real impact.

This new wave of makers reflects growing recognition of the importance of responsible, open-source AI tools in content management and digital experiences. We welcome further organisations that share this vision to join us in supporting the future of AI in Drupal.
Dominic De Cooman, Funding Lead, Drupal AI Initiative

Where will the sponsorship be invested?

• Core AI module development (Drupal AI 1.x roadmap)
• AI orchestration improvements and model-agnostic infrastructure
• Integration recipes for popular tools (RAG, content automation, search)
• AI page creation and optimization with Experience Builder
• Governance and community coordination
• Documentation, examples, and best practices

Agency leaders from across the Drupal community are uniting behind the Drupal AI Initiative, recognising both its strategic importance and its practical benefits. Their commitment reflects a shared belief that Drupal’s open approach can shape responsible AI while unlocking new opportunities for clients and accelerating innovation across the ecosystem.

We’re investing in Drupal AI to help build open, responsible AI—shaped by its users—for clients, the community, and Drupal’s future.
Glenn Hilton, CEO, ImageX

We are proud to support Drupal’s AI Initiative. It will extend Drupal’s open, extensible power and deliver the AI-driven B2B growth our clients are asking for.
Jeff Calderone, CEO, Elevated Third

Drupal AI embodies the power of collaboration to make advanced technology accessible, ethical, and impactful for all.
Jairo Pinzón, CEO, SeeD EM

We are joining forces with other certified Drupal partners to accelerate this initiative and elevate Drupal to the premier AI-enabled CMS platform.
Will Huggins, CEO, Zoocha

We're dedicated to the Drupal AI Initiative because we believe in empowering creators with cutting-edge tools. Our contribution is an investment in a smarter, more innovative future for the entire Drupal community.
Bhavin Joshi, Co-founder & CTO, Joshi Consultancy Services

As soon as we heard about the AI Initiative, we wanted to be involved. Drupal is a natural candidate for AI functionality, with so much content available to uplift and leverage.The AI Initiative will bring big wins for users, editors, owners, site builders and AI agents alike.
Murray Woodman, Managing Director, Morpht

What are the benefits of being an AI maker?

• Direct influence over the Drupal AI roadmap
• Early access to features and recipes
• Recognition on Drupal.org and in marketing campaigns
• Networking with other AI leaders in the Drupal ecosystem
• Contribution credit and community visibility

Discover how your organisation can become a maker too.

Further reading: Accelerating Innovation - Introducing the Drupal AI Initiative by The Drupal Association.
 

Today, we are delighted to announce the addition of ten new Drupal AI supporting organisations, known as “Makers”. Now we have a total of $175,000 in funding, significantly strengthening the capacity to build on Drupal’s position as the best open-source AI-powered CMS.

Dominic De Cooman announces the new makers (opens in new window)

Being a Maker means more than providing funding.

Each agrees to allocate staff dedicated to advancing key areas of the initiative, ensuring that development can accelerate at pace and remain firmly aligned with the real-world of businesses, agencies, and marketers worldwide. With these new makers, at least 15 full-time staff are now dedicated to advancing Drupal AI.

The latest Drupal AI Makers (in alphabetical order):

• Anonymous sponsor (Gold)
• Axelerant (Gold)
• Elevated Third (Silver)
• ImageX (Silver)
• Joshi Consultancy Services (Gold)
• Morpht (Gold)
• QED42 (Gold)
• SeeD EM (Gold)
• Zivtech (Gold)
• Zoocha (Gold)

View the complete list of Drupal AI Makers.

What having new makers means

This is the largest single wave of AI Makers since the Drupal AI Initiative began. The combined funding and staff contributions mean:

• Faster delivery of core AI features for Drupal
• Better documentation, governance, and community enablement
• Stronger global representation from agencies across regions

With each new backer, our collective capacity grows. Together, we are shaping AI capabilities that are open, responsible, and designed to create real impact.

This new wave of makers reflects growing recognition of the importance of responsible, open-source AI tools in content management and digital experiences. We welcome further organisations that share this vision to join us in supporting the future of AI in Drupal.
Dominic De Cooman, Funding Lead, Drupal AI Initiative

Where will the sponsorship be invested?

• Core AI module development (Drupal AI 1.x roadmap)
• AI orchestration improvements and model-agnostic infrastructure
• Integration recipes for popular tools (RAG, content automation, search)
• AI page creation and optimization with Experience Builder
• Governance and community coordination
• Documentation, examples, and best practices

Agency leaders from across the Drupal community are uniting behind the Drupal AI Initiative, recognising both its strategic importance and its practical benefits. Their commitment reflects a shared belief that Drupal’s open approach can shape responsible AI while unlocking new opportunities for clients and accelerating innovation across the ecosystem.

We’re investing in Drupal AI to help build open, responsible AI—shaped by its users—for clients, the community, and Drupal’s future.
Glenn Hilton, CEO, ImageX

We are proud to support Drupal’s AI Initiative. It will extend Drupal’s open, extensible power and deliver the AI-driven B2B growth our clients are asking for.
Jeff Calderone, CEO, Elevated Third

Drupal AI embodies the power of collaboration to make advanced technology accessible, ethical, and impactful for all.
Jairo Pinzón, CEO, SeeD EM

We are joining forces with other certified Drupal partners to accelerate this initiative and elevate Drupal to the premier AI-enabled CMS platform.
Will Huggins, CEO, Zoocha

We're dedicated to the Drupal AI Initiative because we believe in empowering creators with cutting-edge tools. Our contribution is an investment in a smarter, more innovative future for the entire Drupal community.
Bhavin Joshi, Co-founder & CTO, Joshi Consultancy Services

As soon as we heard about the AI Initiative, we wanted to be involved. Drupal is a natural candidate for AI functionality, with so much content available to uplift and leverage.The AI Initiative will bring big wins for users, editors, owners, site builders and AI agents alike.
Murray Woodman, Managing Director, Morpht

What are the benefits of being an AI maker?

• Direct influence over the Drupal AI roadmap
• Early access to features and recipes
• Recognition on Drupal.org and in marketing campaigns
• Networking with other AI leaders in the Drupal ecosystem
• Contribution credit and community visibility

Discover how your organisation can become a maker too.

Further reading: Accelerating Innovation - Introducing the Drupal AI Initiative by The Drupal Association.
 

The Drupal Business Survey investigates the trends in the digital market, in particular from service providers involved with the open source DXP Drupal. Digital agencies from all over the world participate in the yearly survey and the business insights on market share and growth opportunities gained are shared with those who’ve submitted responses. 

Begun many years ago by Drupal Business Network with Janne Kalliola, Michel Van Velde, and Imre Gmelig Meijling, the survey is now administered by the Drupal Association in order to promote global reach and protect the confidentiality of the information. Janne, Michel, and Imre are still involved in the analysis and reporting of the anonymized data from the survey.

Drupal’s open source ecosystem is supported by a strong community of tens of thousands professionals worldwide, working together on the popular digital experience platform. Because Drupal is open source, anyone can work with Drupal or make changes to it. An important part of this community are the agencies that provide Drupal services to end users and drive Drupal’s market. The Drupal Business Survey seeks the input from these agencies so that meaningful data for business owners and decision makers can be built into their business strategies. 

The Drupal Business Survey has been a valuable guide for digital service providers, even to those working with other technologies than Drupal.

Take the survey here!

Results in 2024

Nearly 72% of participating companies hired new staff, with most saying it was to meet growing project demand. Many agencies also shared that over half of their revenue came from Drupal 9 and 10 clients, reinforcing Drupal’s continued strength in enterprise work.

We also saw some interesting shifts in client sectors. Public sector, education, and nonprofits remained Drupal’s strongest markets. Healthcare and medicine showed signs of growth and is gradually catching up, which could make it one to watch in future surveys. A number of agencies told us that after a difficult 2023, their pipelines were looking stronger in early 2024. Almost half of respondents said they were already using AI in client work or planning to, which is something we’ll definitely want to keep tracking in this year’s results.

Changes for 2025

In 2025, as the Drupal Association fully takes over the administration, maintenance, and communication of the Drupal Business Survey, we are implementing a few changes.

First, the response window has been shortened and moved to a time that better aligns with firms planning for 2026. The survey will be issued on 19 August 2025, with a submission deadline of 23 September 2025.

Second, the questions have been reviewed and adjusted to improve their analytical value, particularly for comparing trends across years. This standardization process will continue in future editions to ensure we can report data with statistical significance.

Finally, the Drupal Business Survey will now serve as the Drupal Association’s official business survey. We will no longer support duplicative business surveys throughout the year. The survey originally developed by Janne, Michel, and Imre has a long and respected history, and we believe it’s best for this to become the official Drupal market survey.

Drupal Business Dinner

The Drupal market is eager to see how digital service providers are using Drupal and how the market has evolved this year. The key takeaways from the 2025 Drupal Business Survey will be shared at the Drupal Business Dinner on Wednesday, 15 October. Please note that you must register separately for this event by purchasing your ticket here. A deeper dive into the survey results will be given during the dedicated session on Thursday at 9:15 am. View session details here.

DrupalCon Europe is the yearly Drupal conference where over 1,000 Drupal users and professionals meet to exchange ideas and further evolve Drupal. This year’s event will be held from 14–17 October in Vienna, Austria.

About the Business Survey

The Drupal Business Survey supports Drupal businesses worldwide and is organized by a team of industry experts Imre Gmelig Meijling (React Online), Janne Kalliola (Exove) and Michel van Velde (Craftmore) in collaboration with the Drupal Association. 

Drupal is the open source Digital Experience Platform used by many organizations worldwide including Nestlé, Lufthansa and World Wildlife Fund ( WWF).

Participate and share your insights

Drupal experts are invited to share their Drupal business insights through the Business Survey anonymously and come to DrupalCon Europe to review the results together.

You can take the Drupal Business Survey 2025 anonymously here. The survey closes on 23 September.

In July 2025 we asked business leaders and agency experts to identify the AI capabilities in marketing they value most. During our upcoming webinar, we will share exclusive insights from survey analysis gathered from 216 AI professionals, business leaders, and technical decision makers from 199 different organizations across multiple industries.

Our findings provide a clear picture of where organisations are focusing their AI investments, and the features they regard as essential for future success. These insights can help your leadership prioritize AI investments to maximize their strategic benefit.

Join us 28 August 17:00-18:00 CET. Register your place today!

What You Will Learn

• Top AI capabilities organisations value and want the most, and how these vary across different industries.
• Emerging trends and sector-specific priorities shaping the next phase of AI in digital experience platforms.
• How these insights are influencing the strategic direction and roadmap of Drupal AI to meet the needs of agencies, site owners, and end users.
• Practical ways you can engage with the Drupal AI Initiative and contribute to its future development.

Exclusive early access to our analysis

All registered attendees will receive the full research report, enabling you to benchmark your organisation’s priorities against industry data.

Session Format

The presentation will run for 45 minutes, followed by a Q&A session where attendees can put their questions directly to the team.

This is an important opportunity to understand which AI features are most valued today, see how they are prioritised in Drupal AI’s roadmap, and explore the ways they could significantly benefit your organisation.

Register your place today.
 

The Drupal AI Initiative is responsible for leading the definition and delivery of major AI capabilities for Drupal. Whilst operating in the fast-paced AI industry, we recognise the importance of taking time to ensure plans to deliver our bold vision are robust.

With this in mind, last week, members of the Drupal AI Initiative gathered in-person and online for two days of structured activities dedicated to refining the initiative’s direction, funding model, operational framework, and marketing. 

The off-site fostered improved collaboration and strategic clarity. It also served as a valuable forum to present and critically review a newly developed marketing and communications strategy, ensuring plans are in place to extend awareness of Drupal AI far beyond markets where Drupal is well-established.

$300k funding secured to catalyse progress

Securing sustainable funding and growing the team is fundamental to the initiative’s success, and Dominique De Cooman is leading this area. Dominique has had numerous conversations with Drupal agency leaders regarding the Drupal AI Initiative and how they can get involved. He reported rising interest in support and confirmed a host of additional sponsors, known as “Makers”, joining the initiative.

Being a maker goes beyond financial support. Each agrees to allocate full-time staff dedicated to advancing key areas of the initiative. Combined, these commitments represent new funding worth $300,000, which will be used to accelerate progress towards our goals.

The first round of Drupal AI Makers (in alphabetical order) was announced in early June:

• 1xINTERNET
• Acquia
• amazee.io
• Dropsolid
• FreelyGive
• Salsa Digital

The latest Drupal AI Makers (in alphabetical order):

• Axelerant
• Elevated Third
• ImageX
• Joshi Consultancy Services
• Morpht
• QED42
• SeeD EM
• Zivtech
• Zoocha

Their support brings the total number of Drupal AI Makers to 15, representing a significant milestone for the initiative. There is also an anonymous sponsor contributing funding. A more detailed blog post about these new makers is coming soon.

A workshop was held to explicitly define concrete deliverables across various functional areas, including product, external relations, operational processes, scaling the team, and financial sustainability.

Strategies to attract further funding were also discussed, together with discussions on how supporters may derive value. This covered details of the “early access” programme, which provides benefits to makers while remaining true to open source and Drupal community values.

Building delivery capacity with dedicated project management

Thanks to the new makers, we have greatly increased our capacity to deliver. The leadership team acknowledged the need to recruit a dedicated project manager (PM). This will bring clarity, structure, and accountability to product management, development, and delivery. A focused PM will ensure our development team works effectively, bolstering our ability to ship solutions frequently and maintain Drupal’s leading advantage in open-source AI.

The team developed a hiring plan for this critical position, including profiling the role, outlining timelines and budget, and identifying the individuals responsible for the hiring process.

Decisions were made regarding candidate assessment and communicating hiring plans, while interim candidates from makers were identified to fill the role and deliver immediate benefits.

Shaping the next phase of Drupal AI development

A deep dive into the product roadmap was conducted, where participants worked to define concrete milestones, delivery timelines, and assign ownership of features.

Discussions also focused on making the technology installable and packaging its various capabilities, with decisions made regarding demo versions to support evaluation.

An article detailing the roadmap planning is forthcoming.

Informed by the Drupal AI Survey

The off-site was intentionally held as the Drupal AI Survey drew to a close. Early analysis of 232 submissions ensured that our decision-making processes directly took into account feedback from end users.

The survey’s ranking method was designed to determine feature value and sentiment, helping to prioritise features based on market demand and perceived business value.

The top three features by overall weighted score were the Search Optimizer, Audit Trail Agent, and Content Librarian. Conversely, respondents ranked features such as Demand Driver and Lead Enhancer among those with the lowest business value, indicating they may benefit from reframing, clearer use cases, or potential deprioritization.

Fact Finder and Role Master generated the most commentary, which will undoubtedly enhance our approach once we enter the planning phase.

A full report from the Drupal AI Survey will be released via a special webinar on 28th August.

Marketing strategy

A substantial segment was dedicated to evaluating the draft external communication and engagement strategy.

The core objectives of this strategy are twofold: Grow the Drupal AI audience by focusing on the specific AI challenges faced by particular industries, and retain existing customers by positioning Drupal AI as a strong motivator for continued Drupal use.

The Drupal AI Marketing Strategy acknowledges a shift in buyer persona from marketing to AI procurements with more oversight from IT leaders. Over half of AI solution purchases are now funded by central IT budgets and have a strong focus on return on investment (ROI).

The core messaging frames Drupal AI as "a framework to accelerate AI adoption" that allows users to "Integrate today’s best-in-class AI and experiment with tomorrow’s breakthroughs” within the freedom of an open-source ecosystem. The strategy will ensure Drupal AI strengthens Drupal’s longstanding commitment to transparency and robust governance.

With increasing support from Makers, marketing efforts can be expanded by incorporating team members from these organisations who bring the skills and expertise necessary to achieve our aspirational goals.

Rounding off 2 days of intensive meetings

Nothing compares to the sense of togetherness and energy that face-to-face gatherings provide. Being together sparked numerous aha moments and new ideas. Of course, in true Drupal fashion, the conversations went on well into the evening. So much progress was made.

We concluded with a shared sense of purpose, a clear direction, and renewed enthusiasm to advance Drupal AI ahead of DrupalCon Vienna, by which time we will have much to showcase. See you there?

Get involved with Drupal AI

We have a variety of webinars, events, training and ways to contribute. There are opportunities for individuals across a range of skill sets plus we encourage organisations to become Makers of Drupal AI via sponsorship.

Visit the Drupal AI Initiative homepage to find out more.

Photos: Paul Johnson

Drupal AI 1.2.0-alpha2 was released on the 13th of August and it comes with a lot of stability fixes and some new features. 

Note that since this is an alpha, we will not provide upgrade paths from this alpha and more features will still be added before the beta releases.

To discover more about Drupal AI and to access full documentation visit the project page.

Stability Fixes

The release takes us closer to a production release, by fixing a lot of bugs on the added features since the 1.2.0-alpha1 release and it fixes minor bugs on the features that already exist.

Views Automators Type

This new AI Automators type gives a whole set of new powers to AI Automators by making it possible to invoke Views from anywhere in your Automators Workflows.

This means that any content you can express in a view, the Automator can use to automate or make part of an editorial workflow.

The following scenarios are some of thousands of different workflows that you could create within minutes using the AI Automators due to this new type:

• You want to figure out not just what was the most commented articles last week, but you also want a short summary and semantic rating of if the comments were positive or negative for each article. You can now set that up in minutes.
• You want to have a related content block on your article, but you want it actually written in free text as a couple of sentences, how the linked content connects to the article you are reading now. You can now set that up in minutes.
• You want a weekly mail with quotes that touches a specific topic, filtered out from all the editorial content that was added last week. You can now set that up in minutes.

Field Widget Actions - now with more Automator Types and with improved accessibility 

The new Field Widget Actions module makes it possible to add interactive buttons on any entity form, to make it easy for editors to interact and fill out fields with AI from anywhere. With a push of a button you can have suggestions or picks - if you are not happy, you can push and ask again. This ensures that we can use AI to help the editor, but the editor has the final decision. 

We have now added so you can use select lists, numeric fields, e-mail fields and more using the Automators and Field Widget Actions.

Outside of that, the initial version lacked needed accessibility features, making it hard to be used by everyone. We have added fixes for this.

Fully flexible streamed response

Streaming has been a second class citizen up until now in the AI module. The problem with the architecture of PHP and how a streamed response works, made it hard to do things like logging, token counting, callbacks and other post streaming events.

This has now been alleviated and it's now possible to do all things that you can do in a normal response as a streamed response.

Better CKEditor experience

The AI CKEditor experience had a limited experience when using it with the text selection. We have now added improvements to how the plugin works when selecting text and using the AI CKEditor.

Normalized Token Usage

The token usage for chat clients has historically been represented as a raw value on the response, however now we have added normalization of token usage, meaning that any third party library that for instance wants to count usage costs or add usage limits now has the possibility to do this.

Work on such an module is already underway here. 

Thank you 

Thank you to the following contributors for your contributions:

marcus_johansson, leo pitt, bbruno, a.dmitriiev, mrdalesmith, anjaliprasannan, prashant.c, danielveza, sijumpk, johnpicozzi, bisonbleu, jayzalani34, sanket.tale, ishani patel, libbna, abhishek@kumar, kanchan bhogade, jofitz, sarvjeetsingh, techmantejas, project update bot, kristen pol, mgifford, ravimane23, prabha1997, annmarysruthy, valthebald, andrewbelcher, riyas_nr, murz, gxleano, aporie, sirclickalot, seogow, svendecabooter, breidert, dan2k3k4, akhil babu, michaellander, ralkeon, scott_euser, jurgenhaas, andypost, binoli lalani, nicholass, petar_basic, matthews, dunx

Thank you to the following organizations for supporting contribution:

• 1xINTERNET
• Acquia
• Amazee Labs
• amazee.io
• CivicActions
• Dropsolid
• drunomics
• Drupal India Association
• EPAM Systems
• European Commission and European Union Institutions, Agencies and Bodies
• FAB Web Studio
• Factorial GmbH
• FreelyGive
• Itty Bitty Byte
• jofitz
• LakeDrops
• Noble Services Scotland
• PreviousNext
• QED42
• Salsa Digital
• Sixeleven
• Skilld
• Soapbox
• Sven Decabooter
• SystemSeed
• Zoocha

Learn more about the Drupal AI Initiative and get involved

We have a variety of webinars, events and ways to get involved. There are opportunities for individuals across a range of skillsets plus we are keen to encourage organisations to become Makers of Drupal AI via sponsorship.

Visit the Drupal AI Initiative homepage to find out more.

The digital landscape continues to evolve, and artificial intelligence is now a present reality. The Drupal Association is excited to announce a focused approach to AI development within the Drupal ecosystem: the Drupal AI Initiative.

To ensure Drupal AI delivers a significant and strategic impact, we must move beyond traditional volunteer-based contribution models. We need a coordinated, highly dedicated effort to make sure we don’t miss the connection with the market. To build a powerful and competitive AI ecosystem for Drupal aligned with the community’s values, we need a professional team focused exclusively on this task.

Why is this needed?

We are accelerating Drupal AI innovation: Strategic initiatives like the Drupal AI initiative require consistent, dedicated effort that often exceeds the capacity of volunteer contributors.

If we are too slow, if we’re not coordinated, if we cannot ensure quality, Drupal will be left behind. An analogy we’re not used to in the U.S., “we need to take the bullet train, otherwise we will not arrive in time.”

In some ways, Drupal is ahead of many other CMS’s and other platforms. A scattershot approach in this environment will not put and keep Drupal in the lead. Nor will it do it in a manner consistent with our values of openness, innovation, and community benefit.

What are we doing?

The proposed path to success centers on creating a sustainable funding structure that compensates dedicated contributors for their work. This model is designed to attract sponsors by delivering immediate, tangible value through quick feature development and marketing, ultimately creating a self-sustaining cycle of innovation and investment.

The core of the strategy is to fund a team of full-time contributors to accelerate AI innovation within Drupal. Our goal is to secure approximately $400,000 - $500,000 USD each six months to fund a team of four to ten full-time contributors. To do this, we are working to attract 10-25 "Drupal AI Sponsors" with a proposed minimum sponsorship of $10,000 to $20,000, indexed to the size and country of the sponsoring company.

In addition to the financial contribution, Drupal AI Sponsors are expected to:

• Be a Drupal Certified Partner of the Drupal Association,
• Have been actively involved in the DrupalAI ecosystem prior to joining the program,
• Commit 1/2 or one FTE and provide proof of expertise of suggested FTEs, either by showing current contribution to the Drupal AI ecosystem or similar experience,
• Support the Drupal AI strategic roadmap to which your contributor will be directed.

Why are Leading Companies joining?

We’ve more than doubled the sponsoring companies: the five Founders and one Maker announced in June, FreelyGive, Acquia, 1xINTERNET, Dropsolid, Salsa Digital, and amazee.io, are being joined by: ImageX, Axelerant, QED42, Morpht, Joshi Consulting, Elevated Third, Zoocha, and SeeD EM.

These companies know that being part of the Drupal AI Initiative positions them strategically to:

• Win new business by offering cutting-edge AI-powered Drupal solutions.
• Increase visibility and recognition by being recognized as leaders in Drupal AI.
• Drive commercial opportunities, selling AI-driven projects and growing their business.
• Gain early market advantage with priority access to the latest Drupal AI features.
• Move Drupal forward at a faster pace and be part of this epic initiative.

How does it work?

We’re assembling a dedicated team of full-time Drupal AI contributors, funded through sponsorships tailored to your organization's size and region. Our inclusive sponsorship model ensures every company, large or small, can play a role:

• Drupal AI Sponsor (Silver & Gold): Commit funding and dedicated FTE contributors. In return, you receive extensive promotional opportunities, training access, roadmap influence, and market-ready AI tools ahead of your competition.
• Drupal AI Supporter: Commit funding with direct promotional benefits and early insight into Drupal AI developments.

This funding program creates a win-win scenario: you invest in Drupal’s AI future, and Drupal invests back in your business growth. Sponsors will also receive:

• Recognition as a Drupal AI Sponsor on the website and in marketing materials,
• Contribution credits,
• Access to all marketing materials for co-branded use,
• Early information about roadmaps and releases,
• Inclusion in the Early Access Program (This is new! More details below),
• Ability to suggest roadmap items, access to leads, and listing Sponsor services on product page available to Gold level sponsors.

What is the Early Access Program?

The Early Access Program is designed to accelerate the development of AI features for Drupal. It provides committed partner companies with early access to new AI capabilities before they are released to the broader Drupal community. This approach helps us innovate faster, deliver immediate value to our partners, and support the health of our community.

Participants of the Drupal AI Initiative will have early access to these specialized features. After a defined period, these features will be released as open-source contributions to the broader community.

Our Commitment to Transparency:

We are committed to transparency throughout this program. The Early Access program is designed to accelerate innovation while ensuring that all final developments eventually become fully available to the broader Drupal community. We will provide regular updates on our progress, keeping the community informed.

Looking Forward: AI That Reflects Our Values

The Early Access program represents a practical evolution of open-source collaboration, one that acknowledges market realities while preserving our core values of openness, innovation, and community benefit. By guiding AI development within the Drupal ecosystem, we ensure these powerful tools enhance human creativity, maintain user agency, and remain safely accessible to all.

The future of Drupal is AI-powered, community-driven, and built on the values that have made us strong.

If your company is interested in participating, please submit the Become an AI Maker form on the Drupal AI page.

Last week’s Drupal AI webinar, Choosing the Right AI Tools for Content and Marketing, brought together a global audience and a powerhouse panel. Jamie Abrahams, Alan Botwright, and Matthew Saunders spoke while being moderated by Paul Johnson. Together, we tackled pressing topics facing digital leaders: how to harness AI to deliver real marketing value without getting lost in hype or hamstrung by complexity.

The webinar attracted attendees from more than 20 countries and nearly 80 participants at its peak. This session wasn’t a technical demo. It was an honest conversation about challenges of implementing AI in today’s constrained marketing landscape.

Paul started the conversation by framing the discussion with some statistics. Budgets are under pressure.

Gartner released a report indicating that marketing budgets have dropped to around 7.7% of company revenue, down from 11% in pre-COVID days and this is looking to be the new normal. Combined with that, expectations are rising. Boards want more measurable results, greater efficiency and faster delivery. So everyone needs to do more with less. 59% of CMOs have insufficient budget to execute their strategies and most of them are looking towards AI to have as a possible lever to address this gap or at least try and bridge it. But there are real risks here. Teams are often starting with the technology and then going looking for problems to solve with that technology and that rarely delivers value and often leads to stalled initiatives. How do you help your clients avoid this solution-first mindset and what does a more structured problem-led approach look like in real marketing environments?

– Paul Johnson

Highlights & Key Insights

1. Start with the Why, not the Tool

Too many teams jump into AI with a solution-first mindset. The panel pushed hard against that.

You need to understand the whats and whys before you start tackling the hows.

– Matthew Saunders

We stressed the importance of identifying repetitive, data-heavy, and feedback-loop-dependent processes. Things like content review gates or asset tagging as the most valuable opportunities for automation.

2. AI is not Magic, It’s Smart Math

Jamie framed Large Language Models (LLMs) not as creative geniuses, but as very good pattern recognizers. They’re more “clever librarians” than original thinkers.

LLMs are not doing reasoning in the human sense, they’re more like an extremely good search engine of human knowledge.

– Jamie Abrahams

Expecting them to invent breakthrough creative or strategy will leave you disappointed. But as support for summarising, filtering, and speeding up content workflows? They become an efficiency booster.

3. Human-in-the-Loop is Non-Negotiable

AI isn’t a replacement for people, it’s a partner. Matthew walked through a mini case study where AI was used to aid in brand guideline compliance audit, reduce SLA reporting times by 80%, and streamline asset pipelines. But in every case, humans remained in control.

We never removed people from the loop. The AI was an assistant, not an overlord.

– Matthew Saunders

This framing, AI as a force multiplier, resonated across the panel. Alan added:

You can never spend too much time framing the problem. Once that’s clear, everything else starts to fall into place.

– Alan Botwright

Jamie suggested that human soft-skills are going to be increasingly important and that those with educational backgrounds not grounded in computer science might adapt more quickly.

People with psychology or literature backgrounds often adapt to AI tools faster than engineers. Soft skills are a real superpower here.

– Jamie Abrahams

4. Data Sovereignty Matters

The team then tackled one of the biggest blockers to enterprise adoption: where does your data go?

If you’re using a public LLM, your data is not private. Full stop.

– Matthew Saunders

The options? Either host your own (complex, but sovereign) or work with a trusted provider who can guarantee control over data storage and model access.

5. Cost Isn’t Just About Tokens

Licensing, training, integrations, governance, and internal change management all add up. Matthew suggested teams run a “pre-mortem”:

Ask: a year from now, this AI rollout failed. Why? Map every reason—and you’ll surface the hidden costs before they become real.

– Matthew Saunders

Jamie added that the best outcomes come from constrained agents and narrowly scoped tasks. Not sprawling generalist bots.

If you make your agent or LLM do as little as possible, it’s much more likely to get it right.

– Jamie Abrahams

6. Open Source + Drupal = Strategic Advantage

When asked why Drupal AI matters and what it means to organizations, the panelists had quite a bit to say:

You can build and demo an end-to-end AI prototype in 5 minutes on Drupal. No other open platform gives you that kind of agility.

– Matthew Saunders

This isn’t just a tech shift—it’s a change program. Trust, communication, and alignment across teams are critical to success.

– Alan Botwright

Drupal’s built-in abstraction layers mean you can swap models, switch providers, and adapt as the AI landscape evolves—without rearchitecting everything.

Final Thoughts

This was a real-world conversation grounded in experience: how to launch, govern, scale, and sustain AI in environments with limited budget, complex regulation, and high user expectations.

If you missed the session or want to share it with your team, the full recording is available here:

https://youtu.be/thCrVYlw1Bk

Got questions or want to connect around Drupal AI or implementation strategies? Drop by the Drupal AI Slack channel or check out the Drupal AI LinkedIn page.

Visit the Drupal AI Initiative home page to learn about upcoming webinars, training and events.