Guest blog post by Angie Forson, Web and Digital Programme Lead, Southwark Council.

The Web and Digital team at Southwark Council, along with our partners at Chicken, is building an AI-powered PDF importer for the LocalGov Drupal Publication Module. Together, we’re unlocking a faster, more accessible, and more collaborative future for publishing. 

Why this matters 

Manual PDF conversion can take hours – sometimes days. With our importer, it happens in minutes – often under one minute. Multiply that across thousands of PDFs, and the time savings are game-changing. 

I’m excited about the impact this product will have — not just for our users, but also in transforming how we design, build, and create content internally. We’re shaping a future where services start with HTML-first thinking.

Evelyn Francourt, User Experience Lead 

Understanding the workflow 

We upload a PDF to the module, which will then kick-start the importing process in the background.  

The result is the HTML representation of the PDF content, which is then saved into a Drupal Publication. We can then review and publish the Publication.  

Each import process is logged so that any errors can be reviewed and fixed. 

How the technology works 

Each PDF goes through a three-step ETL process, called an “import pipeline” in the module: 

1. Extract: A PDF parser pulls content from the PDF. The default is the smalot PDF parser. 
2. Transform: The parsed content is AI converts it to properly tagged HTML with logical pagination. Currently the module uses Claude Sonnet. 
3. Save: Clean HTML pages ready to publish in Drupal 

Built for flexibility 

We can build as many import pipelines as needed, each with its own custom AI prompt. Useful for things like handling different types of PDF content or layout.

Furthermore, the pipeline uses a plugin architecture, where each step can be swapped out. Councils can use different extractors, AI models, or output to different Drupal content types to suit their needs. 

This project is a great example of AI working alongside and empowering content creators, and Drupal as a platform supports this really well.

Farez Rahman, Drupal Developer 

Agile, user-centred delivery 

We’re delivering this project the way we deliver our best work – agile and user-centred by design.  
 
We have adapted our delivery to meet the challenges of innovation design. Our team has had to continuously refine requirements and acceptance criteria to ensure the tool meets real user needs and delivers meaningful outcomes.  

Working on this AI product is an incredible experience — each day comes with new challenges, unexpected turns, and fresh opportunities to innovate. The pace of change made the whole process an absolute adrenaline rush.

Giorgi Bujiashvili, Delivery Manager

What we’ve achieved so far 

As Chicken fast-tracks development, we’ve been testing and refining prompts across a wide range of PDFs to prove what’s possible: 

• import images, URLs and linked text 
• rebuild tables with correct HTML tags 
• apply accurate heading hierarchies (H1, H2, H3) 
• remove unwanted hard returns from PDF text

We’ve also cracked the pagination challenge. Early versions mirrored PDFs page-by-page, causing awkward breaks mid-paragraph or mid-list. Now the importer processes the entire document at once and, with the right AI prompt, inserts page breaks at logical user-friendly points such as topic changes or new sections.   

Built with (and for) the community 

This project has been co-designed with content designers, developers, and the LocalGov Drupal community.

Together, we’re shaping a scalable, open-source tool that other councils can adopt, adapt, and improve.

Angie Forson, Web and Digital Programme Lead 

A leap forward in accessible publishing 

The AI PDF Importer isn’t just a tool – it’s a step change in accessible, open-source publishing for local government. Following this release, it will be open and shareable with the LocalGov Drupal community for other councils to adopt and iterate. 

If you’re interested in supporting or scaling this project, contact Angie Forson – Angie.Forson@southwark.gov.uk. Let’s change the game together.

Guest blog post by Angie Forson, Web and Digital Programme Lead, Southwark Council.

The Web and Digital team at Southwark Council, along with our partners at Chicken, is building an AI-powered PDF importer for the LocalGov Drupal Publication Module. Together, we’re unlocking a faster, more accessible, and more collaborative future for publishing. 

Why this matters 

Manual PDF conversion can take hours – sometimes days. With our importer, it happens in minutes – often under one minute. Multiply that across thousands of PDFs, and the time savings are game-changing. 

I’m excited about the impact this product will have — not just for our users, but also in transforming how we design, build, and create content internally. We’re shaping a future where services start with HTML-first thinking.

Evelyn Francourt, User Experience Lead 

Understanding the workflow 

We upload a PDF to the module, which will then kick-start the importing process in the background.  

The result is the HTML representation of the PDF content, which is then saved into a Drupal Publication. We can then review and publish the Publication.  

Each import process is logged so that any errors can be reviewed and fixed. 

How the technology works 

Each PDF goes through a three-step ETL process, called an “import pipeline” in the module: 

1. Extract: A PDF parser pulls content from the PDF. The default is the smalot PDF parser. 
2. Transform: The parsed content is AI converts it to properly tagged HTML with logical pagination. Currently the module uses Claude Sonnet. 
3. Save: Clean HTML pages ready to publish in Drupal 

Built for flexibility 

We can build as many import pipelines as needed, each with its own custom AI prompt. Useful for things like handling different types of PDF content or layout.

Furthermore, the pipeline uses a plugin architecture, where each step can be swapped out. Councils can use different extractors, AI models, or output to different Drupal content types to suit their needs. 

This project is a great example of AI working alongside and empowering content creators, and Drupal as a platform supports this really well.

Farez Rahman, Drupal Developer 

Agile, user-centred delivery 

We’re delivering this project the way we deliver our best work – agile and user-centred by design.  
 
We have adapted our delivery to meet the challenges of innovation design. Our team has had to continuously refine requirements and acceptance criteria to ensure the tool meets real user needs and delivers meaningful outcomes.  

Working on this AI product is an incredible experience — each day comes with new challenges, unexpected turns, and fresh opportunities to innovate. The pace of change made the whole process an absolute adrenaline rush.

Giorgi Bujiashvili, Delivery Manager

What we’ve achieved so far 

As Chicken fast-tracks development, we’ve been testing and refining prompts across a wide range of PDFs to prove what’s possible: 

• import images, URLs and linked text 
• rebuild tables with correct HTML tags 
• apply accurate heading hierarchies (H1, H2, H3) 
• remove unwanted hard returns from PDF text

We’ve also cracked the pagination challenge. Early versions mirrored PDFs page-by-page, causing awkward breaks mid-paragraph or mid-list. Now the importer processes the entire document at once and, with the right AI prompt, inserts page breaks at logical user-friendly points such as topic changes or new sections.   

Built with (and for) the community 

This project has been co-designed with content designers, developers, and the LocalGov Drupal community.

Together, we’re shaping a scalable, open-source tool that other councils can adopt, adapt, and improve.

Angie Forson, Web and Digital Programme Lead 

A leap forward in accessible publishing 

The AI PDF Importer isn’t just a tool – it’s a step change in accessible, open-source publishing for local government. Following this release, it will be open and shareable with the LocalGov Drupal community for other councils to adopt and iterate. 

If you’re interested in supporting or scaling this project, contact Angie Forson – Angie.Forson@southwark.gov.uk. Let’s change the game together.

The Women in Drupal Award sponsored by JAKALA, returned this year to honour and celebrate the outstanding achievements of women making remarkable contributions to the global Drupal community. The award, presented during the prestigious DrupalCon Vienna 2025 opening ceremony, recognises women who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, innovation, and impact within one of the world’s most influential open-source ecosystems.

Created by JAKALA, with the mission of amplifying women’s voices in technology, the Women in Drupal Award highlights three core values that reflect the essence of the Drupal community: Inspire, Connect, and Empower. The award has three categories to celebrate women who embody these principles through their work as developers, designers, mentors, advocates, and community builders.

Every story shared through the Women in Drupal Award reminds us why diversity matters—it changes how we think, build, and collaborate. Supporting this initiative is both a privilege and a responsibility, one that aligns deeply with JAKALA’s purpose of creating meaningful impact through technology.

— Kitt Ralkov, Managing Director, Experience, HR & Marketing at JAKALA

This year’s honourees were recognised for their outstanding contributions to Drupal and the wider tech community:

• Define Award – Emma Horrell
  Honoured for her leadership in shaping digital strategy and defining inclusive, impactful solutions that set the direction for successful Drupal projects.
• Build Award – Sinduri Guntupalli
  Recognised for her hands-on innovation, exceptional technical expertise, and commitment to creating robust and scalable Drupal solutions.
• Scale Award – Jess (xjm)
  Celebrated for her ability to grow teams, communities, and projects—amplifying the reach of Drupal across industries and empowering others along the way.

JAKALA created the Women in Drupal award to ensure that women’s stories and successes in technology are visible and celebrated. With Drupal powering millions of websites worldwide, the community’s ongoing efforts toward gender inclusion reflect a broader movement across open source: making technology more welcoming and equitable for everyone.

You have to get through the impostor syndrome. The community is super welcoming.

said Emma Horrell, one of this year’s recipients.

JAKALA is the official sponsor of the Women in Drupal Award since its inception four years ago. As a long-standing supporter of diversity and inclusion in technology, JAKLA ensured the award could reach a global audience and showcase some of the incredible talent in the Drupal community. Through its commitment to equity and innovation, JAKALA continues to help shape a more inclusive future for open source communities worldwide.

In the end, I mostly wanted to give back to the community.

said Sinduri Guntupalli.

The ceremony has become a highlight of DrupalCon. Beyond the award itself, the wider Women in Drupal initiative fosters mentorship programs, networking opportunities, and global visibility for women working in Drupal and open source.

I was intimidated by core contribution but very friendly members of the community came to me

said Jess (xjm).

The Women in Drupal Award is supported by the Drupal Association and leading organisations across the industry. Together, they aim to build a more inclusive, diverse, and forward-looking community, one that reflects the world it serves.

About Women in Drupal

Women in Drupal is a community-driven initiative dedicated to celebrating, supporting, and empowering women in the Drupal ecosystem. Through events, mentorship, and recognition, the program fosters inclusion and encourages greater participation and leadership in open source.

The Women in Drupal Award sponsored by JAKALA, returned this year to honour and celebrate the outstanding achievements of women making remarkable contributions to the global Drupal community. The award, presented during the prestigious DrupalCon Vienna 2025 opening ceremony, recognises women who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, innovation, and impact within one of the world’s most influential open-source ecosystems.

Created by JAKALA, with the mission of amplifying women’s voices in technology, the Women in Drupal Award highlights three core values that reflect the essence of the Drupal community: Inspire, Connect, and Empower. The award has three categories to celebrate women who embody these principles through their work as developers, designers, mentors, advocates, and community builders.

Every story shared through the Women in Drupal Award reminds us why diversity matters—it changes how we think, build, and collaborate. Supporting this initiative is both a privilege and a responsibility, one that aligns deeply with JAKALA’s purpose of creating meaningful impact through technology.

— Kitt Ralkov, Managing Director, Experience, HR & Marketing at JAKALA

This year’s honourees were recognised for their outstanding contributions to Drupal and the wider tech community:

• Define Award – Emma Horrell
  Honoured for her leadership in shaping digital strategy and defining inclusive, impactful solutions that set the direction for successful Drupal projects.
• Build Award – Sinduri Guntupalli
  Recognised for her hands-on innovation, exceptional technical expertise, and commitment to creating robust and scalable Drupal solutions.
• Scale Award – Jess (xjm)
  Celebrated for her ability to grow teams, communities, and projects—amplifying the reach of Drupal across industries and empowering others along the way.

JAKALA created the Women in Drupal award to ensure that women’s stories and successes in technology are visible and celebrated. With Drupal powering millions of websites worldwide, the community’s ongoing efforts toward gender inclusion reflect a broader movement across open source: making technology more welcoming and equitable for everyone.

You have to get through the impostor syndrome. The community is super welcoming.

said Emma Horrell, one of this year’s recipients.

JAKALA is the official sponsor of the Women in Drupal Award since its inception four years ago. As a long-standing supporter of diversity and inclusion in technology, JAKLA ensured the award could reach a global audience and showcase some of the incredible talent in the Drupal community. Through its commitment to equity and innovation, JAKALA continues to help shape a more inclusive future for open source communities worldwide.

In the end, I mostly wanted to give back to the community.

said Sinduri Guntupalli.

The ceremony has become a highlight of DrupalCon. Beyond the award itself, the wider Women in Drupal initiative fosters mentorship programs, networking opportunities, and global visibility for women working in Drupal and open source.

I was intimidated by core contribution but very friendly members of the community came to me

said Jess (xjm).

The Women in Drupal Award is supported by the Drupal Association and leading organisations across the industry. Together, they aim to build a more inclusive, diverse, and forward-looking community, one that reflects the world it serves.

About Women in Drupal

Women in Drupal is a community-driven initiative dedicated to celebrating, supporting, and empowering women in the Drupal ecosystem. Through events, mentorship, and recognition, the program fosters inclusion and encourages greater participation and leadership in open source.

This is the first in a series of blog posts where we have invited organisations from across the Drupal ecosystem to share their experiences and insights on how they are using Drupal AI in their work. If your organisation is innovating with Drupal AI, we would be delighted to feature you in a future post.

Witze Van der Straeten is a Front-End Web Development student at Arteveldehogeschool in Belgium. In this post, he shares how discovering Drupal has completely changed the way he thinks about design, development, and community.

Discovering Drupal

Before my internship, I had actually never heard of Drupal. At school, we learned about other CMSs, but Drupal was only briefly mentioned, we never explored it in depth. During my search for an internship, I connected with the owner of Calibrate, who was immediately enthusiastic and invited me to join the team.

By coincidence, my first week at Calibrate aligned with Drupal Dev Days Leuven. It is a community event full of talks, contributions, and collaboration.

From the moment I walked in, I noticed how welcoming everyone was. People came up to me, asked about my background, and shared their own stories. It was clear that this wasn’t just a CMS, it was a community of people who genuinely care.

Dries Buytaert held a Q&A, and I was impressed by how open and democratic the whole ecosystem felt. There wasn’t a “boss” giving orders — it was a team of people building something together, guided by shared passion.

The evening events were just as memorable: games, group activities, and spontaneous gatherings where 30 people ended up sharing a table full of laughter and ideas.

By the end of the week, I knew — this is where I belong.

Learning and Experimenting

Back at my internship, I started with the basics, completing the Acquia training videos and building a small site.
As a front-end developer, I quickly realized I wanted more creative freedom. That’s when a colleague introduced me to Single Directory Components (SDCs). It's a new approach that made the front-end feel more modern and modular. I immediately loved it.

Later, my mentor suggested I explore something even newer: MCP servers. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an emerging standard that allows AI tools to communicate with each other.

I found a Figma MCP server, and since I was already familiar with Figma from school, I started experimenting. I connected it with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code, and the first time I saw a Figma component appear in my editor, I knew this could save a lot of time.

At first, I wasn’t sure how to make it work in Drupal and especially with Twig files and SDCs. But the more I tested, the more it made sense. Eventually, I managed to make a designed Figma component appear on a Drupal site in just minutes — something that used to take hours.

I showed it to my team at Calibrate, who found it very interesting, but since it was experimental, we decided to pause the exploration for a while.

Creating the Figma-to-Drupal Tutorial

A few months later, I had to create a tutorial for a school project on Drupal and AI. Naturally, I knew what I wanted to write about — the Figma-to-Drupal workflow.

My goal was to make something clear and practical, especially for people who had never touched Drupal or MCPs before. I wanted anyone to follow the tutorial and realize how powerful Drupal could be when combined with design tools and AI.

After finishing, I shared the tutorial in the Drupal Slack community, and the response was amazing. People commented, shared ideas, and even added me on LinkedIn to discuss it further.

You can explore Figma-to-Drupal tutorial here.

Two lead developers from UI Suite reached out with great feedback that helped me refine the workflow. Then I received a message from Paul Johnson, who encouraged me to share my story — which is why I’m writing this blog today. 

Collaborating with Dries and Canvas AI

One day, I received a message from Dries Buytaert himself:

Hey Witze, the Figma-to-Drupal idea sounds cool. Do you happen to have a short demo video of it?

I sent him my demo right away. Dries replied that there was still too much manual work involved, and he wondered if we could integrate it with Canvas AI, an AI-powered development tool that’s part of the Drupal ecosystem.

Of course, when Dries asks, you experiment! We started exchanging ideas about how to automate parts of the workflow with Canvas AI, and suddenly I was collaborating with the founder of Drupal himself.

I never expected someone so busy to spend that much time helping a student. That experience showed me once again how exceptional this community is — not just technically, but personally.

By the way you can see how this work is going, it was featured on stage at DrupalCon Vienna presented by Dries himself!

So, thank you, Dries!

What We’re Working On

Right now, we’re exploring how to make this integration more stable and impactful.

The goal is to simplify the journey from design to Drupal implementation — reducing repetitive steps and empowering front-end developers to work faster and smarter.

It’s still early, and there are bugs to fix, but I truly believe this could become something big. With a strong community like Drupal’s, we can lead the way in how AI transforms web development.

I’m also in touch with Dries about whether this could be mentioned in the DriesNote, which would be an incredible opportunity.

See You in Vienna

I’m attending DrupalCon Vienna, and I’d love to connect with anyone exploring AI, Figma, or front-end innovation in Drupal.

If you’re curious or want to collaborate, feel free to reach out — I’m always open to new ideas!

Reflections on My Journey

Looking back, Drupal has changed more than just how I code — it changed how I think.

I’ve learned that open source isn’t about software alone. It’s about people — listening, sharing, and building something together that’s bigger than any one of us.

To other students or newcomers reading this

Don’t be afraid to get involved. Even if you feel inexperienced, your ideas matter. This community will welcome you, just as it welcomed me.

This is the first in a series of blog posts where we have invited organisations from across the Drupal ecosystem to share their experiences and insights on how they are using Drupal AI in their work. If your organisation is innovating with Drupal AI, we would be delighted to feature you in a future post.

Witze Van der Straeten is a Front-End Web Development student at Arteveldehogeschool in Belgium. In this post, he shares how discovering Drupal has completely changed the way he thinks about design, development, and community.

Discovering Drupal

Before my internship, I had actually never heard of Drupal. At school, we learned about other CMSs, but Drupal was only briefly mentioned, we never explored it in depth. During my search for an internship, I connected with the owner of Calibrate, who was immediately enthusiastic and invited me to join the team.

By coincidence, my first week at Calibrate aligned with Drupal Dev Days Leuven. It is a community event full of talks, contributions, and collaboration.

From the moment I walked in, I noticed how welcoming everyone was. People came up to me, asked about my background, and shared their own stories. It was clear that this wasn’t just a CMS, it was a community of people who genuinely care.

Dries Buytaert held a Q&A, and I was impressed by how open and democratic the whole ecosystem felt. There wasn’t a “boss” giving orders — it was a team of people building something together, guided by shared passion.

The evening events were just as memorable: games, group activities, and spontaneous gatherings where 30 people ended up sharing a table full of laughter and ideas.

By the end of the week, I knew — this is where I belong.

Learning and Experimenting

Back at my internship, I started with the basics, completing the Acquia training videos and building a small site.
As a front-end developer, I quickly realized I wanted more creative freedom. That’s when a colleague introduced me to Single Directory Components (SDCs). It's a new approach that made the front-end feel more modern and modular. I immediately loved it.

Later, my mentor suggested I explore something even newer: MCP servers. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an emerging standard that allows AI tools to communicate with each other.

I found a Figma MCP server, and since I was already familiar with Figma from school, I started experimenting. I connected it with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code, and the first time I saw a Figma component appear in my editor, I knew this could save a lot of time.

At first, I wasn’t sure how to make it work in Drupal and especially with Twig files and SDCs. But the more I tested, the more it made sense. Eventually, I managed to make a designed Figma component appear on a Drupal site in just minutes — something that used to take hours.

I showed it to my team at Calibrate, who found it very interesting, but since it was experimental, we decided to pause the exploration for a while.

Creating the Figma-to-Drupal Tutorial

A few months later, I had to create a tutorial for a school project on Drupal and AI. Naturally, I knew what I wanted to write about — the Figma-to-Drupal workflow.

My goal was to make something clear and practical, especially for people who had never touched Drupal or MCPs before. I wanted anyone to follow the tutorial and realize how powerful Drupal could be when combined with design tools and AI.

After finishing, I shared the tutorial in the Drupal Slack community, and the response was amazing. People commented, shared ideas, and even added me on LinkedIn to discuss it further.

You can explore Figma-to-Drupal tutorial here.

Two lead developers from UI Suite reached out with great feedback that helped me refine the workflow. Then I received a message from Paul Johnson, who encouraged me to share my story — which is why I’m writing this blog today. 

Collaborating with Dries and Canvas AI

One day, I received a message from Dries Buytaert himself:

Hey Witze, the Figma-to-Drupal idea sounds cool. Do you happen to have a short demo video of it?

I sent him my demo right away. Dries replied that there was still too much manual work involved, and he wondered if we could integrate it with Canvas AI, an AI-powered development tool that’s part of the Drupal ecosystem.

Of course, when Dries asks, you experiment! We started exchanging ideas about how to automate parts of the workflow with Canvas AI, and suddenly I was collaborating with the founder of Drupal himself.

I never expected someone so busy to spend that much time helping a student. That experience showed me once again how exceptional this community is — not just technically, but personally.

By the way you can see how this work is going, it was featured on stage at DrupalCon Vienna presented by Dries himself!

So, thank you, Dries!

What We’re Working On

Right now, we’re exploring how to make this integration more stable and impactful.

The goal is to simplify the journey from design to Drupal implementation — reducing repetitive steps and empowering front-end developers to work faster and smarter.

It’s still early, and there are bugs to fix, but I truly believe this could become something big. With a strong community like Drupal’s, we can lead the way in how AI transforms web development.

I’m also in touch with Dries about whether this could be mentioned in the DriesNote, which would be an incredible opportunity.

See You in Vienna

I’m attending DrupalCon Vienna, and I’d love to connect with anyone exploring AI, Figma, or front-end innovation in Drupal.

If you’re curious or want to collaborate, feel free to reach out — I’m always open to new ideas!

Reflections on My Journey

Looking back, Drupal has changed more than just how I code — it changed how I think.

I’ve learned that open source isn’t about software alone. It’s about people — listening, sharing, and building something together that’s bigger than any one of us.

To other students or newcomers reading this

Don’t be afraid to get involved. Even if you feel inexperienced, your ideas matter. This community will welcome you, just as it welcomed me.

The International Splash Awards 2025 concluded today during DrupalCon Europe in Vienna, celebrating the world’s most outstanding Drupal projects, agencies, and developers. The annual awards recognize excellence in design, innovation, technical achievement, and community impact across a range of categories.

Now in its third edition, the International Splash Awards attracted a record number of submissions from across the globe. A distinguished jury of independent experts in web design, user experience, open source development, and digital strategy evaluated entries across criteria including concept, execution, emotional appeal, accessibility, performance, and social relevance.

Winners & Highlights

Commerce

• Winner: BikeAlert B2B Platform by E-sepia Web Innovation
• Runner-up: Occhio - Digital Experience Platform for an international design brand by Factorial GmbH

Corporate

• Winner: Maggi.de - Successful repositioning by 1xINTERNET GmbH
• Runner-up: Relaunching Dole - A global brand dedicated to delivering healthy produce by Factorial GmbH

Design / UX

• Winner: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich - Swiss Design Meets Digital Progress by Liip AG
• Runner-up: Relaunching Dole - A global brand dedicated to delivering healthy produce by Factorial GmbH

Education & Social / Community

• Winner: DAISIE - Digital operation system for TelefonSeelsorge by Factorial GmbH
• Runner-up: Setting a New Standard: How Drupal Powers Shanghai American School’s Digital Future by ImageX

Government & Public Services / Healthcare

• Winner: Switzerland: Canton of Basel-Stadt - Public information truly centred on its users by Liip AG
• Runner-up: Examenblad.nl & Examenbladmbo.nl - College voor Toetsen en Examens by Swis

Non-profit

• Winner: World Cancer Day - United by Unique by 1xINTERNET GmbH
• Runner-up: DAISIE - Digital operation system for TelefonSeelsorge by Factorial GmbH

Tools / Apps

• Winner: mossbo - The Innovative Cloud CMS Ecosystem with AI-Features by drunomics
• Runner-up: DrupalFit - A Lightweight AI-Powered Tool for 360° Audits and Continuous Compliance by DrupalFit (OpenSense Labs)

Impact & Community

The International Splash Awards serve not only to honor outstanding work but also to inspire collaboration, share best practices, and elevate the broader Drupal ecosystem. Over time, many awardees have contributed back to the community through open source modules, conference talks, training, and mentorship.

Supporting organizations and sponsors played a key role in making this year’s event possible, offering financial, logistical, and promotional support. Their involvement underscores the importance of recognizing digital excellence in open-source technologies.

Looking Ahead: 2026 & Beyond

With the 2025 edition now behind us, the Splash Awards organizers are already planning for 2026 and beyond. As Drupal evolves and the demands on digital platforms grow ever more complex, the Awards intend to broaden their reach, add new categories (e.g. AI, data privacy, sustainability), and deepen their engagement with designers, developers, and clients globally.

Submissions for International Splash Awards 2026 will be announced in a few months, stay in touch and don’t miss an opportunity to participate in this amazing event.

About International Splash Awards

The International Splash Awards is an independent, global awards program that highlights exceptional Drupal-powered websites, applications, and digital solutions. Its mission is to recognize creativity, technical excellence, and social impact within the Drupal and open-source communities.

For more information about categories, submission guidelines, jury members, and past winners, visit https://splashawards.org/.

The International Splash Awards 2025 concluded today during DrupalCon Europe in Vienna, celebrating the world’s most outstanding Drupal projects, agencies, and developers. The annual awards recognize excellence in design, innovation, technical achievement, and community impact across a range of categories.

Now in its third edition, the International Splash Awards attracted a record number of submissions from across the globe. A distinguished jury of independent experts in web design, user experience, open source development, and digital strategy evaluated entries across criteria including concept, execution, emotional appeal, accessibility, performance, and social relevance.

Winners & Highlights

Commerce

• Winner: BikeAlert B2B Platform by E-sepia Web Innovation
• Runner-up: Occhio - Digital Experience Platform for an international design brand by Factorial GmbH

Corporate

• Winner: Maggi.de - Successful repositioning by 1xINTERNET GmbH
• Runner-up: Relaunching Dole - A global brand dedicated to delivering healthy produce by Factorial GmbH

Design / UX

• Winner: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich - Swiss Design Meets Digital Progress by Liip AG
• Runner-up: Relaunching Dole - A global brand dedicated to delivering healthy produce by Factorial GmbH

Education & Social / Community

• Winner: DAISIE - Digital operation system for TelefonSeelsorge by Factorial GmbH
• Runner-up: Setting a New Standard: How Drupal Powers Shanghai American School’s Digital Future by ImageX

Government & Public Services / Healthcare

• Winner: Switzerland: Canton of Basel-Stadt - Public information truly centred on its users by Liip AG
• Runner-up: Examenblad.nl & Examenbladmbo.nl - College voor Toetsen en Examens by Swis

Non-profit

• Winner: World Cancer Day - United by Unique by 1xINTERNET GmbH
• Runner-up: DAISIE - Digital operation system for TelefonSeelsorge by Factorial GmbH

Tools / Apps

• Winner: mossbo - The Innovative Cloud CMS Ecosystem with AI-Features by drunomics
• Runner-up: DrupalFit - A Lightweight AI-Powered Tool for 360° Audits and Continuous Compliance by DrupalFit (OpenSense Labs)

Impact & Community

The International Splash Awards serve not only to honor outstanding work but also to inspire collaboration, share best practices, and elevate the broader Drupal ecosystem. Over time, many awardees have contributed back to the community through open source modules, conference talks, training, and mentorship.

Supporting organizations and sponsors played a key role in making this year’s event possible, offering financial, logistical, and promotional support. Their involvement underscores the importance of recognizing digital excellence in open-source technologies.

Looking Ahead: 2026 & Beyond

With the 2025 edition now behind us, the Splash Awards organizers are already planning for 2026 and beyond. As Drupal evolves and the demands on digital platforms grow ever more complex, the Awards intend to broaden their reach, add new categories (e.g. AI, data privacy, sustainability), and deepen their engagement with designers, developers, and clients globally.

Submissions for International Splash Awards 2026 will be announced in a few months, stay in touch and don’t miss an opportunity to participate in this amazing event.

About International Splash Awards

The International Splash Awards is an independent, global awards program that highlights exceptional Drupal-powered websites, applications, and digital solutions. Its mission is to recognize creativity, technical excellence, and social impact within the Drupal and open-source communities.

For more information about categories, submission guidelines, jury members, and past winners, visit https://splashawards.org/.

Join us THURSDAY, October 16 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)

We don't have anything specific on the agenda this month, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits. Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google document!

All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.

This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone.

Information on joining the meeting can be found in our collaborative Google document.

Join us THURSDAY, October 16 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)

We don't have anything specific on the agenda this month, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits. Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google document!

All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.

This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone.

Information on joining the meeting can be found in our collaborative Google document.

In June, we set an ambitious goal: to raise 1 million dollars to accelerate the Drupal AI initiative. Today at DrupalCon Vienna, Dries Buytaert announced that we have achieved that goal. Remarkably, it took just five months.

This is by far the single greatest fundraising effort ever seen in the history of Drupal. It positions us well to win the race in AI.

Dries Buytaert

This marks the largest fundraising effort in Drupal’s history, driven by the commitment of our expanding group of AI Makers. The funding model combines financial contributions with a commitment to provide full-time staff who actively contribute to Drupal AI development.

With the addition of six new organisations — Pronovix, Pantheon, OpenSense Labs, Vardot, Foster Interactive, and Esinergia — the total number of Makers now stands at 22. Their involvement was instrumental in reaching the 1 million dollar target.

We met with Dominic De Cooman who leads the fundraising for the Drupal AI Initative to get the inside track on why this funding is so vital and what it will be used for.

Who are the latest Makers, and why is their support so important at this stage?

This support is vital because it enables a dedicated team, guided by increased capacity in management roles, to develop solutions that deliver tangible value for organisations across the Drupal ecosystem.

Why have so many prominent Drupal companies chosen to join in this phase?

Drupal is inherently designed for AI, and organisations are acutely aware of both the opportunities and challenges this presents. Companies are seeking to reinvent themselves as AI-powered agencies and platform providers. The Drupal AI initiative accelerates this transformation. Establishing Drupal as the leading AI-powered CMS is essential for the shared success of the ecosystem.

What was the overarching vision guiding this new round of sponsorship for Drupal AI?

The vision is to establish Drupal as the number one AI-powered CMS globally, while enabling our community and businesses to adapt and thrive in the AI era.

Explain how the funding is split between financial resources and FTE commitments, and why FTEs are critical.

• $240,000 is allocated to manage the team, ensuring delivery and accountability.
• Six full-time equivalent (FTE) staff members are committed to executing the work.

FTEs are crucial because they provide consistent, focused effort, ensuring progress is sustained for the long term.

What tangible outcomes are expected from this funding in the short to medium term?

The funding will support a professional approach to innovation and product development. An RFP will be announced later this week, inviting Makers to participate and contribute to this work.

How will this funding accelerate AI capabilities within the Drupal ecosystem?

With dedicated resources for innovation and product development, solutions can be delivered faster and with higher quality than would be possible relying solely on volunteer efforts.

How does this funding model support long-term sustainability rather than short-term project boosts?

The six-month commitment ensures sustained access to first-hand information and practical AI “recipes.” By building a library of AI knowledge and tools, we aim to create a flywheel effect, encouraging long-term contribution from the community. Success will depend on how effectively we utilise the funds over the coming months, which is why the RFP process is a critical next step.

How can my agency or organisation join the initiative as a maker?

You can find out all about how to become a maker on our dedicated page.

If you are at DrupalCon Domininque De Cooman would love to meet you. You can also reach him on Drupal Slack.

In June, we set an ambitious goal: to raise 1 million dollars to accelerate the Drupal AI initiative. Today at DrupalCon Vienna, Dries Buytaert announced that we have achieved that goal. Remarkably, it took just five months.

This is by far the single greatest fundraising effort ever seen in the history of Drupal. It positions us well to win the race in AI.

Dries Buytaert

This marks the largest fundraising effort in Drupal’s history, driven by the commitment of our expanding group of AI Makers. The funding model combines financial contributions with a commitment to provide full-time staff who actively contribute to Drupal AI development.

With the addition of six new organisations — Pronovix, Pantheon, OpenSense Labs, Vardot, Foster Interactive, and Esinergia — the total number of Makers now stands at 22. Their involvement was instrumental in reaching the 1 million dollar target.

We met with Dominic De Cooman who leads the fundraising for the Drupal AI Initative to get the inside track on why this funding is so vital and what it will be used for.

Who are the latest Makers, and why is their support so important at this stage?

This support is vital because it enables a dedicated team, guided by increased capacity in management roles, to develop solutions that deliver tangible value for organisations across the Drupal ecosystem.

Why have so many prominent Drupal companies chosen to join in this phase?

Drupal is inherently designed for AI, and organisations are acutely aware of both the opportunities and challenges this presents. Companies are seeking to reinvent themselves as AI-powered agencies and platform providers. The Drupal AI initiative accelerates this transformation. Establishing Drupal as the leading AI-powered CMS is essential for the shared success of the ecosystem.

What was the overarching vision guiding this new round of sponsorship for Drupal AI?

The vision is to establish Drupal as the number one AI-powered CMS globally, while enabling our community and businesses to adapt and thrive in the AI era.

Explain how the funding is split between financial resources and FTE commitments, and why FTEs are critical.

• $240,000 is allocated to manage the team, ensuring delivery and accountability.
• Six full-time equivalent (FTE) staff members are committed to executing the work.

FTEs are crucial because they provide consistent, focused effort, ensuring progress is sustained for the long term.

What tangible outcomes are expected from this funding in the short to medium term?

The funding will support a professional approach to innovation and product development. An RFP will be announced later this week, inviting Makers to participate and contribute to this work.

How will this funding accelerate AI capabilities within the Drupal ecosystem?

With dedicated resources for innovation and product development, solutions can be delivered faster and with higher quality than would be possible relying solely on volunteer efforts.

How does this funding model support long-term sustainability rather than short-term project boosts?

The six-month commitment ensures sustained access to first-hand information and practical AI “recipes.” By building a library of AI knowledge and tools, we aim to create a flywheel effect, encouraging long-term contribution from the community. Success will depend on how effectively we utilise the funds over the coming months, which is why the RFP process is a critical next step.

How can my agency or organisation join the initiative as a maker?

You can find out all about how to become a maker on our dedicated page.

If you are at DrupalCon Domininque De Cooman would love to meet you. You can also reach him on Drupal Slack.

If you couldn’t make it to DrupalCon Vienna, here’s what you missed in the DriesNote. 

Dries just delivered a DriesNote that marks a true turning point for Drupal — and the message couldn’t be clearer: we’re not just adapting to AI, we’re accelerating straight into it.

With 69% of Google searches now resulting in zero clicks, AI is fundamentally changing how people interact with the web. This is a new challenge for developers and agencies alike — but Dries says this can be an opportunity for Drupal.

Dries said AI isn’t replacing websites, it’s expanding their importance. Websites remain the source of truth — the home of trust, authenticity, and brand identity. AI agents will always need to cite and link back to authoritative sources.

Drupal's strategic investments in modern APIs, versioning, and configuration management have made it one of the most AI-ready frameworks in the world.

When AI agents make mistakes, you need systems that can roll back safely — and that’s exactly what Drupal excels at.

With innovation in the Drupal community doubling over the past year, the project is ready to run toward the storm. As Dries put it: AI is the storm, but AI is also the way through the storm.

Major Announcements from the DriesNote

Drupal Canvas 1.0 - Release candidate is OUT (as of this week). Full release November 2025. This is the no-code visual site builder that's been in development across multiple DriesNotes. It includes integrated CKEditor, Metatag support, Webform compatibility, content templates, and even code components for JavaScript developers. Canvas will become the default experience in Drupal CMS 2.0.

Site Templates & Marketplace - The Drupal Association Board unanimously approved funding from their Board Vision Fund for a curated marketplace on Drupal.org. The first template "Byte" (built by Media Current) gets you from install to complete B2B SaaS site in under 3 minutes with the Mercury theme and design system. 10-15 more templates are coming from Drupal Certified Partners during the pilot phase. Soon, designers will be able to create and export templates with no code required.

Drupal AI Initiative - In the past 6 months, the AI Initiative raised $1M in combined funding ($200K cash + $800K in FTE hours from 22 agency partners) — the biggest fundraising effort in Drupal's history. Major features demonstrated:

• AI-powered full page generation with dozens of components in Canvas
• Context Control Center - teach AI your brand voice, target audience, product info, and messaging for consistent outputs
• Autonomous background agents that work while you sleep, updating content based on product changes
• Design-to-code workflow with Figma MCP server integration (demonstrated by student contributor Witze)
• Hybrid workflows mixing deterministic logic with AI steps

Drupal CMS 2.0 - Launching January 2026, potentially on Drupal's 25th birthday. Will ship with Canvas as the default out-of-the-box experience. Major marketing push planned for March 2026, with site templates and marketplace becoming a primary focus throughout the year.

Orchestration as "DXP 2.0" - Dries introduced a vision for internal orchestration (ECA improvements) and external automation tools (like ActivePieces) working together. ECA will get a major UX overhaul to make it more accessible. External tools can trigger Drupal AI agents and ECA workflows, creating powerful hybrid automation. This could redefine what agencies build and how they generate revenue.

Who This Benefits

This isn't all just for no-code site builders. Developers get powerful APIs and code components. Agencies gain new service offerings through AI and orchestration tools. Enterprises get the governance, security, and scalability they need with modern experiences their teams can actually use.

Thank You to the Community

Dries thanked the Drupal community. He pointed out that innovation in Drupal has doubled in the past year, and said that doesn't happen by accident. The community rallied around the Starshot project (Drupal CMS), contributed to strategic initiatives, and built these tools together. The 22 agencies funding Drupal AI, the Drupal Certified Partners building templates, leadership from people like Tiffany Farris on the marketplace — this is what makes Drupal different.

#Drupal #DrupalCMS #AI #OpenSource #WebDevelopment #DrupalCanvas #DigitalExperience #CMS

Relive the #Driesnote

If you couldn’t make it to DrupalCon Vienna, here’s what you missed in the DriesNote. 

Dries just delivered a DriesNote that marks a true turning point for Drupal — and the message couldn’t be clearer: we’re not just adapting to AI, we’re accelerating straight into it.

With 69% of Google searches now resulting in zero clicks, AI is fundamentally changing how people interact with the web. This is a new challenge for developers and agencies alike — but Dries says this can be an opportunity for Drupal.

Dries said AI isn’t replacing websites, it’s expanding their importance. Websites remain the source of truth — the home of trust, authenticity, and brand identity. AI agents will always need to cite and link back to authoritative sources.

Drupal's strategic investments in modern APIs, versioning, and configuration management have made it one of the most AI-ready frameworks in the world.

When AI agents make mistakes, you need systems that can roll back safely — and that’s exactly what Drupal excels at.

With innovation in the Drupal community doubling over the past year, the project is ready to run toward the storm. As Dries put it: AI is the storm, but AI is also the way through the storm.

Major Announcements from the DriesNote

Drupal Canvas 1.0 - Release candidate is OUT (as of this week). Full release November 2025. This is the no-code visual site builder that's been in development across multiple DriesNotes. It includes integrated CKEditor, Metatag support, Webform compatibility, content templates, and even code components for JavaScript developers. Canvas will become the default experience in Drupal CMS 2.0.

Site Templates & Marketplace - The Drupal Association Board unanimously approved funding from their Board Vision Fund for a curated marketplace on Drupal.org. The first template "Byte" (built by Media Current) gets you from install to complete B2B SaaS site in under 3 minutes with the Mercury theme and design system. 10-15 more templates are coming from Drupal Certified Partners during the pilot phase. Soon, designers will be able to create and export templates with no code required.

Drupal AI Initiative - In the past 6 months, the AI Initiative raised $1M in combined funding ($200K cash + $800K in FTE hours from 22 agency partners) — the biggest fundraising effort in Drupal's history. Major features demonstrated:

• AI-powered full page generation with dozens of components in Canvas
• Context Control Center - teach AI your brand voice, target audience, product info, and messaging for consistent outputs
• Autonomous background agents that work while you sleep, updating content based on product changes
• Design-to-code workflow with Figma MCP server integration (demonstrated by student contributor Witze)
• Hybrid workflows mixing deterministic logic with AI steps

Drupal CMS 2.0 - Launching January 2026, potentially on Drupal's 25th birthday. Will ship with Canvas as the default out-of-the-box experience. Major marketing push planned for March 2026, with site templates and marketplace becoming a primary focus throughout the year.

Orchestration as "DXP 2.0" - Dries introduced a vision for internal orchestration (ECA improvements) and external automation tools (like ActivePieces) working together. ECA will get a major UX overhaul to make it more accessible. External tools can trigger Drupal AI agents and ECA workflows, creating powerful hybrid automation. This could redefine what agencies build and how they generate revenue.

Who This Benefits

This isn't all just for no-code site builders. Developers get powerful APIs and code components. Agencies gain new service offerings through AI and orchestration tools. Enterprises get the governance, security, and scalability they need with modern experiences their teams can actually use.

Thank You to the Community

Dries thanked the Drupal community. He pointed out that innovation in Drupal has doubled in the past year, and said that doesn't happen by accident. The community rallied around the Starshot project (Drupal CMS), contributed to strategic initiatives, and built these tools together. The 22 agencies funding Drupal AI, the Drupal Certified Partners building templates, leadership from people like Tiffany Farris on the marketplace — this is what makes Drupal different.

#Drupal #DrupalCMS #AI #OpenSource #WebDevelopment #DrupalCanvas #DigitalExperience #CMS

Relive the #Driesnote

Exactly four months after we released AI 1.1.0 and AI Agents 1.1.0, we are very proud to release the 1.2.0 in stable releases.

A major milestone for Drupal AI

The Drupal AI 1.2.0 release marks a huge step forward in making AI practical, transparent, and empowering for everyone — from developers to editors to digital leaders. 

It transforms how content is created and managed, letting users and editors interact with AI directly inside Drupal’s UI through the new Field Widget Actions, and giving organizations total visibility and control with AI Observability.

With tools like the Prompt Library for consistent, best-practice AI prompts, a redesigned Toolbar Chatbot for seamless assistance, and innovations such as Progress Service for Agents, OpenAI PDF support, Image-to-Image editing, and PHP Fibers for faster performance - Drupal AI brings enterprise-grade intelligence right into everyday workflows.
For companies, it means smarter, faster, and more consistent digital experiences; for end users, it means AI that feels natural, helpful, and transparent - all built on Drupal’s trusted open-source foundation.

Key Highlights in Drupal AI and AI Agents 1.2.0

Field Widget Actions – Invoke AI from Anywhere

Editors can now interact with AI directly within any entity form. The new Field Widget Actions module introduces one-click AI assistance for tasks such as generating summaries, titles, categories, or tags—all while keeping editorial control front and centre.

This feature integrates seamlessly with AI Content Suggestions, AI Automators, and AI Agents, enabling both simple preset interactions and complex autonomous logic.

Advanced users can extend it further via ECA integrations, unlocking over 100+ potential use cases.

AI Observability – Full Transparency for AI Operations

The all-new AI Observability module delivers enterprise-grade monitoring for AI processes.

Built atop Drupal’s PSR logging infrastructure, it tracks token usage, errors, and performance metrics—paving the way for integrations with tools like OpenTelemetry.Partnerships with the Extended Logger module will soon offer advanced visualizations for real-time insights.

Prompt Library – Share and Standardize Prompts as Configurations

Prompt management is now easier than ever. The Prompt Library allows modules and organizations to ship preconfigured prompts, ensuring consistency and best practices across projects.

This enables teams to embed domain-specific prompt engineering directly into their Drupal distributions or recipes.

New Toolbar Chatbot – Smarter, Friendlier, and More Integrated

A refreshed Toolbar Chatbot interface provides a larger, more intuitive conversational design for AI assistants helping site admins and editors.

The updated style becomes the new default, remaining fully backwards compatible with existing chatbots.

Progress Service for Agents – Transparent Multi-step Interactions

Complex agent workflows can now display progress in real time.

The new Progress Service gives granular insights into what an agent is doing, which tools it has invoked, and what actions it plans next—ideal for debugging, logging, and enhancing user trust during long-running operations.

OpenAI PDF Support – Chat with Your Documents

The OpenAI provider now supports direct PDF ingestion in Chat Explorer and custom integrations.

Upload PDFs as contextual data sources and use them in AI tasks—perfect for “chat with your documents” features.

Image-to-Image Operations – Edit images using natural language

The Image-to-Image operation type has been added and thanks to innovations from Nano Banana and DreamStudio, Drupal AI can now support background removal, style transfer, and natural-language-based image editing—unlocking new creative possibilities.

Support for PHP Fibers – Faster Parallel AI Calls

Drupal AI now leverages Fibers for asynchronous operations, enabling multiple AI requests to run in parallel.
This dramatically accelerates processes such as multi-field translation or bulk content enrichment.

Normalized Token Usage – Unified AI Metrics

Token usage data is now possible to standardize across all providers, simplifying cost tracking, reporting, and usage limits for third-party integrations.

Views Automators Type – Automate with Drupal Views

The new Views Automator Type brings Drupal’s powerful Views system into AI workflows.
Automators can now query, analyze, and summarize content on demand—for example:

• Generate sentiment summaries for the most commented articles.
• Write contextual “related content” descriptions dynamically.
• Create weekly editorial quote digests automatically.

New Automator Types – Accessibility, SEO, and Content Enhancement

Three new AI Automators extend Drupal’s automation toolkit:

• Image Alt Text Generator – Improves accessibility automatically.
• Image Filename Rewrite – Boosts SEO by renaming uploaded images contextually.
• Summary Generator – Creates concise summaries for “Text with Summary” fields.

Mocking Library – Faster Development and Testing

A new Mocking Library allows developers to replay AI provider responses locally—saving cost, time, and tokens during development and automated testing.

• Vector Databases Abstracted for Recipes
• Vector database connections are now fully abstracted, making it possible to ship recipes that “just work” regardless of whether you use Milvus, Postgres, or Pinecone—simplifying RAG and knowledge-based applications.

More issues worked on by more contributors from more organisations than any other Drupal AI release

This release is based on over 240+ issues worked on, including over 60 feature issues, with 127 different contributors from 64 different organizations contributing in one way or another.

A huge thanks to everyone who has worked with us on making this release possible. Perfectly timed for celebrating at DrupalCon.

Try Drupal AI 1.2.0 for yourself

Read more and download Drupal AI 1.2.0 here.

Exactly four months after we released AI 1.1.0 and AI Agents 1.1.0, we are very proud to release the 1.2.0 in stable releases.

A major milestone for Drupal AI

The Drupal AI 1.2.0 release marks a huge step forward in making AI practical, transparent, and empowering for everyone — from developers to editors to digital leaders. 

It transforms how content is created and managed, letting users and editors interact with AI directly inside Drupal’s UI through the new Field Widget Actions, and giving organizations total visibility and control with AI Observability.

With tools like the Prompt Library for consistent, best-practice AI prompts, a redesigned Toolbar Chatbot for seamless assistance, and innovations such as Progress Service for Agents, OpenAI PDF support, Image-to-Image editing, and PHP Fibers for faster performance - Drupal AI brings enterprise-grade intelligence right into everyday workflows.
For companies, it means smarter, faster, and more consistent digital experiences; for end users, it means AI that feels natural, helpful, and transparent - all built on Drupal’s trusted open-source foundation.

Key Highlights in Drupal AI and AI Agents 1.2.0

Field Widget Actions – Invoke AI from Anywhere

Editors can now interact with AI directly within any entity form. The new Field Widget Actions module introduces one-click AI assistance for tasks such as generating summaries, titles, categories, or tags—all while keeping editorial control front and centre.

This feature integrates seamlessly with AI Content Suggestions, AI Automators, and AI Agents, enabling both simple preset interactions and complex autonomous logic.

Advanced users can extend it further via ECA integrations, unlocking over 100+ potential use cases.

AI Observability – Full Transparency for AI Operations

The all-new AI Observability module delivers enterprise-grade monitoring for AI processes.

Built atop Drupal’s PSR logging infrastructure, it tracks token usage, errors, and performance metrics—paving the way for integrations with tools like OpenTelemetry.Partnerships with the Extended Logger module will soon offer advanced visualizations for real-time insights.

Prompt Library – Share and Standardize Prompts as Configurations

Prompt management is now easier than ever. The Prompt Library allows modules and organizations to ship preconfigured prompts, ensuring consistency and best practices across projects.

This enables teams to embed domain-specific prompt engineering directly into their Drupal distributions or recipes.

New Toolbar Chatbot – Smarter, Friendlier, and More Integrated

A refreshed Toolbar Chatbot interface provides a larger, more intuitive conversational design for AI assistants helping site admins and editors.

The updated style becomes the new default, remaining fully backwards compatible with existing chatbots.

Progress Service for Agents – Transparent Multi-step Interactions

Complex agent workflows can now display progress in real time.

The new Progress Service gives granular insights into what an agent is doing, which tools it has invoked, and what actions it plans next—ideal for debugging, logging, and enhancing user trust during long-running operations.

OpenAI PDF Support – Chat with Your Documents

The OpenAI provider now supports direct PDF ingestion in Chat Explorer and custom integrations.

Upload PDFs as contextual data sources and use them in AI tasks—perfect for “chat with your documents” features.

Image-to-Image Operations – Edit images using natural language

The Image-to-Image operation type has been added and thanks to innovations from Nano Banana and DreamStudio, Drupal AI can now support background removal, style transfer, and natural-language-based image editing—unlocking new creative possibilities.

Support for PHP Fibers – Faster Parallel AI Calls

Drupal AI now leverages Fibers for asynchronous operations, enabling multiple AI requests to run in parallel.
This dramatically accelerates processes such as multi-field translation or bulk content enrichment.

Normalized Token Usage – Unified AI Metrics

Token usage data is now possible to standardize across all providers, simplifying cost tracking, reporting, and usage limits for third-party integrations.

Views Automators Type – Automate with Drupal Views

The new Views Automator Type brings Drupal’s powerful Views system into AI workflows.
Automators can now query, analyze, and summarize content on demand—for example:

• Generate sentiment summaries for the most commented articles.
• Write contextual “related content” descriptions dynamically.
• Create weekly editorial quote digests automatically.

New Automator Types – Accessibility, SEO, and Content Enhancement

Three new AI Automators extend Drupal’s automation toolkit:

• Image Alt Text Generator – Improves accessibility automatically.
• Image Filename Rewrite – Boosts SEO by renaming uploaded images contextually.
• Summary Generator – Creates concise summaries for “Text with Summary” fields.

Mocking Library – Faster Development and Testing

A new Mocking Library allows developers to replay AI provider responses locally—saving cost, time, and tokens during development and automated testing.

• Vector Databases Abstracted for Recipes
• Vector database connections are now fully abstracted, making it possible to ship recipes that “just work” regardless of whether you use Milvus, Postgres, or Pinecone—simplifying RAG and knowledge-based applications.

More issues worked on by more contributors from more organisations than any other Drupal AI release

This release is based on over 240+ issues worked on, including over 60 feature issues, with 127 different contributors from 64 different organizations contributing in one way or another.

A huge thanks to everyone who has worked with us on making this release possible. Perfectly timed for celebrating at DrupalCon.

Try Drupal AI 1.2.0 for yourself

Read more and download Drupal AI 1.2.0 here.

The last two weeks have had a huge focus on stabilizing the coming AI and AI Agents 1.2.0 releases, meaning that not that many features have been added, but a lot of bug fixing. There are still some nice things that can be mentioned as visible progress.

AI Observability

The biggest release of the last two weeks is a new module called AI Observability that will ship with the AI module in 1.2.0 release! 

We have had something called AI Logging in the AI Core module for a long time, and while that has been good for development purposes, when you want to use real observability of things like usage, tokens, errors etc, in enterprise production environments the normal flexible logging system is unbeatable.

This opens up using anything you can use the normal PSR Logger for and the idea is later to make it possible to support external observation tools like OpenTelemetry for instance.

There are already works with the Extended Logger module on how to make nicer visualizations for this going forward.

A huge thanks to EPAM for sponsoring this, and an extra huge thank you to Alexey Korepov and Antonio Estevez that have been working with this.

Force tools to run in Agents

One issue you might encounter when you are creating agents with a high context window, the need of many loops or that is using smaller models is that it might just not trigger one of the tools you have given to it.

This can be frustrating, when you see it collect the right information, even reason correctly and then it might output how it would use the tool instead of actually using it.

So we have added a simple checkbox on the tool settings in the agents, where you can check “Require Usage” and this will check whenever the agent claims that its finished, if it actually used the tool and nudges it to use it when not.

Config Action to setup Field Widget Actions

Currently we have Field Widget Actions being one of the cooler features in the 1.2.0 release. However at the moment, core is missing the possibility of actually attaching a Field Widget Actions to a field without having to redefine the whole form view.

We now have this in the AI module, including wildcard possibility, to be able to install Field Widget Actions all over the place.

At the same time there is a Drupal core issue for this, that we are waiting to get merged. This means that this is most likely just a temporary way of doing this until AI 2.0 is released.

Read PDF’s in Automators without any dependencies

The Automators has had both Unstructured.io and ConvertAPI integration now for years, making it possible to take an uploaded PDF (or multiple other file formats) and move that into a textarea on an entity.

However this requires dependencies, like API Keys or setting up complex infrastructure to host this yourself.

We wanted a way to do this without having to do that or even having to install something specific on the server. Something completely portable.

That now exists in the AI Simple PDF to Text module, that uses native PHP for the whole operation.

A new cool Toolbar Chatbot

Since most of the assistants/agents that you interact with are actually meant for helping site administrators or editors to use, that smaller design we had of the chatbot so far might be restrictive for longer conversations. Also the Canvas AI chatbot that is coming with Canvas already uses a more integrated design.

We wanted the same for the AI Chatbot. So, starting from 1.2.0 there is a new Toolbar placement and Toolbar style that will be the default Chatbot style going forward. This means for newer Chatbots you can try this out, but it's still completely backwards compatible of course.

Release candidate

We are getting closer to the stable version of 1.2.0. We have released a RC1 that takes us closer to that goal.
Other noticeable fixes:

• Deprecate internal ECA module in AI Core: https://www.drupal.org/project/ai/issues/3503947
• We have a MAINTAINERS.txt!: https://www.drupal.org/project/ai/issues/3528785
• A new finding about how Structured Output and Tools works together: https://www.drupal.org/project/ai/issues/3550163
• Embeddings Generation Explorer now works with multiple providers: https://www.drupal.org/project/ai/issues/3543298

On September 25th, Matthew Saunders moderated a panel that included Frederik Wouters, Paul Johnson, and Jamie Abrahams. We conducted a working preview of how Drupal AI will show up at DrupalCon Vienna and what the Strategic Initiative has been building since the last Drupalcon. Vienna was less than three weeks out, and momentum across the initiative was clear. It was a walk through workshops, sessions, and real implementation paths that teams can apply on live sites. We recorded it, so you can watch the webinar as well.

Hands-on training is a priority. Frederik and Christoph are running AI workshops designed so attendees leave with something working on their own machine. The format starts from zero, explains each step while you do it, and ends with a small but real implementation. That tone threads through the rest of the agenda. There is a strategy and application session for non-developers, and advanced material for experienced builders who want to go deeper into agents and orchestration. The goal is to create quick wins and the confidence to continue at home.

So these will be like hands-on workshops where you’ll be able to produce a real implementation of AI in a short space of time.

Frederik Wouters

A major theme is workflows. ECA is getting attention it has not had before. The panel called out how deterministic flows gave teams a safe on-ramp, while agent patterns are now taking the spotlight for more complex tasks. The message was practical. Use Drupal’s structure to decide when AI runs, what it can touch, and how to capture inputs and outputs. Keep humans in the loop where risk is high. Treat agents as an evolution, not a replacement for the guardrails that ECA and similar tools provide.

And I’m really excited to start showing off slightly more guided patterns that combine agents and what you’re good at with Drupal all together.

Jamie Abrahams

Content modelling matters more, not less. Several times the conversation returned to Drupal’s strengths. Structured content, permissions, and configuration give you predictable behaviour. That is how you keep outputs reviewable and safe. There was a clear push toward stronger configuration management and recipes so teams can share working patterns. The bigger picture tied Canvas, recipes, and a marketplace together with AI. You build in a visual environment, you install known-good packages, and you wire AI in at clear touchpoints. It is not magic. It is good composition.

Drupal’s a really fabulous foundation for AI. We’ve spent years building a platform that’s got exceptional data modeling.

Paul Johnson

The Vienna programme reflects that balance. There is a talk on the European Accessibility Act and how AI shows up in compliance and editorial processes. There is a Yale case session that promises concrete lessons from an institutional roll-out. There are agent-building sessions from newcomers’ first steps to advanced builds, plus references to public examples that developers can study later. Marcus’s Workflows of AI site was mentioned as a catalogue of how things are built. The point was simple. People learn faster when they can inspect working code and repeat the steps.

I hope that the beginners get their first touch of working with AI. I hope that the business people get some cases out of it. I hope that the marketing people get some marketing materials.

Frederik Wouters

Security and trust were not presented as slogans. They were framed as predictable outcomes. Teams need patterns that fail safely and visibly, not clever code that surprises people. The panel tied this to Drupal’s design system work and to a push for richer metadata inside Canvas. If the CMS can describe components and intent, AI can act more reliably. That is how you reduce hallucinations and keep changes explainable.

We’re pushing a lot with a metadata schema inside Drupal that can help AI understand what it’s doing and tell AI what it’s going to do.

Jamie Abrahams

Community and governance came through strongly. The initiative has widened, with more makers joining and real cross-company collaboration around a shared set of problems. That collaboration is a differentiator. It is also how we avoid duplicating effort and how we publish roadmaps that others can build on. The panel encouraged people to get involved, pointing to the maker calendar, Slack channels, and an upcoming training serieswith Drop Solid and the European Commission.

There’s a lot of good governance around the platform as well, so Drupal is in a really strong place, it is a very strong differentiator.

Paul Johnson

If you boil it down, the webinar set expectations for Vienna and beyond. Come ready to build. Start with a contained use case. Use Drupal’s structure to keep AI on rails. Learn in a workshop, then bring that pattern home and expand it. Strategy, governance, and documentation are not overhead. They are how we keep this useful, safe, and repeatable at scale.

This content can help you become an excellent AI practitioner and give you practical structures to help you bring AI strategies to your clients and leaders.

Matthew Saunders

If you want to get involved in the Initiative, join #ai, #ai-initiative and #ai-contrib on Drupal Slack. See you in Vienna.