If you’re reading this, chances are you already know Drupal is known and proven to be a powerful CMS, trusted for its scalability, flexibility, and rock-solid security.

But let’s be real, it hasn’t always been known to be the most friendly platform for beginners. With its steep learning curve, endless configuration, and the occasional module untangling, things can get complicated.

Over the years, though, Drupal has come a long way. It’s no longer just powerful. It’s becoming more intuitive. It predicts your needs rather than only responding to them. That’s where Drupal and AI intersect. 

Artificial intelligence is all you hear about in today’s digital era. And being a part of the Drupal community myself, I take immense pride in admitting that Drupal is stepping into this AI era boldly, starting from the Starshot initiative to experimental AI-driven modules.

Marketers, content teams, and organizations have the opportunity to move ahead faster without sacrificing quality or control. In this blog, I’ll walk you through how Drupal is embracing AI, what it means for you, and why it matters.

But first, why combine Drupal with AI?

Before we step into the conversation of what Drupal AI has bought us, let’s first understand why we need this powerful combination. 

• Setting the bar at ease: Dupal traditionally demanded expertise. And AI helps flatten the learning curve using smart recommendations, guided site setup, and automation.
• Automating regular tasks: Whether you are dealing with taxonomy, content tags, or SEO optimization, AI automates repetitive tasks, saving you teams’ ample time to focus on strategy.
• Improving content experience: With AI, drafting content, optimizing headlines, or suggesting links, managing content for marketers and editors within Drupal becomes easy.
• Future-proofing digital presence: AI is not a luxury today. When baked into Drupal’s architecture, it behaves like a necessity, future-proofing sites to align with user expectations and search engine shifts.

Beyond keeping in line with evolving trends, it’s also about solving Drupal’s biggest pain points with real, tangible impact.

It all began with the Starshot spark

The Drupal community stepped up with the Starshot Initiative in this AI revolution. It was announced in 2024 with a clear mission - simplifying Drupal without compromising power. And AI was the core driver of this particular mission. It includes the following efforts with the entire community into action:

• Recipes - To push the entire site setup in minutes.
• Project Browser - To discover and install modules without any commands.
• Experience Builder - To simplify building pages.
• AI-powered guidance - To recommend modules, structure, or generate content.

The Startshot Initiative defined the next chapter of Drupal with the all-new Drupal CMS. And AI works behind the scenes to make Drupal CMS smarter, faster, and far more welcoming.

What’s latest in the Drupal AI world

• The Drupal AI initiative - The Drupal AI initiative launches a clear roadmap with exemplary initiative leads and strategic advisory board in place, a funded delivery system and active AI work tracks.
• 7,300+ Drupal AI installs - The installs are increasing at a great pace with new use cases and future-ready solutions coming up every day.
• Fundings you didn’t see coming - It’s great news for the Drupal AI initiative to have received funding of $175,000. Building features, scaling contributions, and positioning Drupal as a top open-source AI-powered CMS has taken a boost.
• Strategizing & delivering - The initiative has moved beyond planning to execution. And the results are already impressive - orchestrated modular AI pieces, refined infrastructure, and accelerated use-cases that demonstrate value.
• Use-cases capturing the limelight - Now agencies, developers, and end users can share their stories about real-world adoption, demonstrating proof of concept and building trust in AI.
• Drupal AI in practice - Coming up soon in Vienna, Oct 14-17, is this year’s DrupalCon Europe, where you’ll get to witness a session on “Drupal AI - Strategy and Application” that focuses on showcasing how AI is powering content workflows, search, assistive technologies, and personalization in Drupal.
• Workshops, experiments, and deeper integrations - You will also have the opportunity to work on hands-on workshops, building AI agents/tools within Drupal, and experiment with Drupal AI into larger AI stacks.  It would be a community of “let’s build together” that isn’t limited to just a theory.
• Investing in the long-term goal - The Drupal AI initiative aims to secure $400,000-$500,000 USD every six months to fund and accelerate the work of  4-10 full-time contributors.

Meet the Drupal AI modules 

AI modules in Drupal build a whole other ecosystem meant to integrate artificial intelligence capabilities into the CMS.  It’s more than just an addition; it’s a whole new digital ecosystem. This library of AI modules can enhance website management, content creation, and user interaction. 

Now let’s check out some of the key types of Drupal AI modules and what they can do for you -

• AI Core Module: It’s the base layer module that allows integration with different AI model providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini. Its functionalities vary from text generation, image generation, to audio processing and multi-modality. Module: AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Content Editing & Generation: A series of modules, such as Content AI, AI CKEditor, and AI Content Generator, help create, optimize, and translate content, besides generating descriptions, summaries, and translations. Modules: Content AI, AI CKEditor, SmartLinker AI
• AI Agents: It provides a framework to create different agents dedicated to automating tasks, modifying configurations, or interacting with users, whether through textual or multimodal instructions. Module: AI Agents
• Chatbots & User Interaction: AI Deep Chat is a module that helps create chatbots and AI assistants to manage user engagement and provide better support.
• Automation & Integration: AI Automators is another module that allows you to integrate with external services like Google Vision, Pixabay, etc., that help automate tasks such as processing images or sourcing content.
• Provider Modules: Connect Drupal to different AI providers with these provider modules while using their respective APIs and functionalities within the Drupal environment. Module: OpenAI

All these modules (and more…) leverage the power of AI in Drupal and make tasks easy, such as content generation, SEO optimization, editorial efficiency, accessibility improvements, and enhanced user experiences.

How can enterprises benefit from Drupal AI?

Businesses and organizations only want to make the best use of Drupal as a CMS platform, and now with AI, be on top of competitors. Here’s how you, as an enterprise, can utilize Drupal’s AI privileges:

• Faster time-to-market - Now you can launch a site quickly using smarter defaults and automation.
• Reduced costs - Save developer hours wasted on repetitive setup and maintenance.
• Better engagement - Connect with your audience better through content that resonates with them, across geographies and languages.
• Peace of mind - Rely on AI-driven monitoring for regular updates, security upgrades, and compliance.

Final thoughts

Drupal AI is still evolving. And honestly, there will be challenges - the need of the hour is balancing usability and flexibility, ensuring data privacy, while keeping performance top-notch. But it’s an undeniable trajectory. AI is the future of Drupal. 

As AI evolves with Drupal, we can expect smarter content workflows, a more polished, out-of-the-box site experience, and seamless AI tools that enhance the overall Drupal experience.

If you’re planning to build a future-proof digital experience with Drupal, AI is going to come along. Because any future with Drupal isn’t just about flexibility, it’s about intelligence. And if you want to see this in action, our Drupal AI services can help you integrate smart tools without compromising control or performance. Let’s talk?