WordPress announced its most significant evolution in years at State of the Word 2025, and whether you’re running an e-commerce store, managing a content team, or overseeing digital marketing for your organization, these changes will reshape how you work with your website.
For businesses that depend on WordPress (and that includes nearly half of all websites on the internet), understanding these updates isn’t optional. They represent a fundamental shift in what the platform can do and what you should expect from your WordPress website design and development partners.
Table of contents
- What is State of the Word?
- Three WordPress innovations that matter most for your business
- What these updates mean for your WordPress investment
- When strategic partnership makes the difference
- Making the most of WordPress’s evolution
What is State of the Word?
Each year, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg delivers State of the Word, an annual address that outlines the platform’s major developments and future direction. For businesses that depend on WordPress, this presentation offers valuable insight into what’s changing and why it matters.
The December 2nd event in San Francisco revealed something significant: WordPress is evolving beyond its roots as a content management system. The platform is positioning itself as a collaborative workspace where teams can work together in real time, much like the business applications your organization already uses for project management and document collaboration.
Three WordPress innovations that matter most for your business
1. Real-time collaboration has arrived
Gutenberg Phase 3 introduces something WordPress users have requested for years: the ability for multiple team members to edit content simultaneously, without locking each other out.
Think Google Docs, but inside your WordPress website. Your marketing team can now work on the same page at the same time. You’ll see who’s editing what, leave inline comments, and collaborate without the frustrating back-and-forth of “I’m done editing, now it’s your turn.”
Why this matters for your business: If you’re managing content workflows with multiple contributors (marketing teams, executives, program stakeholders), this eliminates a major friction point. The entire content lifecycle can now happen in one place, without drafting in external tools and pasting content into WordPress later.
2. The WordPress dashboard is getting a new, modern user interface
The familiar wp-admin interface you’ve used for years is being replaced with Data Views, modern React-based interfaces that look and feel like contemporary SaaS applications.
Instead of static tables for posts, pages, and users, you’ll see dynamic, filterable views. Think sortable grids, Kanban-style boards, and the kind of interface you’d expect from tools like Notion or Airtable.
Why this matters for your business: For organizations with complex content structures, custom post types, or internal workflows, this opens new possibilities. Your product catalogs, member directories, or resource libraries can now be displayed and managed in ways that actually match how your team works. Your WordPress website doesn’t have to feel dated anymore.
3. Data liberation makes platform migration easier than ever
WordPress announced aggressive new tools for migrating content from proprietary platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and Contentful. The “Data Liberation Project” aims to make moving to WordPress faster and more reliable than ever before.
Why this matters for your business: If you’ve felt locked into an expensive proprietary system that no longer serves your needs, the barrier to switching just got significantly lower. The path to a more flexible, cost-effective platform is clearer than it’s been in years.
What these updates mean for your WordPress investment
These aren’t cosmetic changes. They represent a fundamental evolution in WordPress capabilities:
For content and marketing teams: Fewer tools, less context-switching, and faster publishing workflows. Your editorial process can live entirely within WordPress, with the collaboration features your team has been working around for years.
For businesses with custom requirements: The new admin interfaces mean your internal tools don’t have to feel outdated. Custom dashboards and workflows can now match the polish and usability of purpose-built software without the enterprise price tag.
For organizations evaluating CMS platforms: WordPress just became an even more compelling alternative to expensive proprietary solutions, with easier migration paths and modern team collaboration built directly into the platform.
When strategic partnership makes the difference
Platform evolution creates opportunity, but it also creates complexity. Taking advantage of these new capabilities isn’t always straightforward, especially for established websites with custom functionality, third-party integrations, or years of accumulated technical decisions.
At Arclight Digital, we’ve watched WordPress evolve since we opened our first office in 2007. We’ve guided organizations through every major platform shift, and we’ve learned that the businesses that benefit most from updates like these are those that approach change strategically. They have a clear vision of what they want to achieve and a partner who understands both the technology and their business goals.
Our approach to WordPress website design and development
We don’t believe in rip-and-replace strategies that disrupt your operations. Instead, we work alongside your existing processes and people, becoming a valuable, trusted contributor to your website and digital marketing efforts.
Vision → Strategy → Execution. This is how we approach every WordPress project:
- Vision: What do these new capabilities enable for your organization? Real-time collaboration might transform how your marketing team works. Custom Data Views could streamline internal workflows that have been clunky for years. We help you see the possibilities.
- Strategy: Not every feature is right for every business. We help you develop a practical roadmap that prioritizes updates based on your team’s actual needs and your organization’s goals, not just because something is new.
- Execution: Whether you need to implement real-time collaboration for your content team, upgrade your admin experience with custom Data Views, or migrate from a platform you’ve outgrown, we bring over 100 years of combined experience to your project. More importantly, we bring a partnership mindset.
Why WordPress expertise matters more than ever
The WordPress ecosystem is vast, but not all WordPress developers and designers are created equal. These new capabilities require deep platform expertise combined with an understanding of how businesses actually use their websites.
We’re not order-takers who simply execute a list of technical requirements. We’re problem solvers who think about the best interests of your business. We ask questions like:
- How will these new features improve your team’s daily workflows?
- What existing functionality needs to be preserved or updated?
- Where are the opportunities to differentiate your digital presence?
- How do we ensure your website continues to perform while we modernize?
This is the difference between a WordPress developer who knows the code and a WordPress agency that understands business strategy.
Making the most of WordPress’s evolution
WordPress has always been powerful. These updates make it more collaborative, more modern, and more aligned with how teams actually work. But technology alone doesn’t create results. Strategic implementation does.
If you’re thinking about how these WordPress updates could benefit your organization, or if you’re ready to move beyond a platform that’s been holding you back, we’d welcome the conversation.
At Arclight Digital, we focus on the good. We make sure the vibe of your brand is positive and your website’s performance is professional. We bring WordPress expertise, strategic thinking, and a commitment to treating people well to every project.
Because the businesses we partner with don’t just need a WordPress developer. They need a trusted advisor who understands both the technology and their vision for growth.
Ready to illuminate what’s possible with your WordPress website? Let’s talk about your business goals and develop a strategic plan for your digital presence.