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At DrupalCon Asia in Singapore a few weeks ago, I delivered my traditional State of Drupal keynote. This event marked DrupalCon's return to Asia after an eight-year hiatus, with the last one being DrupalCon Mumbai in 2016.

It was so fun to reconnect with the Drupal community across Asia and feel the passion and enthusiasm for Drupal. The positive energy was so contagious that three weeks later, I still feel inspired by it.

If you missed the keynote, you can watch the video below, or download my slides (196 MB).

I talked about the significant progress we've made on Drupal CMS (code name Drupal Starshot) since DrupalCon Barcelona just a few months ago.

Our vision for Drupal CMS is clear: to set the standard for no-code website building. My updates highlighted how Drupal CMS empowers digital marketers and content creators to design sophisticated digital experiences while preserving Drupal's power and flexibility.

For more background on Drupal CMS, I recommend reading our three-year strategy document. We're about a quarter of the way through, time-wise, and as you'll see from my keynote, we're making very fast progress.

A slide from my recent DrupalCon Singapore State of Drupal keynote showcasing key contributors to Drupal CMS. This slide showcases how we recognize and celebrate Makers in our community, encouraging active participation in the project.

Below are some of the key improvements I showcased in my keynote, highlighted in short video segments. These videos demonstrate just 7 recipes, but we have nearly 20 in development.

Watching these demos, it will become very clear how much time and effort Drupal CMS can save for both beginners and experienced developers. Manually assembling these features would take weeks for a Drupal expert and months for a novice. These recipes pack a wealth of expertise and best practices. What once took a Drupal expert weeks can now be done by a novice in hours.

AI support in Drupal

We're integrating AI agents into Drupal to assist with complex site-building tasks, going far beyond just content creation. Users can choose to have AI complete tasks automatically or provide step-by-step guidance, helping them learn Drupal as they go.

Search

We're including enhanced search functionality that includes autocomplete and faceted search, delivering enterprise-grade functionality out-of-the-box.

Privacy

With increasing global privacy regulations, marketers need robust compliance solutions, yet very few content management systems offer this out-of-the-box. I demonstrated how Drupal CMS will offer a user-centric approach to privacy and consent management, making compliance easier and more effective.

Media management

Our improved media management tools now include features like focal point control and image style presets, enabling editors to handle visual content efficiently while maintaining accessibility standards.

Accessibility tools

Our accessibility tools provide real-time feedback during content creation, helping identify and resolve potential issues that could affect the user experience for visually-impaired visitors.

Analytics

Analytics integration streamlines the setup of Google Analytics and Tag Manager, something that 75% of all marketers use.

Experience Builder

Drupal's new Experience Builder will bring a massive improvement in visual page building. It combines drag-and-drop simplicity with an enterprise-grade component architecture. It looks fantastic, and I'm really excited for it!

Conclusion Drupal CMS has been a catalyst for innovation and collaboration, driving strong growth in organizational credits. Development of Drupal CMS began in 2024, and we expect a significant increase in contributions this year. Credits have tripled from 2019 to 2024, demonstrating our growing success in driving strategic innovation in Drupal.

In addition to our progress on Drupal CMS, the product, we've made real strides in other areas, such as marketing, modernizing Drupal.org, and improving documentation. These are all important parts of the Drupal Starshot initiative.

Overall, I'm incredibly proud of the progress we've made. So much so that we've released our first release candidate at DrupalCon Singapore, which you can try today by following my installation instructions for Drupal CMS.

While we still have a lot of work left, we are on track for the official release on January 15, 2025! To mark the occasion, we're inviting the Drupal community to organize release parties around the world. Whether you want to host your own event or join a party near you, you can find all the details and sign-up links for Drupal CMS release parties. I'll be celebrating from Boston and hope to drop in on other parties via Zoom!

Finally, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed to Drupal CMS and DrupalCon Singapore. Your hard work and dedication have made this possible. Thank you!

We did it: Drupal CMS 1.0 is here! 🎉

Eight months ago, I challenged our community to make Drupal easier for marketers, content creators, and site builders. Today, on Drupal's 24th birthday, we're making history with the launch of Drupal CMS 1.0.

With this release, you now have two ways to build with Drupal:

• Drupal Core serves expert users and developers who want complete control over their websites. It provides a blank canvas for building websites and has been the foundation behind millions of websites since Drupal began 24 years ago.
• Drupal CMS is a ready-to-use platform for marketing teams, content creators and site builders built on Drupal 11 core. When you install Drupal CMS, you get a set of out-of-the-box tools such as advanced media management, SEO tools, AI-driven website building, consent management, analytics, search, automatic updates and more.

To celebrate this milestone, more than 60 launch parties are happening around the world today! These celebrations highlight one of Drupal's greatest strengths: a worldwide community that builds and innovates together.

If you want to try Drupal CMS, you can start a free trial today at https://www.drupal.org/drupal-cms/trial.

Built for ambitious marketers

Drupal CMS targets organizations with ambitious digital goals, particularly in mid-market and enterprise settings. The platform provides a robust foundation that adapts and scales with evolving needs.

Organizations often hit a growth ceiling with non-Drupal CMS platforms. What starts as a simple website becomes a constraint as needs expand. Take privacy and consent management as an example: while these features are now essential due to GDPR, CCPA, and growing privacy concerns, most CMS platforms don't offer them out of the box. This forces organizations to create patchwork solutions.

Drupal CMS addresses this by including privacy and consent management tools by default. This not only simplifies setup but also sets a new standard for CMS platforms, promoting a better Open Web – one that prioritizes user privacy while helping organizations meet regulatory requirements.

Recipes for success

The privacy and consent management feature is just one of many 'recipes' available in Drupal CMS. Recipes are pre-configured packages of features, like blogs, events, or case studies, that simplify and speed up site-building. Each recipe automatically installs the necessary modules, sets up content types, and applies configurations, reducing manual setup.

This streamlined approach makes Drupal more accessible for beginners but also more efficient for experienced developers. Drupal CMS 1.0 launches with nearly 30 recipes included, many of which are applied by default to provide common functionality that most sites require. Recipes not applied by default are available as optional add-ons and can be applied either during setup or later through the new Project Browser. More recipes are already in development, with plans to release new versions of Drupal CMS throughout the year, each adding fresh recipes.

The Drupal CMS installer lets users choose from predefined 'recipes' like blog, events, case studies and more. Each recipe automatically downloads the required modules, sets up preconfigured content types, and applies the necessary configurations. Pioneering the future, again

Drupal CMS not only reduces costs and accelerates time to value with recipes but also stands out with innovative features like AI agents designed specifically for site building. While many platforms use AI primarily for content creation, our AI agents go further by enabling advanced tasks such as creating custom content types, configuring taxonomies, and more.

This kind of innovation really connects to Drupal's roots. In its early days, Drupal earned its reputation as a forward-thinking, innovative CMS. We helped pioneer the assembled web (now called 'composable') and contributed to the foundation of Web 2.0, shipping with features like blogging, RSS, and commenting long before the term Web 2.0 existed. Although it happened long ago and many may not remember, Drupal was the first CMS to adopt jQuery. This move played a key role in popularizing jQuery and establishing it as a cornerstone of web development.

Curious about what Drupal CMS' AI agents can do? Watch Ivan Zugec's video for a hands-on demonstration of how these tools simplify site-building tasks – even for expert developers.

We don't know exactly where AI agents will take us, but I'm excited to explore, learn, and grow. It feels like the early days when we experimented and boldly ventured into the unknown.

Changing perceptions and reaching more users

Drupal has often been seen as complex, but Drupal CMS is designed to change that. Still, we know that simply creating a more user-friendly and easier-to-maintain product isn't enough. After 24 years, many people still hold outdated perceptions shaped by experiences from over a decade ago.

Changing those perceptions takes time and deliberate effort. That is why the Drupal CMS initiative is focused not just on building software but also on repositioning and marketing Drupal in a way that highlights how much it has evolved.

The new Drupal.org features a refreshed brand and updated messaging, positioning Drupal as a modern, composable CMS.

To make this happen, we've refreshed our brand and started reworking Drupal.org with the help of the Drupal Association and our Drupal Certified Partners. The updated brand feels fresher, more modern, and more appealing to a larger audience.

For the first time, the Drupal Association has hired two full-time product marketers to help communicate our message.

Our goal is clear: to help people move past outdated perceptions and see Drupal for what it truly is – a powerful, modern platform for building websites that is becoming more user-friendly, as well as more affordable to use and maintain.

Achieving bold ambitions through collaboration

Launching the Drupal CMS initiative was bold and ambitious, requiring extraordinary effort from our community – and they truly stepped up. It was ambitious because this initiative has been about much more than building a second version of Drupal. It's been a focused and comprehensive effort to expand our market, modernize our brand, accelerate innovation, expand our marketing, and reimagine our partner ecosystem.

When I announced Drupal Starshot and Drupal CMS just 8 months ago, I remember turning to the team and asking, How exactly are we going to pull this off?. We had a lot to figure out – from building a team, setting goals, and mapping a path forward. It was a mix of uncertainty, determination, and maybe a touch of What have we gotten ourselves into?.

A key success factor has been fostering closer collaboration among contributors, agency partners, Drupal Core Committers, Drupal Association staff, and the Drupal Association Board of Directors. This stronger alignment didn't happen by chance; it's the result of thoughtfully structured meetings and governance changes that brought everyone closer together.

After just 8 months, the results speak for themselves. Drupal CMS has significantly increased the pace of innovation and the level of contributions to Drupal. It's a testament to what we can achieve when we work together. We've seen a 40% increase in contributor activity since the initiative launch, with over 2,000 commits from more than 300 contributors.

Drupal CMS has been a powerful catalyst for accelerating innovation and collaboration. Since development began in 2024, contributions have soared. Organization credits for strategic initiatives grew by 44% compared to 2023, with individual contributions increasing by 37%. The number of unique contributors rose by 12.5%, and participating organizations grew by 11.3%.

The initiative required me to make a significant time commitment I hadn't anticipated at the start of 2024 – but it's an experience I'm deeply grateful for. The Drupal CMS leadership team met at least twice a week, often more, to tackle challenges head-on. Similarly, I had weekly meetings with the Drupal Association.

Along the way we developed new working principles. One key principle was to solve end-user problems first, focusing on what marketers truly need rather than trying to account for every edge case. Another was prioritizing speed over process, enabling us to innovate and adapt quickly. These principles are still evolving, and now that the release is behind us, I'm eager to refine them further with the team.

The work we did together was intense, energizing, and occasionally filled with uncertainty about meeting our deadlines. We built strong bonds, learned to make quick, effective decisions, and maintained forward momentum. This experience has left me feeling more connected than ever to our shared mission.

The Drupal CMS roadmap for 2025

As exciting as this achievement is, some might ask if we've accomplished everything we set out to do. The answer is both yes and no. We've exceeded my expectations in collaboration and innovation, making incredible progress. But there is still much to do. In many ways, we're just getting started. We're less than one-third of the way through our three-year product strategy.

With Drupal CMS 1.0 released, 2025 is off to a strong start. Our roadmap for 2025 is clear: we'll launch Experience Builder 1.0, roll out more out-of-the-box recipes for marketers, improve our documentation, roll out our new brand to more parts of Drupal.org, and push forward with innovative experiments.

Each step brings us closer to our goal: modernizing Drupal and making Drupal the go-to platform for marketers and developers who want to build ambitious digital experiences — all while championing the Open Web.

[newsletter-blog] Thank you, Drupal community

We built Drupal CMS in a truly open source way – collaboratively, transparently, and driven by community contributions – proving once again that open source is the best way to build software.

The success of Drupal CMS 1.0 reflects the work of countless contributors. I'm especially grateful to these key contributors and their organizations (listed alphabetically): Jamie Abrahams (FreelyGive), Gareth Alexander (Zoocha), Martin Anderson-Clutz (Acquia), Tony Barker (Annertech), Pamela Barone (Technocrat), Addison Berry (Drupalize.me), Jim Birch (Kanopi Studios), Baddy Breidert (1xINTERNET), Christoph Breidert (1xINTERNET), Nathaniel Catchpole (Third and Grove / Tag1 Consulting), Cristina Chumillas (Lullabot), Suzanne Dergacheva (Evolving Web), Artem Dmitriiev (1xINTERNET), John Doyle (Digital Polygon), Tim Doyle (Drupal Association), Sascha Eggenberger (Gitlab), Dharizza Espinach (Evolving Web), Tiffany Farriss (Palantir.net), Matthew Grasmick (Acquia), Adam Globus-Hoenich (Acquia), Jürgen Haas (LakeDrops), Mike Herchel (DripYard), J. Hogue (Oomph, Inc), Gábor Hojtsy (Acquia), Emma Horrell (University of Edinburgh), Marcus Johansson (FreelyGive), Nick Koger (Drupal Association), Tim Lehnen (Drupal Association), Pablo López Escobés (Lullabot), Christian López Espínola (Lullabot), Leah Magee (Acquia), Amber Matz (Drupalize.me), Lenny Moskalyk (Drupal Association), Lewis Nyman, Matt Olivera (Lullabot), Shawn Perritt (Acquia), Megh Plunkett (Lullabot), Tim Plunkett (Acquia), Kristen Pol (Salsa Digital), Joe Shindelar (Drupalize.me), Lauri Timmanee (Acquia), Matthew Tift (Lullabot), Laurens Van Damme (Dropsolid), Ryan Witcombe (Drupal Association), Jen Witowski (Lullabot).

I also want to recognize our Marketing Committee, the Core Committers, the Drupal Association Board of Directors, and the Drupal Starshot Advisory Council, whose guidance and strategic input shaped this initiative along the way.

While I've highlighted some contributors here, I know there are hundreds more who shaped Drupal CMS 1.0 through their code, testing, UX work, feedback, advocacy and more. Each contribution, big or small, moved us forward. To everyone who helped build this milestone: THANK YOU!

I'm often asked, Will AI agents replace digital marketers and site builders?. The answer is yes, at least for certain kinds of tasks.

To explore this idea, I prototyped two AI agents to automate marketing tasks on my personal website. They update meta descriptions to improve SEO and optimize tags to improve content discovery.

Watching the AI agents in action is incredible. In the video below, you'll see them effortlessly navigate my Drupal site: logging in, finding posts, and editing content. It's a glimpse into how AI could transform the role of digital marketers.

The experiment

I built two AI agents to help optimize my blog posts. Here is how they work together:

• Agent 1: Content analysis: This agent finds a blog post, reviews its content, and suggests improved summaries and tags to enhance SEO and increase discoverability.
• Agent 2: Applying updates: After manual approval, this agent logs into the site and updates the summary and tags suggested by the first agent.

All of this could be done in one step, or with a single agent, but keeping a 'human-in-the-loop' is good for quality assurance.

This was achieved with just 120 lines of Python code and a few hours of trial and error. As the video demonstrates, the code is approachable for developers with basic programming skills.

The secret ingredient is the browser_use framework, which acts as a bridge between various LLMs and Playwright, a framework for browser automation and testing.

The magic and the reality check

What makes this exciting is the agent's ability to problem-solve. It's almost human-like.

Watching the AI agents operate my site, I noticed they often face the same UX challenges as humans. It likely means that the more we simplify a CMS like Drupal for human users, the more accessible it becomes for AI agents. I find this link between human and AI usability both striking and thought-provoking.

In the first part of the video, the agent was tasked with finding my DrupalCon Lille 2023 keynote. When scrolling through the blog section failed, it adapted by using Google search instead.

In the second part of the video, it navigated Drupal's more complex UI elements, like auto-complete taxonomy fields, though it required one trial-and-error attempt.

The results are incredible, but not flawless. I ran the agents multiple times, and while they performed well most of the time, they aren't reliable enough for production use. However, this field is evolving quickly, and agents like this could become highly reliable within a year or two.

Native agents versus explorer agents

In my mind, agents can be categorized as "explorer agents" or "native agents". I haven't seen these terms used before, so here is how I define them:

• Explorer agents: These agents operate across multiple websites. For example, an agent might use Google to search for a product, compare prices on different sites, and order the cheapest option.
• Native agents: These agents work within a specific site, directly integrating with the CMS to leverage its APIs and built-in features.

The browser_use framework, in my view, is best suited for explorer agents. While it can be applied to a single website, as shown in my demo, it's not the most efficient approach.

Native agents that directly interact with the CMS's APIs should be more effective. Rather than imitating human behavior to "search" for content, the agent could retrieve it directly through a single API call. It could then programmatically propose changes within a CMS-supported content editing workflow, complete with role-based permissions and moderation states

I can also imagine a future where native agents and explorer agents work together (hybrid agents), combining the strengths of both approaches to unlock even greater opportunities.

Next steps

A next step for me is to build a similar solution using Drupal's AI agent capabilities. Drupal's native AI agents should make finding and updating content more efficiently.

Of course, other digital marketing use cases might benefit from explorer agents. I'd be happy to explore these possibilities as well. Let me know if you have ideas.

[newsletter-blog] Conclusions

Building an AI assistant to handle digital marketing tasks is no longer science fiction. It's clear that, soon, AI agents will be working alongside digital marketers and site builders.

These tools are advancing rapidly and are surprisingly easy to create, even though they're not yet perfect. Their potential disruption is both exciting and hard to fully understand.

As Drupal, we need to stay ahead by asking questions like: are we fully imagining the disruption AI could bring? The future is ours to shape, but we need to rise to the challenge.

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