The grid.io (AI) system coming online later this year .. worried?

[davejacobs]

Grid.io (top software engineers from Google working on it) releasing AI web-design platform this year to revolutionise the industry. It takes a user's content and uses algorithms to sort the content using design rules, which are constantly updated with latest design trends from typography to photo editing. Customers insert their goals / requests and the content is archived and presented accordingly from a commerce store to a person's portfolio.

Is WordPress development becoming obsolete? A competitor for Squarespace / demise of Genesis?

[Davinder Singh Kainth]

Grid.io is not a Genesis competitor. It is for "drag and drop" crowd whereas Genesis is for coders or folks wanting to learn bit of code. It for sure can affect Squarespace only if it offers a better package!

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Sunshine PRO genesis theme
Need Genesis help? Davinder @ iGuiding Media | My Blog | Fresh Genesis Themes

[davejacobs]

So you think that a WordPress developer has a viable future still? Its not all going to be front-end javascript technology with the backend set up as "packages" in the next few years? In some cases AI assisting the users. I have some WP development skills, I'm just wondering if its worth my time to pursue to a more competent level.

[Davinder Singh Kainth]

Learn CSS3, HTML5, PHP - with those skill sets you can easily transition from WordPress to any upcoming new CMS. It is a must for solid foundation for doing back-end building.

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Sunshine PRO genesis theme
Need Genesis help? Davinder @ iGuiding Media | My Blog | Fresh Genesis Themes

[davejacobs]

Thanks for your advice, we'll see how good grid.io is to hackers especially when they say that their system will replace the need for developer / web designer. If the grid.io had to export the user's website as a template / theme imagine the file size. Big claims can come with a mighty fall.

[Abland]

My thoughts on grid.io is that it's been in development for quite some time and continues to go past projected release dates - yet folks continue to put their money into pre-purchases. I didn't see a whole slew of Google engineers in their team - maybe one person who was in on developing ad-sense. And Artificial Intelligence is sorely abused - a form that sends email and directs to a thank you page could also be deemed AI.

What the grid represents is "easy" - and the people that want "easy" are more often than not high maintenance clients. I prefer the clients who are prepared to work for a living ... so the grid is skimming off the surface for me.

The grid in essence only paints a pretty picture - most of the time. Developers who only build pretty sites will have competition with the grid. Developers who build practical sites won't.

Keep up with learning the development skills - I've already had contracts to fix or better design some of the current "competitor" services' sites. And Genesis and WordPress are not going away - they're still the basis of very practical websites ... which are also often pretty 🙂

[coralseait]

I think as WP devs we really, really, really need to mature a bit. When REST API is fully baked WP and our ecosystem of mod functions.php or plugins / mini-plugins is going to change. It is a good, possibly great thing, but what it means is that just PHP, CSS3 and HTML5 are not going to be enough.

We WP devs really need to look at node.js / angular / ember / et al and understand that if REST API takes off WP core is just going to be a foundation bedrock and we can interact with that foundation in many, many more ways than theme / child theme with PHP snippets. We need to mature and start understanding more rich UI / Application type fundamentals versus skins so to speak.

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Coral Sea IT

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