Transkript
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00:00:07: We are at word Camp Europe today in
00:00:09: Turine and I'm happy to welcome two
00:00:13: guests - one is Artur Grabowski co-founder
00:00:16: of Extendify and Nikolai Graf-Rüssel, Head
00:00:20: of Wordpress development at IONOS.
00:00:23: Welcome Nikolai and thank you.
00:00:26: Recently we partnered with
00:00:30: Extendify by integrating their product
00:00:34: in our WordPress hosting
00:00:36: portfolio, so Artur, what is Extendify
00:00:40: and why it is so special? So Extendify is
00:00:44: a WordPress experience platform that
00:00:47: powers both the onboarding and ongoing
00:00:51: website creation and management
00:00:53: experience for WordPress users. It
00:00:56: heavily integrates artificial
00:00:58: intelligence AI to automate and makes a
00:01:02: lot of the tasks of creating the site
00:01:04: easier and this experience is offered
00:01:07: specifically through IONOS it is not an
00:01:10: experience that a user can go out and
00:01:12: find on their own purchase as a
00:01:14: standalone product this is something
00:01:16: that is offered only through a hosting
00:01:18: provider and the user would get access
00:01:20: to it as part of their hosting plan or
00:01:23: subscription. And Nikolai, what does it
00:01:26: mean for our customers? So like you said
00:01:30: it's an platform and it brings some
00:01:31: features with like the AI onboarding we
00:01:34: saw that uh in our data that the
00:01:37: customer needs a couple of time to
00:01:39: really set up a a web page and this is
00:01:42: the solution to really um go easy into
00:01:46: the product and to really uh make it
00:01:49: feasible for the customer to on board
00:01:52: into WordPress and AR how did you come
00:01:54: up with the idea for the product so I
00:01:57: did not come from the WordPress space
00:02:01: you know from the very beginnings of
00:02:02: Wordpress I worked in Silicon Valley at
00:02:06: companies like Adobe and focused on user
00:02:08: experience customer experience and my
00:02:10: first real experience exposure to
00:02:13: Wordpress was at automatic and the as
00:02:18: part of the new uh new employee Journey
00:02:22: there everyone does some amount of
00:02:24: customer support to get in learn what
00:02:28: customers are doing learn about the
00:02:29: product Etc
00:02:30: and I saw there
00:02:32: first hand looking at customer support
00:02:34: tickets that these users would come in
00:02:36: they were struggling they were asking
00:02:38: for help and you look at their site and
00:02:40: it would still say hello world and hello
00:02:42: world is that starting point for
00:02:43: WordPress that we all know and when you
00:02:46: see that hello world page still on a
00:02:48: WordPress site it just means that user
00:02:50: didn't get anywhere they tried to get
00:02:51: started either they maybe had the wrong
00:02:54: expectations maybe they they don't
00:02:56: really know what WordPress is they heard
00:02:58: about it in some YouTube video or from a
00:03:00: friend and they you know they just
00:03:03: signed up they thought okay this is how
00:03:05: I'm going to build my website this will
00:03:06: be how I get my online presence up they
00:03:09: would get in and they would see WP admin
00:03:11: and they thought oh wow I got to do this
00:03:13: myself like this isn't what I was what I
00:03:14: was expecting and so we really saw that
00:03:18: hello world problem there as as a
00:03:22: meaningful hurdle for new users and as
00:03:24: an opportunity for us to go out and
00:03:26: solve this and as I kind of mentioned
00:03:28: earlier we believe that to solve this
00:03:31: problem we really needed to be there for
00:03:32: the customer from the very beginning of
00:03:35: their Journey before they got stuck
00:03:37: before they first failed and to do that
00:03:39: we specifically work with hosting
00:03:42: providers so that extend ify can be
00:03:43: there on the site when the user first
00:03:46: logs in and we we can hold their hand we
00:03:49: can guide them through the process from
00:03:50: the for the very first login into
00:03:52: WordPress so what is the new WordPress
00:03:54: experience for Janis customers using
00:03:57: extend ify onboarding what extend ify
00:04:00: helps us with is in six easy steps it
00:04:03: setups like an industry the name and it
00:04:07: gives you also contacts for web pages
00:04:09: and with the AI prompt you even get the
00:04:12: right content at the at the early stages
00:04:17: so that is the new experience okay that
00:04:20: sounds very convenient for a customer
00:04:23: arur how do YN customers benefit from uh
00:04:26: Extendify after creating the first
00:04:28: version of the site
00:04:30: yeah so as Nikolai was saying the
00:04:32: onboarding takes you from zero to one
00:04:34: but you're not done at that point so we
00:04:38: obviously want these users to as quickly
00:04:40: as possible publish their first version
00:04:43: of their site but we also want to grow
00:04:47: with them and and as they grow make sure
00:04:50: that they are adding content to the site
00:04:53: they're making the websites richer with
00:04:55: plugins and functional components Etc
00:04:58: and so
00:05:00: Extendify with the owners has to do more
00:05:03: than just the first kind of 60 seconds
00:05:05: of the site's life so these users will
00:05:08: have access to generally I'll I'll
00:05:11: describe this as two areas of additional
00:05:13: experiences so the first within WP admin
00:05:16: itself users will have exposure to what
00:05:20: we call the site assistant it's an
00:05:22: interface that guides them through some
00:05:24: of the tasks necessary to continue to
00:05:27: set up their site like uploading a a
00:05:29: logo or a site
00:05:31: icon and also give them access to a very
00:05:35: comprehensive help center which includes
00:05:37: everything from a knowledge base and
00:05:41: tours of the wp admin interface but also
00:05:44: an AI based WordPress co-pilot that
00:05:47: understands the context of the site what
00:05:49: version of Wordpress it is what theme is
00:05:51: active Etc and can really answer any
00:05:53: these WordPress questions to remove
00:05:55: friction from building the site the
00:05:57: other area where they'll see Extendify
00:06:00: is in the page and post editor itself so
00:06:04: Extendify is built sites built with
00:06:07: extend ifier built completely on core
00:06:09: WordPress with the core editor so the
00:06:11: users will still be using the core
00:06:13: editor as some people call it Gutenberg
00:06:16: and but in the editor users will have
00:06:18: access to the design library of
00:06:21: preconfigured design patterns for their
00:06:23: specific industry so they can really
00:06:25: easily in one click add content or to
00:06:28: Pages or build whole new pages
00:06:30: and they'll also have access to the AI
00:06:33: editing tools that let them both edit
00:06:37: text on their on their site but also add
00:06:40: AI generated images to any page and we
00:06:43: know for users that creating content
00:06:45: adding content to pages is a major point
00:06:48: of friction maybe the number one point
00:06:49: of friction for users and taking that
00:06:51: friction away so that a user is not
00:06:53: thinking ah what should go on a contact
00:06:55: me page and I don't have the perfect
00:06:58: picture of this thing to put on this
00:06:59: page remove that guesswork remove that
00:07:01: friction and help the user keep going so
00:07:04: so there's the initial onboarding as
00:07:06: Nikolai described earlier and then the
00:07:08: The Experience continues through the
00:07:10: site assistant in the dashboard and then
00:07:11: through the AI editing tools in the
00:07:13: actual editor okay sounds very
00:07:16: beneficial Extendify builds WordPress
00:07:18: sites using core WordPress components
00:07:21: what's what does that mean for the user
00:07:23: of their site yeah you know as a
00:07:25: WordPress Community we've been on a long
00:07:26: journey here with the core editor and
00:07:30: Gutenberg project as it's called and and
00:07:33: that experience has really come a long
00:07:35: way and is a great platform for a lot of
00:07:39: people to build their sites it's a very
00:07:41: rich experience at this point in terms
00:07:43: of the editor itself as well as the full
00:07:46: site editing experience and so extend
00:07:48: ify any anything that's built with
00:07:51: Extendify whether it's full-blown Pages
00:07:53: through the onboarding experience or
00:07:54: then later editing of pages with the
00:07:57: design library and the AI tools
00:07:59: everything leverages just core WordPress
00:08:01: everything is built with a core
00:08:02: WordPress editor using just core
00:08:05: WordPress blocks and so the benefit of
00:08:07: that is really three-fold one the the
00:08:12: sites are as fast as WordPress can be
00:08:14: there's nothing else on these Pages
00:08:16: there's no additional bloat of kind of
00:08:18: like a page builder or a heavy theme
00:08:20: framework or anything else it's just
00:08:22: pure WordPress so they're as fast as
00:08:24: possible which is very important for the
00:08:25: user because when they're thinking about
00:08:27: SEO speed is is important and also as
00:08:30: they're thinking about Commerce
00:08:32: milliseconds make the difference in user
00:08:35: purchasing decisions and so having the
00:08:37: site be as fast as possible is critical
00:08:39: the the US using just core WordPress
00:08:43: also means that these sites are very
00:08:44: flexible if someone wants to use some
00:08:46: plug-in for example it'll be compatible
00:08:48: here because it's just core WordPress
00:08:49: that's running on these on these sites
00:08:51: and third there is no lock in for the
00:08:54: user unlike historically what users
00:08:57: would face with kind of page building
00:08:59: solution Solutions Etc where once you
00:09:00: start using one you can never stop with
00:09:02: Extendify it's just core WordPress and
00:09:04: so you're not locked into this
00:09:05: experience users continue to use the
00:09:08: exify experience uh through IONOS
00:09:10: because it is valuable it's helping them
00:09:12: it's adding value to their site but not
00:09:15: because they're forced to and that
00:09:16: flexibility I think is part of the ethos
00:09:19: of Wordpress keeping it open source
00:09:20: keeping it flexible the user owns their
00:09:22: data they also own their experience we
00:09:25: think that's critical and and thus we're
00:09:27: always basing everything every new
00:09:28: feature is always just leveraging the
00:09:31: core editing experience so AI is a topic
00:09:34: which is exploding growing more and more
00:09:37: how do you envision the evolvement of
00:09:39: the product for the next
00:09:42: years the first kind of major
00:09:44: implementation of AI for us and I think
00:09:47: generally in the world of AI we've seen
00:09:51: that it is a tool that's great great for
00:09:52: creating content and so that is where we
00:09:55: focused first on how do we use AI to
00:09:59: make sure that users have a great
00:10:01: starting point in their language for
00:10:03: their site which means they're not
00:10:05: sitting there struggling to think you
00:10:07: know what goes into an FAQ for my
00:10:10: painting business we get them started
00:10:13: with with some great content there and
00:10:15: it's also it is in their language so
00:10:17: they're not translating English you know
00:10:19: some Standard English templates into
00:10:21: German for example it's all in their
00:10:23: language it's in German makes it very
00:10:24: very simple for them now what we're
00:10:27: working on now and and and and as we
00:10:29: think think about the coming months of
00:10:31: development of extendi it is in addition
00:10:34: to the content use case for AI it is
00:10:37: really using AI to further Define the
00:10:41: structure and functional components of a
00:10:43: site and to automate that for a user and
00:10:46: so that the sites become Ultra Ultra
00:10:49: personalized so it's it's not even the
00:10:52: idea of I'm picking an industry like a
00:10:54: barber or a cafe it is I'm picking my
00:10:57: specific industry Maybe I am a dog
00:11:00: groomer that only Grooms German
00:11:02: Shepherds so I want this site to be
00:11:05: ultra Niche for me have exactly what I
00:11:08: need in terms of content structure and
00:11:10: and we think AI especially with the
00:11:12: developments that are happening right
00:11:13: now is going to be a great tool for that
00:11:15: I mean who knows where AI will be a year
00:11:17: from now I'm sure we'll all be amazed
00:11:19: and surprised with what we can do and
00:11:21: extend IFI is extremely committed to
00:11:23: bring the latest and greatest to the
00:11:25: product always even today as you sign up
00:11:28: with AOS for for your hosting building
00:11:32: your site using extend ify you're
00:11:34: already using um the very latest models
00:11:38: that are available today and that'll
00:11:40: continue into the future and Nikolai how
00:11:43: do you see the future of the AI
00:11:45: functionalities in our WordPress hosting
00:11:48: products when we think where we're
00:11:50: coming from the past like the last 10
00:11:53: years even older web pages you really
00:11:57: needed to know like what is an FTP what
00:12:00: is a database you really need to set up
00:12:02: up and WordPress was one of the first
00:12:04: like with the five minutes and then you
00:12:08: can begin with your web page and and
00:12:10: that was a wow that was easy and now we
00:12:14: are six steps with extend ify so and I
00:12:18: think the future will be just with a
00:12:20: click and everything is set up the right
00:12:22: context the right just one
00:12:24: prompt I don't know when we will be
00:12:27: there but I think that will be um the
00:12:31: future and at ionas we want to really
00:12:33: make that happen and as fast as it's
00:12:36: possible so uh yeah thank you Artur thank
00:12:40: you Nikolai for being my guest today
00:12:43: that was very inspiring and I think very
00:12:45: interesting for our users and also our
00:12:48: customers thank you thank you Sabrina
00:12:51: thanks for having
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