SiteGround's Icky Approach to AI in WordPress 7.0 - Rhys Wynne

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So I have a few sites with SiteGround. They’re largely sites that don’t get a huge amount of traffic (with the exception of All Rumble Stats, which gets 20k a month). Hosting is a bit like your bank account or your broadband provider: they are there and as long as you don’t do much to annoy them, then you stick with them. Friction of moving is painful, so you want to avoid it. Nevertheless, they were a pretty good host a while back that didn’t seem to do anything egregious compared to other hosts, plus I’ve been to their EU offices, so I have recommended them in the past.

There have been a few things that have occurred in the past few years that is has me questioning continuing hosting with them. One was their speed optimiser plugin (which I think were great) deleted all WebP images, even those that the plugin didn’t create, and their support which is an AI Slopstacle Course at the moment.

Last week though I think means I’ll be moving off their servers when I renew.

WordPress 7.0 and the AI Connector Module

WordPress 7.0 came out recently, and as part of that introduced the AI Connector module, which whilst does nothing off the bat, allows you to store your chosen planet boiler key of choice within WordPress, allowing other plugins to use it for their means. It means you don’t have to add your API key to all plugins, instead just doing it once within the WordPress backend. Convenient.

I’m not a huge fan of it for a number of reasons. Firstly, as raised by Oliver Sild over on Twitter (sorry) every WordPress site could have an API key embedded in it, allowing hackers access to API tokens to do nefarious things. It feels like at the very least there’s a massive target on every that is built on WordPress’ back.

SiteGround crystalised the other reason. In that hosts will set this feature up for you, even if you don’t want them to.

I got an email a few weeks back. I’ve copied it verbatim below:-

Hi Rhys,

One of the most significant WordPress releases in years is coming, anticipated on May 20, 2026. This new version will provide a standardized way to connect your WordPress site to AI providers providers (learn more), making it possible to integrate a whole new range of AI capabilities for managing and editing your website. Once it rolls out we’ll update your WordPress site automatically. On top of that, we’ll connect it with SiteGround AI Studio so that you can start using AI capabilities right out of the box.

Sites to be automatically updated to WordPress 7.0

As always, we’ll automatically update all WordPress installations on our platform to 7.0 based on your WordPress autoupdate settings. By default, we apply major updates with 24 hour’s notice, so no action is needed on your end. The update itself is just the beginning. We’ve also taken several steps to make sure that you can take advantage of the new AI capabilities without any additional configuration.

AI Studio with 20,000 free tokens to be enabled as your default AI connector

When WordPress 7.0 lands, the standard process to start using AI capabilities will involve a few steps. First, connecting an AI provider of choice by installing a connector and providing an API key. Second, then installing the native WordPress AI plugin so AI capabilities appear in the WordPress core.

SiteGround customers, however, skip all of that entirely. With the new WordPress version, you’ll get SiteGround AI Studio activated as your default AI connector, plus our powerful AI WordPress Agent enabled automatically. This allows you to immediately use AI power for managing your WordPress. No API keys, manual connections, or extra plugins needed. You’re ready to use AI-powered features right away, backed by 20,000 free tokens available to you every month through AI Studio.

Powerful AI Agent for WordPress management to be activated

As part of the WordPress 7.0 update, SiteGround’s AI Agent will appear directly in your WordPress admin ready to help with all sorts of tasks. The moment WordPress 7.0 is live on your site, you’ll have our robust AI chat assistant available directly from your admin dashboard.

SiteGround’s AI Agent capabilities go far beyond the standard image and text generation many other AI plugins provide. It can handle real...