On January 5, 2026, we hosted another technical meetup focused on very practical challenges modern WordPress developers face today: automating UI development with AI and preparing codebases for PHP 8.5 and the upcoming PHP 9.
Topics
PHP 8.5: New Features & Preparing for PHP 9
An overview of what PHP 8.5 brings and why legacy support is becoming a liability:
- pipe operator, clone-with, URI extension
- increased engine strictness and new runtime errors
- upcoming breaking changes in PHP 9
- why PHP 7.2 must finally be dropped
From Figma to Code, Reinvented by AI
A hands-on walkthrough of converting a Figma design into a fully working WordPress admin UI using JSON + AI:
- extracting design structure from Figma
- generating PHP, CSS, and JS automatically
- integrating the result into a real WordPress plugin
- reducing manual UI work by several times
Materials
- Download Presentation 1 and Presentation 2.
- See the recording of the meetup. Passcode: x=9ijP64