Articles

Content Management System Article

Sweet FlowMotion: Storyblok Transforms Content Updates into Automated Workflows

matt-garrepy

<hr /> When I spun a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-tale-of-two-phils-exploring-umbracos-open/id1801794414?i=1000749874476">“Tale of Two Phils”</a> on an episode of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cms-critic-the-critics-corner-podcast/id1801794414">The Critic’s Corner Podcast</a> earlier this year, I wasn’t prepared for how complementary my two guests would sound. If you listen to the conversation, there are multiple such intersections between <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/umbraco">Umbraco</a> CTO <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipbech/">Filip Bech-Larsen</a> and Staff Engineer (and resident AI guru) <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-whittaker-82481716/">Phil Whitaker</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipbech/">.</a> In many ways, the two complete each other, handing off thoughts like an MCP server connecting the dots. It elevated the knowledge on multiple levels.This makes the collaboration a solid one for Umbraco, an open source CMS that continues to diligently push forward on its agentic AI ambitions. The company’s steady pace of innovation just took another leap forward with the launch of new Backoffice Extension Skills, which are based on Anthropic’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://resources.anthropic.com/hubfs/The-Complete-Guide-to-Building-Skill-for-Claude.pdf">Agent Skills</a>. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:32.52%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/phil-whittaker-2.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Umbraco Staff Engineer (AI) Phil Whitaker “We’re seeing a fundamental shift in how digital projects are delivered,” Whitaker said, driving home the key advantages of these new additions to Umbraco. “AI is becoming the starting point for new projects and is where developers explore ideas. Backoffice Extension Skills ensure that when your team uses an AI assistant, the correct Umbraco knowledge is available.”<img /><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.99%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/umbraco-ai-platform-winter-2026.png" alt="" /></figure>Source: Umbraco Winter Keynote 2026 Umbraco’s aggressive AI product horizon was teased during its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK-eGhzZYpw">Winter Keynote in February,</a> and several digital agency partners are experimenting with creating AI-based workflows. This includes some strong use cases, such as <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://digitalwonderlab.com/umbraco-agency/umbraco-lab-notes/alt-text-shouldnt-be-this-hard-so-we-fixed-it/">Digital Wonderlab’s automated Alt Text generator</a> for improving website accessibility.<h3 id="what-are-agent-skills?-">What are Agent Skills? </h3>In a nutshell, Anthopic’s Agent Skills are like “onboarding guides” that enable AI to execute specific, complex workflows – like data analysis or file creation – without overloading its context window. Agent Skills provide modular, reusable, and organized packages that contain instructions and scripts that help developers and users build, share, and deploy agents that are more effective and context-aware.Anthropic launched Agent Skills as an open standard in December 2025 under <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linuxfoundation.org/">The Linux Foundation.</a> Since then, they’ve been widely adopted, working across Claude and other AI platforms.<h3 id="maintaining-control-and-extensibility">Maintaining control and extensibility</h3>Umbraco’s Backoffice Extension Skills are like a roadmap for AI agents, guiding them to the most up-to-date Umbraco documentation, examples, and source code. Skills are exposed using a standardized endpoint that can be called by AI tools like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://claude.ai/">Claude</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chatgpt.com/">ChatGPT</a>, or custom <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.langchain.com/langchain">LangChain agents</a> – making it incredibly extensible.With this guidance, LLMs and agents use the most current version of the Umbraco software and the essential modern frameworks – where they can effectively customize the backoffice or complete tasks like building dashboards or property editors. All of Umbraco’s Backoffice Extension points are registered, documented, and supported, ensuring that customizations are maintained.According to Filip Bech-Larsen, Umbraco’s Backoffice Extension Skills are the first series of skills, aimed at supporting developers using AI agents for building and extending their digital projects. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:32.75%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/filip-bech-larsen-1777422652939.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Umbraco CTO Filip Bech-Larsen “Agent Skills mirror the way that Umbraco’s Backoffice Extension points work,” he added. “Each Backoffice Extension point links AI Skills to the latest Umbraco documentation, source code, and examples. This supports safer development and positions Umbraco as one of the first major CMS platforms to deliver a comprehensive, agent-ready architecture.”Ready to level up your skills? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://umbraco.com/blog/the-agent-ready-cms-introducing-agent-skills-umbraco-backoffice-extension/">Learn more here.</a><h3 id="building-on-an-agentic-ai-foundation">Building on an agentic AI foundation</h3>The proof is in the pudding, as they say – and Umbraco’s partners are putting its growing AI capabilities to work. Several use cases are nominated for the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/awards/">Umbraco Awards</a> at the upcoming <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Codegarden 2026,</a> which is being held June 10-11 in Copenhagen. Case in point: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennis-adolfi/">Dennis Adolfi</a>, head of technology at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/knowit-experience/">Knowit Experience,</a> a leading digital agency based in the Nordics, recently shared an innovative agentic solution for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/bewigroup/">BEWI Group.</a> In the use case, agents assist or fully manage complete workflows in the dev cycle, from design to code to deployment – even through content creation. The solution relies on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://umbraco.ai/">Umbraco.AI</a> and Umbraco’s MCP to deliver transformative results, the kind that have earned Knowit a nomination for Umbraco’s Best Innovation with AI Award. “[Umbraco] really is a CMS built for AI,” Adolfi said. Another contender for this category comes from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.perplex.nl/en/">Perplex Digital</a>, which developed an AI-powered solution for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/autolease-van-centraal-beheer/">Autolease van Centraal Beheer,</a> allowing users to literally “talk” to their website. The agency replaced the company’s static navigation with conversation, making it easier for customers to use the site when they’re unable to manually browse for information. They can fill out forms simply by using their voice, making the company’s services more accessible. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://nxtds.com">NXT Digital Solutions Ltd </a>is also nominated for a dynamic CMS migration project for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.exclusive-networks.com/">Exclusive Networks</a>. NXT introduced Umbraco's Backoffice Agents to automate content tagging, publishing pipelines, and version control to resolve critical indexing failures that were affecting over 1,300 pages – making content more discoverable to search engines and users.<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>Umbraco continues to introduce high-value tooling for its AI capabilities, and the alignment with Anthropic's Agent Skills is a sage move. By embedding an agent-ready architecture directly into its flexible and extensible CMS, it's moving beyond bolt-on assistants to guided, governed solutions – the kind that provide solid ground for faster and safer agent performance. As is evidenced by the use cases above, it's clear that Umbraco's partners are proving out the potential for how AI and agents can be successfully applied. My bet is that the “Two Phils” are seeing some innovative outcomes they weren't even anticipating. And I'm sure they would agree that's a good thing. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:34.15%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/logo_jday_hor.png" /><h4 id="joomladay-usa-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/">JoomlaDay USA 2026</a></h4>April 29 - May 2, 2026 – Delray Beach, FloridaBe part of the Joomla community in one of the most iconic cities in the world! JoomlaDay USA 2026 is coming to Delray Beach, and you can join us for a dynamic event packed with insights, workshops, and networking opportunities. Learn from top Joomla experts and developers offering valuable insights and real-world solutions. Participate in interactive workshops and sessions and enhance your skills in Joomla management, development, design, and more. And connect with fellow Joomla enthusiasts, developers, and professionals from across the world.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/"> Book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:30.06%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/cms-summit-26-logo.jpg" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26">CMS Summit 26</a></h4>May 12-13, 2026 – Frankfurt, GermanyThe best conferences create space for honest, experience-based conversations. Not sales pitches. Not hype. Just thoughtful exchanges between people who spend their days designing, building, running, and evolving digital experiences. CMS Summit brings together people who share real stories from their work and platforms and who are interested in learning from each other on how to make things better. Over two days in Frankfurt, you can expect practitioner-led talks grounded in experience, conversations about trade-offs, constraints, and decisions, and time to compare notes with peers facing similar challenges. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26/tickets">so book your seats today.</a> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise-amsterdam/?utm_campaign=awareness-fy26&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;pi_campaign_id=117478"><img style="width:23.45%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/raise-logo-kontent.jpg" alt="" /></a><h4 id="raise-amsterdam"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise-amsterdam/?utm_campaign=awareness-fy26&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;pi_campaign_id=117478">RAISE Amsterdam</a></h4>May 20, 2026 – Amsterdam, NetherlandsSponsored by Kontent.ai, RAISE Amsterdam brings together bold marketing and technology leaders to explore how agentic AI is reshaping the way ambitious brands create and deliver content and what it takes to use it safely, responsibly, and with proper governance. Experience the ideas that are shaping the future and dive into big thinking, innovative strategies, and expert insights. Held at the Klein Canvas, Volkshotel, you'll hear from world-class speakers in dynamic sessions that will reveal how AI-powered content operations are accelerating production, improving governance, and driving creative impact. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise-amsterdam/?utm_campaign=awareness-fy26&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;pi_campaign_id=117478">Limited spots are available, so book yours today.</a> <img style="width:30.13%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/12/image-1765546475634.png" /><h4 id="umbraco-codegarden-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Umbraco Codegarden 2026</a></h4>June 10–11, 2026 – Copenhagen, DKJoin us in Copenhagen (or online) for the biggest Umbraco conference in the world – two full days of learning, genuine conversations, and the kind of inspiration that brings business leaders, developers, and digital creators together. Codegarden 2026 is packed with both business and tech content, from deep-dive workshops and advanced sessions to real-world case studies and strategy talks. You’ll leave with ideas, strategies, and knowledge you can put into practice immediately. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Book your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:36.69%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/open-source-cms-26.jpg" /><h4 id="open-source-cms-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26">Open Source CMS 26</a></h4>October 20–21, 2026 – Utrecht, NetherlandsJoin us for the first annual edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to making open source CMS better. This event is already being called the “missing gathering place” for the open source CMS community – an international conference with confirmed participants from Europe and North America. Be part of a friendly mix of digital leaders from notable open source CMS projects, agencies, even a few industry analysts who get together to learn, network, and talk about what really matters when it comes to creating better open source CMS projects right now and for the foreseeable future. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26/tickets">Book your tickets today.</a>

Level Up Your Agent Skills: Umbraco’s Agent-Ready Architecture Promises Faster, Safer Development

Matt & Matt, Episode 4: PLAY BALL! Adobe Summit at Bat, Optimizely, HubSpot, and AI Agents on Deck

cms-critic-staff

Agent Evolution: Kontent.ai Brings Intelligent ‘Expert Agents’ to its Agentic CMS

Life after FAIR? Don’t despair. The pivot to TYPO3 could unlock the future of open source CMS

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/isabellaotero">Bastian Sirvend</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/dan-drapeau"> </a>is a CMS/DXP expert and analyst, founder of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://sutsche.com/">SUTSCHE</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.enhancely.ai/">enhancely.ai</a>, and a CMS Critic contributor. <hr /> We’ve installed <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/emdash-wordpress/">EmDash, Cloudflare’s new open-source CMS,</a> which was released on April 1st. No joke, even if the timing looked like one. Naturally, we were curious, as LinkedIn and the like were bursting at the seams with posts about EmDash’s tech and functionality, and how it’s supposedly the “WordPress killer.”Since we’d already got it up and running, we went straight to building a plugin for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.enhancely.ai/">enhancely.ai</a>, our automation platform that addresses a critical gap in web content: broken or missing structured data. It instantly generates schema markup, enabling AI tools like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chatgpt.com/">ChatGPT</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.perplexity.ai/">Perplexity</a> to better understand website content without requiring manual rewrites.Automated schema markup without an editor having to lift a finger. I'm happy to report that it all worked: A fully functional CMS in what felt like an hour, with a plugin created and packaged. We even found a bug in EmDash along the way, fixed it, and submitted a pull request. What a day.And ever since then, one question has been on my mind: how will this change the way we select a CMS? There's a lot to unpack here, but let's start with how we've been doing it up until now — and why I believe EmDash is changing things. <h3 id="how-to-select-a-cms:-the-sutsche-approach">How to select a CMS: The SUTSCHE approach</h3>When our team at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://sutsche.com/">SUTSCHE</a> supports clients in selecting a system, we consider the decision from five different angles: <ol><li>How well does the system meet the functional requirements? </li><li>How does it fit into the overall picture, both technically and architecturally? </li><li>How does it perform within the ecosystem, in integrations, and in interfaces? </li><li>What are the financial and strategic implications — both now and in three years? </li><li>And how will it actually be adopted and operated by the people within the organisation?</li></ol><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:93.64%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/bildschirmfoto-2026-04-03-um-22.png" /></figure>Five comprehensive dimensions. Not just a checklist.That's always been our approach. Because choosing a CMS isn’t just about features. It’s a decision about the foundation on which a company builds its content. It’s about the paths that lead to the website or shop, not just a piece of software where you tick boxes. Ultimately, it’s a project you’re buying, and that is far more complex than mere functionality.Then <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro">MCP servers</a> were introduced. A new kind of functionality that's operating on a different level from standard functions that are carried out manually. In short, more than just APIs. Suddenly, tasks that had previously been carried out by hand – content migration, schema adjustments, repetitive administrative tasks — could be handled by agents. The CMS could now be controlled remotely. Manual processes that had been time-consuming for years could suddenly be automated. We've taken this into account in our assessment. A new dimension, a proven framework. Good. That makes sense.<h3 id="but-with-the-release-of-emdash,-something-different-happened-for-me…">But with the release of EmDash, something different happened for me…</h3>Not because it’s MCP-compatible. Not because it’s built on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://astro.build/">Astro</a> or MIT-licensed or can run on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.cloudflare.com/">Cloudflare</a>. Because it was built in two months. By an experienced developer, to be sure. And using AI agents. But still, two months for a complete CMS with an admin panel, plugin system, authentication, migration tool, and MCP server?The step from “agents controlling a CMS” to “agents building a CMS” sounds big. It isn’t anymore.Because it means that features that are still missing today will be there tomorrow, and just a few prompts away. The gap between systems — the gap that has structured the selection process for years — isn’t collapsing dramatically. It’s simply shrinking quietly. And other things that should concern customers within the five dimensions are becoming increasingly important.<h3 id="and-this-is-precisely-where-i-ask-myself,-‘how-does-this-change-the-way-we-make-decisions?’">And this is precisely where I ask myself, ‘How does this change the way we make decisions?’</h3>The functional dimension — does the system have feature X, to what standard, to what extent — has long been the loudest voice in the selection process. It isn’t going to disappear. But it is becoming less prominent. Because the argument that “our competitor doesn’t have that yet” is losing its impact more quickly. Anyone who thinks this is just theory is mistaken. From my own experience, I can say that the author of this document has created a fully functional website based on a CMS using <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://code.claude.com/docs/en/overview">Claude Code,</a> the documentation for some fairly significant CMS platforms, a template/style guide, and a healthy dose of curiosity. Including a few functional enhancements.Let’s shift perspective and move up a level here, too. While I was moderating a product presentation, the question popped up in a chat: “Please don’t stone me, but what exactly is the difference between <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/typo3">TYPO3</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/umbraco">Umbraco</a>?” An absolutely valid question at first, but one participant’s answer astonished me. “It's the technology stack," they said.Yes, that's true. TYPO3 is PHP, while Umbraco is .NET. But are these still real differentiators? The arguments had already been watered down when it came to clients using agencies to do the programming work. With SaaS, this has been further diluted. And now? In times when IBM shares are plummeting because Claude Code can also speak <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL">COBOL</a>, migrating from one technology stack to the next is really just a matter of a prompt and a couple of sharp glances (my old math teacher always used to say when simplifying complex equations, “you just need to take a sharp look once, and then you’ve got it”). Of course, that’s an exaggeration. There’s still quite a bit involved — but the hurdle is eroding more and more.<h3 id="what-remains-are-the-other-four-dimensions-of-decision-making.-and-i-believe-they-are-becoming-more-important-–-not-less-so.">What remains are the other four dimensions of decision-making. And I believe they are becoming more important – not less so.</h3>Who do I entrust my content foundation to in the long term? Who will still be supporting the system in three years? What ecosystem is growing around it? Which partners, which community, which integrations? How does it fit into the organization, into the teams, into the actual work processes? These aren’t new questions. But they’re coming to the forefront. And as I think about it further while writing this, I come to the conclusion that, in the end, it’s still the people, agencies, and project stakeholders who have to bring it to life. No matter what “it” turns out to be. Even with incredibly impressive AI support in feature development, the piece of software must fit into the organization, the IT landscape, and the client’s processes — or find a place there.And as I think about this further, my talk with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/janus-boye">Janus Boye</a> at the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://aarhus25.boye-co.com/">Boye Aarhus 25 Conference</a> might become even more important. The point was that, due to the development of AI and the lack of adaptation on the part of customers, something needs to change along the entire value chain.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:89.26%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/boye_adoptiongap.png" /></figure> In my view, the role of agencies needs to change dramatically, away from pure development and away from being a “workshop” and towards becoming consultants. The new agency helps clients with organizational development and process optimization. It helps clients to measure and evaluate what has been built and produced, and then to adapt, refine, and optimize it — so that it works even better for them.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:89.44%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/04/boye_adoptiongap2.png" /></figure> In my presentation, I outlined the role of vendors as enablers. They empower agencies to use the software to ask the right questions of the client and to initiate change, so that the software can truly make a difference. In my view, we may need to rethink or re-evaluate the role of vendors. Beyond a controlled development process, it is perhaps the establishment and empowerment, knowledge transfer, and network design that ultimately bring an ecosystem to life and make the difference. The entire interplay of technology, processes, and collaboration. A genuine network.EmDash currently has no satisfactory answer (at least not yet) to most of the points we consider when selecting systems and what we’ve discussed. Version 0.1.0 is just version 0.1.0. It’s been “on the market” since 2026. No ecosystem. No community. No track record. And I don’t see it as a WordPress killer, either. And as I said, this isn’t based on functionality, tech stack, or anything like that. However, it is a demonstration of what is technically possible. And for some use cases, it’s already a valid choice (quickly creating a landing page, setting up satellite sites, putting up a blackout page, testing a prototype).For us at SUTSCHE, this means we’ve been asking the right questions all along. Not because we foresaw it, but because a structured decision has always been about more than just a list of features. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:34.15%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/logo_jday_hor.png" /><h4 id="joomladay-usa-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/">JoomlaDay USA 2026</a></h4>April 29 - May 2, 2026 – Delray Beach, FloridaBe part of the Joomla community in one of the most iconic cities in the world! JoomlaDay USA 2026 is coming to Delray Beach, and you can join us for a dynamic event packed with insights, workshops, and networking opportunities. Learn from top Joomla experts and developers offering valuable insights and real-world solutions. Participate in interactive workshops and sessions and enhance your skills in Joomla management, development, design, and more. And connect with fellow Joomla enthusiasts, developers, and professionals from across the world.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/"> Book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:30.06%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/cms-summit-26-logo.jpg" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26">CMS Summit 26</a></h4>May 12-13, 2026 – Frankfurt, GermanyThe best conferences create space for honest, experience-based conversations. Not sales pitches. Not hype. Just thoughtful exchanges between people who spend their days designing, building, running, and evolving digital experiences. CMS Summit brings together people who share real stories from their work and platforms and who are interested in learning from each other on how to make things better. Over two days in Frankfurt, you can expect practitioner-led talks grounded in experience, conversations about trade-offs, constraints, and decisions, and time to compare notes with peers facing similar challenges. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26/tickets">so book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:30.13%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/12/image-1765546475634.png" /><h4 id="umbraco-codegarden-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Umbraco Codegarden 2026</a></h4>June 10–11, 2026 – Copenhagen, DKJoin us in Copenhagen (or online) for the biggest Umbraco conference in the world – two full days of learning, genuine conversations, and the kind of inspiration that brings business leaders, developers, and digital creators together. Codegarden 2026 is packed with both business and tech content, from deep-dive workshops and advanced sessions to real-world case studies and strategy talks. You’ll leave with ideas, strategies, and knowledge you can put into practice immediately. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Book your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:36.69%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/open-source-cms-26.jpg" /><h4 id="open-source-cms-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26">Open Source CMS 26</a></h4>October 20–21, 2026 – Utrecht, NetherlandsJoin us for the first annual edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to making open source CMS better. This event is already being called the “missing gathering place” for the open source CMS community – an international conference with confirmed participants from Europe and North America. Be part of a friendly mix of digital leaders from notable open source CMS projects, agencies, even a few industry analysts who get together to learn, network, and talk about what really matters when it comes to creating better open source CMS projects right now and for the foreseeable future. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26/tickets">Book your tickets today.</a>

After EmDash — what am I actually buying when I choose a CMS?

bastiansirvend

11,000 Days and Counting: CoreMedia’s Sören Stamer on AI, Digital Sovereignty, and Seizing Opportunity 

The AI Sweet Spot: Debbie Tucek on Kentico’s Agentic Marketing Suite and Finding Value Beyond Hype

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

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Sanity’s AI Content Operating System Powers Intelligence with Structure and Agents with Context

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/justincook">Justin Cook</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/dan-drapeau"> </a>is President of Internet Marketing &amp; Development at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.9thco.com/">9thCO</a> and a CMS Critic contributor. <hr /> Since the rise in popularity of ChatGPT and other AI search tools, marketers have watched in horror as KPIs drown in red. Organic traffic continues to decline as users begin to “trust” AI search, oftentimes not even leaving the chat experience to explore a cited brand’s website. This behavior is likely to compound as people increasingly offload tedious research, and therefore marketing teams need to adapt and understand what’s needed in order to “show up” in chat, establishing visibility (a.k.a. “share of voice”). This goes far beyond keyword research and throwing schema markup on your site.A critical piece of understanding is the underlying mental model. When using AI chat to ask questions, if the LLM (predominantly static) doesn’t have the data, then a retrieval layer brings in fresher data via relevant “chunked” search queries in order to synthesize an accurate response. Therefore, the goal is not to “optimize for LLMs,” but rather to understand the mechanics of how LLMs leverage retrieval mechanisms and provide the optimal website markup, performance, accessibility, and data structures to qualify for retrieval. And like it or not, the CMS that powers your website behind the scenes can have a direct impact, depending on rendering, markup, and technical SEO capabilities.<h3 id="a-proposed-paradigm-of-retrievability:-eaca">A Proposed Paradigm of Retrievability: EACA</h3>EACA stands for Eligibility, Authority, Compressibility, and Association. These four areas generally encompass factors that influence discoverability. We won’t touch on Authority in this article, as that’s less about technical infrastructure and more about how you're building your brand.  <h4 id="1.-eligibility">1. Eligibility</h4>When you are engaged in a chat experience, some of the perceived “magic” is that you’re in a natural flow of conversation. Therefore, responses are critically time-bound. If you ask a question and have to wait 15 seconds for the response, you would not continue the conversation. So essentially, Eligibility is the determination of whether a page can be crawled, rendered, and indexed. There are standard CMS considerations such as robots.txt configuration, server-side generation/rendering, caching, and revalidation. What this means practically is that you could be ranking #1 in SERPs for many keywords, yet less likely to be indexed, retrieved, or cited by retrieval mechanisms if your CMS employs lazy-loading, infinite scrolling, JavaScript-based rendering, or weak template-to-content ratios.Properly implemented headless CMS solutions can improve Eligibility by decoupling the frontend, where it is stored statically and served from a global edge network. <h4 id="2.-compressibility">2. Compressibility</h4>Compressibility is about assessing the smallest unit of data and content that something can be reduced to while still remaining accurate. This ensures that content is easy to summarize and embed, without losing precision.Interestingly, one of the most straightforward means to ensure Compressibility is to ensure the highest possible standard of web accessibility on your site. How so? Accessible semantic markup creates a clear content hierarchy for AI retrieval mechanisms, making content easier to chunk and summarize and thereby less ambiguous during compression.Again, your choice of CMS has a material impact on your ability to achieve full web accessibility. The following are common limitations:<ul><li>Theming “engine” architecture</li><li>CMS-specific markup</li><li>Editor tooling constraints</li><li>Plugin ecosystem and rendering methodologies </li><li>Page builder behaviors and data models (or lack thereof)</li></ul>Another major factor for Compressibility (particularly for retailers) is surfacing data points as high-signal, atomic facts. So auditing your data governance from the source to how it’s published through your CMS and marked up on the frontend can have a major impact.Ideally, any selected CMS should provide complete control over the front-end implementation and remove any possible theming constraints. <h4 id="3.-association">3. Association</h4>It’s important that an LLM can properly interpret the appropriate conversations within which your brand and content are relevant. The notion of Association means clearly establishing the concepts, entities, and problems your brand/page/content belongs “with.” Association is established via entity co-occurrence, explicit language, and tight topical clusters, which are not CMS-dependent. However, something that helps further by reducing ambiguity and introducing machine-readable relationships is schema markup. Ensure that your CMS allows you to maximize the use of appropriate schema markup in articles, case studies, etc. But it’s also critical to ensure that the schema markup that is surfaced on the frontend is valid. <h3 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h3>AI search-referred users can be highly qualified and engaged, and more likely to convert. It’s true that digital transformation projects are serious undertakings, but it’s worth the effort to ensure that your CMS can support the technical fundamentals and data structures that feed retrieval mechanisms – and surface your content! <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:34.15%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/logo_jday_hor.png" /><h4 id="joomladay-usa-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/">JoomlaDay USA 2026</a></h4>April 29 - May 2, 2026 – Delray Beach, FloridaBe part of the Joomla community in one of the most iconic cities in the world! JoomlaDay USA 2026 is coming to Delray Beach, and you can join us for a dynamic event packed with insights, workshops, and networking opportunities. Learn from top Joomla experts and developers offering valuable insights and real-world solutions. Participate in interactive workshops and sessions and enhance your skills in Joomla management, development, design, and more. And connect with fellow Joomla enthusiasts, developers, and professionals from across the world.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/"> Book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:30.06%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/cms-summit-26-logo.jpg" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26">CMS Summit 26</a></h4>May 12-13, 2026 – Frankfurt, GermanyThe best conferences create space for honest, experience-based conversations. Not sales pitches. Not hype. Just thoughtful exchanges between people who spend their days designing, building, running, and evolving digital experiences. CMS Summit brings together people who share real stories from their work and platforms and who are interested in learning from each other on how to make things better. Over two days in Frankfurt, you can expect practitioner-led talks grounded in experience, conversations about trade-offs, constraints, and decisions, and time to compare notes with peers facing similar challenges. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26/tickets">so book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:30.13%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/12/image-1765546475634.png" /><h4 id="umbraco-codegarden-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Umbraco Codegarden 2026</a></h4>June 10–11, 2026 – Copenhagen, DKJoin us in Copenhagen (or online) for the biggest Umbraco conference in the world – two full days of learning, genuine conversations, and the kind of inspiration that brings business leaders, developers, and digital creators together. Codegarden 2026 is packed with both business and tech content, from deep-dive workshops and advanced sessions to real-world case studies and strategy talks. You’ll leave with ideas, strategies, and knowledge you can put into practice immediately. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Book your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:36.69%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/open-source-cms-26.jpg" /><h4 id="open-source-cms-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26">Open Source CMS 26</a></h4>October 20–21, 2026 – Utrecht, NetherlandsJoin us for the first annual edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to making open source CMS better. This event is already being called the “missing gathering place” for the open source CMS community – an international conference with confirmed participants from Europe and North America. Be part of a friendly mix of digital leaders from notable open source CMS projects, agencies, even a few industry analysts who get together to learn, network, and talk about what really matters when it comes to creating better open source CMS projects right now and for the foreseeable future. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26/tickets">Book your tickets today.</a>

Does your CMS Impact Your Brand’s Visibility in AI Search?

justincook

AddSearch’s AI Conversations is Giving Website Search a Higher IQ 

<hr /> For anyone in the website business, building something beautiful is literally the top of the mountain. You know what I mean. There’s nothing more satisfying than designing, coding, and pushing a project into production – then seeing a bump in traffic, an increase in performance, and a wave of adoration across social media. But adding an award to your mantle? That just takes it to the next level. For <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/kentico">Kentico</a>, celebrating these efforts is a big point of pride, especially for a platform that powers over 90,000 websites across the globe. For almost a decade, the DXP has highlighted the very best work of its partners and clients with its coveted “Site of the Year” Awards – and they just released the winners of its 2025 edition.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/kentico-announces-winners-of-2023-site-of-the-year-awards">I’ve covered this program</a> previously, and I’m always impressed by the quality, complexity, and bold ambition of the finalists. 2025’s crop once again demonstrates the daring and prowess of organizations and their partners to push the boundaries and redefine modern digital experiences built on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.kentico.com/CMSModules/Newsletters/CMSPages/Redirect.ashx?linkguid=11b4f14a-807d-4840-bfa8-e529c85898b7&amp;email=matt%40cmscritic.com&amp;hash=be0d1d8f19e0858f5111492f222eca952b1f9d98aaaeebe1c4c04b9dec830ced">Xperience by Kentico</a> – the multichannel content management, marketing, and digital commerce solution packaged in one cohesive platform.This year’s class showed up with some stunning, full-scale UX redesigns that deliver visual awe and impact. But there were feats of engineering as well, with a myriad of use cases featuring AI-powered marketing transformations and complex workload migrations.  Kentico’s “Site of the Year” program is categorized by industry, spanning wide cohorts like B2B as well as verticals in financial services, commerce, education, hospitality, healthcare, government, and NGOs. 2025's submissions came from across the planet, including North America, EMEA, and APAC – illustrating the flexibility and extensibility of Xperience by Kentico.In addition to these examples of partner and customer-driven excellence, 2025 was a big year of milestones for Kentico. With global demand growing for it signature platform, the company’s continued investment in AI was crystallized by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.kentico.com/platform/aira">the launch of AIRA</a> (Artificial Intelligence Recommendations &amp; Assistance), a native AI agent that unpacks and understands content and customer data to help streamline the creation, optimization, and time to deploy for digital experiences. Building on its AIRA momentum, Kentico is once again aiming to transform expectations in 2026. The company recently introduced its <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/introducing-the-agentic-marketing-suite-kentico-extends-its-ai-strategy-to-power-marketing-teams">Agentic Marketing Suite,</a> extending its AI strategy to power teams with specialized agents, each designed to execute marketing and content tasks that unlock operational efficiencies in team workflows. <h3 id="honoring-creativity-and-innovation">Honoring creativity and innovation</h3>Let’s talk about websites – because they’re still the center of gravity. More than ever, the world’s leading brands rely on unique, high-performing digital experiences across multiple channels, hoping to dazzle visitors and convert interest into action. Even amidst the shifts in traffic and the rise of AI-powered answer engines, smart consumers still value a business’s website as a central source of truth. At the same time, websites are essential to arming the new frontier of GEO and AEO by delivering a foundation of well-structured content.Kentico’s “Site of the Year” honors its clients and partners by focusing a spotlight on their remarkable work – websites and digital solutions that achieve the highest levels of creativity, innovation, content strategy, and technological implementation.A bit of level-setting on the rules: Only projects that first earned Kentico’s “Site of the Month” banner were eligible to compete, making these finalists a true “best of the best” compendium. Winners were selected by an internal Kentico judging committee based on overall excellence and measurable impact.  You can explore more about this <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.kentico.com/CMSModules/Newsletters/CMSPages/Redirect.ashx?linkguid=18b8acaa-24af-4f10-976e-74ebe1bf15e4&amp;email=matt%40cmscritic.com&amp;hash=be0d1d8f19e0858f5111492f222eca952b1f9d98aaaeebe1c4c04b9dec830ced">year’s winners and honorable mentions</a> on Kentico’s website, where they drill into the details. For each category winner, they provide a well-rounded rationale that showcases the innovative thinking, stellar design, and AI-enhanced solutions that put them in the top spot.If you’re interested, you can also vote in Kentico’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kenticosoftware_communitychoice-soty-digitalexperience-activity-7429873612603596800-ltb5/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAABkGfZEBzxXaDBwgLBqINaYG9q1JUbfxMW8">Community Choice Awards</a> through March 6th. This crowdsourced portion of the program is handled entirely on LinkedIn.Without further ado…<h3 id="2025-‘site-of-the-year’-winners-and-honorable-mentions----">2025 ‘Site of the Year’ Winners and Honorable Mentions    </h3>Man, this was a dynamite grouping of sites – and all deserving of kudos. For me, there were certainly some standouts. In the B2B category, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.kentico.com/CMSModules/Newsletters/CMSPages/Redirect.ashx?linkguid=2352b3f4-ad18-4695-b4cf-9fea119232c4&amp;email=matt%40cmscritic.com&amp;hash=be0d1d8f19e0858f5111492f222eca952b1f9d98aaaeebe1c4c04b9dec830ced">LeShuttle Freight’s</a> elegant, high-performance, multilingual experience was top-notch. In addition to simple, intuitive navigation, it has a tricked-out, real-time service update that provides critical visibility for time-sensitive logistics. The mobile experience is also lightweight, prioritizing the right elements in the UX. Implemented by <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.crafted.co.uk/services/digital-products/kentico">Crafted</a>, a long-standing U.K.-based Kentico partner, LeShuttle is a solid design that streamlines the customer journey for logistics partners, drivers, and customers – so they can keep truckin'.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/02/image-1771964387975.png" alt="" /></figure>Source: LeShuttle Freight website In the Entertainment, Hospitality, and Tourism category, I was also keen on the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://bobw.co/">Bob W. site</a>, which made me want to book my next trip to Amsterdam today. The gestalt was right up my alley, offering a clean, minimal design with clear pathways to explore short-stay apartments in a variety of locales. Agency partner <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.idhlagency.com/">IDHL</a> did yeoman’s work on developing the “Bob” identity and persona, delivering a charming and inviting vibe to the experience. Along with some killer frontend features like smart filtering and a little backend magic with reusable content, Bob W. personifies what great UX is – and I love how it all supports a corporate commitment to sustainability and a stay that’s 100% offset. It’s hospitality that's more hospitable to the earth.  <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:90.66%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/02/image-1771964386776.png" alt="" /></figure>Source: Bob W. website To say that <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.kentico.com/CMSModules/Newsletters/CMSPages/Redirect.ashx?linkguid=d26dfe6c-b389-43aa-a623-daa701b4b192&amp;email=matt%40cmscritic.com&amp;hash=be0d1d8f19e0858f5111492f222eca952b1f9d98aaaeebe1c4c04b9dec830ced">Oppenheimer</a> made a “bold” move to Kentico would be an understatement. As the winner in the Financial Services category, the wealth management leader successfully migrated from CrownPeak in only five months, with the goal of optimizing their content ops via single-source content management across multiple digital channels.Implemented by Kentico partner <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://sagepath-reply.com/">Sagepath Reply</a>, Oppenheimer’s slick design captures the essence of a trusted financial partner while simplifying navigation to key topics like capital markets. They also introduced new AI-driven tools focused on marketing and content optimization. It feels powerful yet approachable – and evokes confidence and stability at every turn. For a financial institution, this was a winning investment.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/02/image-1771964386955.png" alt="A close-up of a website

AI-generated content may be incorrect." /></figure>Source: Oppenheimer website <h3 id="winners-by-category">Winners By Category</h3> <h4 id="b2b">B2B</h4><ul><li>Winner: LeShuttle Freight (Implemented by Crafted)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: ZAG Interactive (ZAG Interactive), Westport (ALYKA Pty Ltd) </li></ul> <h4 id="commerce">Commerce</h4><ul><li>Winner: Translink (MSQ DX)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: Rhythm Japan (Interesting Solutions), Elkov Elektro (Bluesoft) </li></ul> <h4 id="consumer-goods-and-services">Consumer Goods and Services</h4><ul><li>Winner: MND Energie (Bluesoft)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: Best Best &amp; Krieger LLP (BlueModus), Contact Energy (AKQA) </li></ul> <h4 id="education-&amp;-careers-">Education &amp; Careers </h4><ul><li>Winner: ROC van Amsterdam &amp; Flevoland (TrueLime)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: Join Blakes (E-Cubed Media Synthesis Inc), The Gordon Institute of TAFE (DDSN Interactive) </li></ul> <h4 id="entertainment,-hospitality-&amp;-tourism">Entertainment, Hospitality &amp; Tourism</h4><ul><li>Winner: Bob W. (IDHL)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: Aurora Expeditions (Devotion), LA Opera (iMedia) </li></ul> <h4 id="financial-services">Financial Services</h4><ul><li>Winner: Oppenheimer (Sagepath Reply)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: Atomic Credit Union (ZAG Interactive), United Federal Credit Union (SilverTech) </li></ul> <h4 id="government-&amp;-municipal">Government &amp; Municipal</h4><ul><li>Winner: Cleveland Metroparks (Americaneagle.com)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: Réseau de transport de Longueuil (Inorbital, Inc.), Great Parks (Synoptek) </li></ul> <h4 id="healthcare">Healthcare</h4><ul><li>Winner: LivaNova (BlueModus)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: Integris Group (BizStream), Hatch Private Maternity (Zeroseven) </li></ul> <h4 id="manufacturing">Manufacturing</h4><ul><li>Winner: Pierret (Delaware Consulting SCRL)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: Nichicon (EETech Group), Renson (Blastic) </li></ul> <h4 id="ngo-&amp;-associations">NGO &amp; Associations</h4><ul><li>Winner: American Society of Landscape Architects (BlueModus)</li><li>Honorable Mentions: National Association of Independent Schools (ByteMinds), Eat Pecans (Rise, a Quad Agency) </li></ul><h3 id="setting-new-standards-for-excellence">Setting new standards for excellence</h3>Each year, I’m asked to judge awards programs, so I’m accustomed to seeing amazing work. What I love about these competitions is that I’m always surprised, intrigued, and often floored by the creativity. If you’re embarking on a brand or digital transformation quest, finding the right agency partner is critical to success. But harnessing the right CMS or DXP at the foundation is equally as important – and awards programs like Kentico’s “Site of the Year” are a great place to window shop the possibilities. This 2025 crop is a testament to the full potential of Xperience by Kentico. It’s not just about breathtaking UX, it’s also about leveraging a future-ready digital ecosystem to power multi-channel experiences across devices, languages, locations, and more. From hybrid headless implementations to secure member portals and complex third-party integrations, organizations are using the platform to unify content, marketing, and commerce into a single solution. As Kentico continues to invest in a steady stream of innovation, its partners and clients will be the first beneficiaries to access new features. Case in point: Kentico’s new Agentic Marketing Suite is ushering in a new era of intelligent orchestration, helping marketers automate decisions, personalize journeys, and optimize campaigns at scale. Digital experiences are no longer static. They continue to evolve – and so do our expectations. Even as websites morph into agentic experiences that serve both humans and bots, only people can be inspired by a brand's imagination and storytelling.Kentico’s “Site of the Year” reminds us that websites still have this power and potential. That's why they still rock – and the most beautiful, magical, and innovative sites can really bring down the house.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.kentico.com/discover/kentico-awards-winners/site-of-the-year-2025">Read more about the winners here.</a> <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:34.15%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/logo_jday_hor.png" /><h4 id="joomladay-usa-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/">JoomlaDay USA 2026</a></h4>April 29 - May 2, 2026 – Delray Beach, FloridaBe part of the Joomla community in one of the most iconic cities in the world! JoomlaDay USA 2026 is coming to Delray Beach, and you can join us for a dynamic event packed with insights, workshops, and networking opportunities. Learn from top Joomla experts and developers offering valuable insights and real-world solutions. Participate in interactive workshops and sessions and enhance your skills in Joomla management, development, design, and more. And connect with fellow Joomla enthusiasts, developers, and professionals from across the world.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.jdayusa.com/"> Book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:30.06%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/cms-summit-26-logo.jpg" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26">CMS Summit 26</a></h4>May 12-13, 2026 – Frankfurt, GermanyThe best conferences create space for honest, experience-based conversations. Not sales pitches. Not hype. Just thoughtful exchanges between people who spend their days designing, building, running, and evolving digital experiences. CMS Summit brings together people who share real stories from their work and platforms and who are interested in learning from each other on how to make things better. Over two days in Frankfurt, you can expect practitioner-led talks grounded in experience, conversations about trade-offs, constraints, and decisions, and time to compare notes with peers facing similar challenges. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit26/tickets">so book your seats today.</a> <img style="width:30.13%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/12/image-1765546475634.png" /><h4 id="umbraco-codegarden-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Umbraco Codegarden 2026</a></h4>June 10–11, 2026 – Copenhagen, DKJoin us in Copenhagen (or online) for the biggest Umbraco conference in the world – two full days of learning, genuine conversations, and the kind of inspiration that brings business leaders, developers, and digital creators together. Codegarden 2026 is packed with both business and tech content, from deep-dive workshops and advanced sessions to real-world case studies and strategy talks. You’ll leave with ideas, strategies, and knowledge you can put into practice immediately. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Book your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:36.69%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/01/open-source-cms-26.jpg" /><h4 id="open-source-cms-26"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26">Open Source CMS 26</a></h4>October 20–21, 2026 – Utrecht, NetherlandsJoin us for the first annual edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to making open source CMS better. This event is already being called the “missing gathering place” for the open source CMS community – an international conference with confirmed participants from Europe and North America. Be part of a friendly mix of digital leaders from notable open source CMS projects, agencies, even a few industry analysts who get together to learn, network, and talk about what really matters when it comes to creating better open source CMS projects right now and for the foreseeable future. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/opensourcecms26/tickets">Book your tickets today.</a>

Websites Still Rock: Kentico’s 2025 ‘Site of the Year’ Winners Push the Boundaries of Digital Experience 

<h4 id="-"> </h4><h4 id="highlights">Highlights</h4>You’ll learn about how AI transforms enterprise CMS platforms.<ul><li>Automation: AI CMS streamlines tagging, metadata, and content workflows</li><li>Insights: Predictive analytics guide content planning and performance optimization</li><li>Personalization: Real-time insights enable the creation of tailored experiences</li><li>Compliance: Guardrails ensure governance and security at scale</li></ul>Adopt an <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/content-management-artificial-intelligence-content-ops?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">AI CMS</a> to drive efficiency, insights, and smarter engagement across your enterprise.<hr /> Content management today is not what it was in the 90s or early 2000s. The modern customer values personalized interactions. They are also more tech-savvy, privacy-aware and expect seamless experiences across all channels.Traditional CMS platforms lack the speed, agility and flexibility required to deliver these demands. That makes them redundant for the needs of modern B2B customers. This is why an AI CMS, usually <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/report/complete-headless-cms-guide?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">headless</a>, is becoming more popular.An AI-powered CMS enables <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/personalization/how-can-personalization-enhance-your-brand?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">real-time personalization</a>, automates repetitive tasks, and powers predictive analytics. It integrates AI into content workflows, enabling faster content publishing while improving accuracy and user experience. This shift is changing how large organizations think about content management.<h3 id="what-makes-a-cms-intelligent?">What makes a CMS intelligent?</h3>An intelligent CMS is a content management system that learns from data and adapts content based on behavior and context. It also offers automation — you can create, optimize and publish hyper-personalized content at scale. With traditional CMS platforms, you are bogged down with manual inputs, built-in templates and predefined workflows. An AI CMS does not have these limitations. They are built on headless and API-first principles, making them flexible to handle modern content needs. Its key features:<ul><li>Machine learning for predictive analytics</li><li>Automated tagging and categorization via AI</li><li>AI-powered search and discovery</li><li>AI-assisted authoring workflows and predictive content performance insights</li></ul> <hr /> Overcome traditional CMS issues with Contentstack Are you tired of slow development times and rising costs due to legacy monolithic suites? Contentstack offers a modern, component-based solution designed for the needs of today's enterprises. Discover agility and improved ROI. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/request-demo?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">Request a demo</a> to learn more. <hr /><h3 id="benefits-of-ai-powered-cms-for-large-enterprises">Benefits of AI-powered CMS for large enterprises</h3>An AI CMS offers speed and flexibility. When a<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/cms-change-management-best-practices-for-seamless-enterprise-implementation"> </a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/cms-change-management-best-practices-for-seamless-enterprise-implementation?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">modern CMS is implemented with proper change management</a> practices to support its adoption, it also supports better governance, data-driven optimization, and automation. Here are other benefits.<ul><li>Faster content creation and delivery: AI authors’ workflows, ensuring faster editing. It applies the brand’s guidelines, eliminating human errors. Also, its automated tagging, categorization, and metadata generation feature ensures you can publish faster.</li><li>Smarter personalization at scale: An AI CMS tracks data in real-time and adjusts content for relevant audience segments. Delivering on-brand content ensures you can convert more and engage your audience better.</li><li>More efficient search and content discovery: Search and discovery feature powered by conversational AI enables editors and marketers find content quickly, even in large, complex repositories.</li><li>Data-driven optimization: An AI CMS also supports predictive content performance insights, enabling teams to be proactive.</li><li>Improved compliance and governance: An AI-powered CMS can flag missing disclosures, ensure accessibility standards, and apply consistent terminology.</li></ul><h3 id="how-ai-is-transforming-content-management-within-enterprise-cms">How AI is transforming content management within enterprise CMS</h3>AI integration into content workflows goes beyond using generative AI to create content. It can be applied in other areas, such as SEO, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/report/enterprise-ai-search-playbook?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">AIO/GEO</a>, personalization, and predictive analytics. Here are some of those ways. <h4 id="content-intelligence-for-planning">Content intelligence for planning</h4>AI scans competitor content, search queries, and your own content library. That allows you to identify gaps and opportunities in your content strategy and that of your competitors. Based on that insight, AI can also suggest high-performing topics, and align new content with buyer journeys, so content production supports pipeline and sales goals. <h4 id="ai-assisted-content-creation-and-editing">AI-assisted content creation and editing</h4>With generative AI, you can generate content drafts, outlines and briefs. The AI is trained on your company’s audience persona, style guide and brand voice — hence, it can enforce the right tone of voice and style across your content. <h4 id="automated-content-tagging-and-classification">Automated content tagging and classification</h4>AI-powered DAMs integrated in an intelligent CMS can scan your assets and suggest tags. It can further map those assets into your enterprise taxonomy, ensuring your assets fit into a structured content model. By doing so, marketers can easily search and reuse content. <h4 id="personalization-at-scale">Personalization at Scale</h4>It is no secret that enterprise customers prioritize brands that deliver tailored, one-to-one experiences. You can integrate a real-time CDP to track customer data and create profiles. Then, use an AI-powered CMS to analyze the data and recommend the most relevant content. That way, you can tailor experiences to different accounts, industries or decision-makers. <h4 id="seo-and-aio-optimization-support">SEO and AIO optimization support</h4>AI can analyze search intent and suggest relevant keywords, topics and FAQs. It can be used to find internal linking opportunities, write meta titles and create schema markup. In essence, it becomes your SEO/AIO co-pilot, enabling you to find opportunities, match content to audience persona and optimize existing content. <h4 id="knowledge-assistant-for-internal-teams">Knowledge assistant for internal teams</h4>Internal teams can also deploy AI-powered search and Q&amp;A over enterprise content libraries. That way, teams within the organizations, such as sales and product teams, can quickly find answers backed by approved sources. <h4 id="governance-and-compliance-guardrails">Governance and compliance guardrails</h4>AI can be deployed to manage policy and style enforcement, as well as regulatory compliance checks. AI guardrails act like a compliance officer inside your CMS. By doing so, it prevents risky or off-brand content from being published. It also ensures that assets are safe, accurate and ready for regulation.<h3 id="governance,-security,-and-compliance-in-an-ai-cms">Governance, security, and compliance in an AI CMS</h3>AI CMS platforms automate governance and security processes. However, team leaders still need to set approval workflows that AI should follow. They must apply built-in permissions to allow access to specific authorized users who can check and approve AI outputs.The CMS offers intelligent security that can flag suspicious usage and trigger reminders for compliance audits. Still, content teams must keep to data privacy and safety regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA. They must also verify AI-generated metadata and tags to ensure compliance requirements are met and use audit logs to track changes made by AI features.<figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:83.96%"><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7359e2a55efae483/blt49eb52225d026692/68a9891e5075c355e79fb708/image.png" alt="AI CMS features compared to a traditional CMS" /></figure><h3 id="ai-integrations-that-transform-content-workflows">AI integrations that transform content workflows</h3>An intelligent CMS supports AI integration, and that goes beyond automation. It makes your workflows smarter, so you can produce and publish content with more consistency and speed. Here are specific AI integrations that enable that.<ul><li>Automated AI tagging and categorization</li><li>AI-powered search and discovery</li><li>Automated metadata generation</li><li>Automated A/B testing for content variants  </li></ul>These features enable enterprises to reduce repetitive work and focus teams on high-impact, creative and strategic tasks. <hr /> Fast-track digital experiences with Contentstack Need to create digital experiences quickly? Contentstack's content and editorial engine enables you to reach new markets and create digital experiences faster. Manage content with ease and speed. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/try-for-free?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">Start your free trial today</a>. <hr /><h3 id="comparing-ai-cms-options">Comparing AI CMS options</h3>Most CMS platforms now embed some sort of AI integration or service. However, that, on its own, does not necessarily make such CMSes intelligent or AI-driven in the actual sense. Here are some of the top AI CMS you will find today.<ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">Contentstack</a>: Contentstack’s AI CMS supports intelligent content workflows and scalable personalization. It is API-first and headless, offering native AI integration, making it ideal for omnichannel delivery.</li><li>Arvow: Arvow uses AI to automate the content creation and publishing process. It offers AI-driven features like content syndication, Google indexing, and SEO-optimized writing. It supports high-quality content at scale targeted at B2B companies.</li><li>Strapi: Strapi is an open-source headless CMS that supports the integration of AI tools and services for seamless content management, optimization, and delivery.</li><li>Adobe Experience Manager: This enterprise CMS uses AI to personalize content, automate workflows, and support data-driven insights. It supports content creation using its built-in generative AI.</li></ul>While other AI-powered CMS platforms offer great features and support AI integration, Contentstack comes with AI baked in. It offers native AI integrations that require less customization, making it easier to roll out across large enterprises.<h3 id="case-study">Case study</h3> <img style="width:36.22%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2026/02/image-1771247859224.png" /><h4 id="golfbreaks">Golfbreaks</h4>Golfbreaks struggled with managing content across multiple international markets. This prompted them to sign up for Contentstack's <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/academy/content/ai-accelerator?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">AI Accelerator</a>. The training exposed them to the benefits of the AI assistant, brand kit and automation tool. The solutions automated translation workflows, content optimization, and personalization rules. Today, they can launch on-brand content and campaigns faster than ever.Golfbreaks Digital Product Owner Jack Simkins said, "With Contentstack’s help, our AI use case has been expanded into a much more powerful tool that’s helping us to save time and move faster."<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/case-study/golfbreaks-leverages-contentstacks-ai-accelerator-for-78-faster-time-to-market?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">Learn more about Golfbreaks' success</a> with Contentstack’s AI.<h2 id="faq-section">FAQ section</h2> <h4 id="what-is-the-difference-between-a-headless-cms-and-an-ai-cms?">What is the difference between a headless CMS and an AI CMS?</h4>A headless CMS is a type of CMS where the architecture separates content from its presentation. So, you have a backend that you can connect to any front-end framework via APIs. An AI CMS is a CMS with built-in AI integration to automate and enhance content creation, personalization, and management. <h4 id="is-an-ai-cms-secure-for-enterprise-use?">Is an AI CMS secure for enterprise use?</h4>An AI CMS is considered secure if it features enterprise-grade security, role-based permissions, audit logging, and compliance capabilities. The security of an intelligent CMS also depends on how AI integrations are configured and whether they comply with privacy laws. <h4 id="what-skills-do-teams-need-to-work-with-an-ai-cms?">What skills do teams need to work with an AI CMS?</h4>Content teams should understand content strategy, governance rules, and how to review AI outputs for accuracy and compliance. Technical teams may need to understand AI prompts, workflow automation, and how to manage AI integrations.<h3 id="learn-more">Learn more</h3>AI CMS platforms are redefining enterprise content management. They automate repetitive work, improve personalization and support data-driven decision-making. However, most CMS platforms only support AI integration — they are not truly AI-powered in the real sense.This is where Contentstack stands out. With native AI integrations, you get an intelligent CMS right out of the box. You do not need extra configurations or endless integrations with third-party AI solutions. If you are serious about leveraging AI for smarter content management, then Contentstack offers the best solution in the market today. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.contentstack.com/request-demo?utm_campaign=&amp;utm_medium=paid-affiliate&amp;utm_source=cms-critic&amp;utm_content=smarter-content-management-with-an-ai-cms">Talk to us</a> today to get started.

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