The ACF Update That Makes Your Content Machine-Readable

The "Intelligent Web" isn't just coming, it’s here! To stay competitive, your site must serve two masters: the human visitor and the AI agent. In this session, WP Engine's Iain Poulson and Rob Stinson go under the hood of the latest in ACF and how it makes your site and its content “machine-readable". They demonstrate how to turn your custom fields into high-signal data structures that position you for the future, in the midst of the turbulent present. Connect with WP Engine: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wpengine/posts/?feedView=all Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wpengine X: https://x.com/wpengine Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpengine/ 00:39 – introduction and Rob Stinson’s 10-Year ACF Journey 01:58 – Session roadmap: Dual Reality and ACF 6.8 Features 02:32 – ACF History: 2011 Launch to 5 Million Sites 06:02 – The stats: 32% of Global Traffic is now automated 06:45 – understanding AI Bots: Aggressive but not Malicious 08:27 – The dichotomy: Structured Data vs. Fuzzy Friendly AI 10:18 – ACF 6.8: AI Adjacent Releases and WPC CLI Commands 11:44 – the abilities API: Exposing Site capabilities to AI Tools 12:55 – bedroom of the BEDROCK: Bedrock Content Meets Claude Code 14:31 – Demo: Analyzing and Registering a Data Model via natural language 17:15 – Demo: importing complex Datasets into ACF without UI 19:57 – rapid prototyping benefits for Agencies 20:55 – feature focus: structured data and schema.org support 21:53 – making Content Readable for AI Crawlers via JSON-LD 24:49 – experimental support: Mapping Field groups to attributes 26:59 – What's Next: Smart suggestions and AI content generation 28:56 – seeding Content for Content Editors WP Engine is a proud member and supporter of the community of WordPress® users. The WordPress® trademark is the intellectual property of the WordPress Foundation, and the Woo® and WooCommerce® trademarks are the intellectual property of WooCommerce, Inc. Uses of the WordPress®, Woo®, and WooCommerce® names in this website are for identification purposes only and do not imply an endorsement by WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. WP Engine is not endorsed or owned by, or affiliated with, the WordPress Foundation or WooCommerce, Inc. #aioptimization #DECODE2026 #WebDevelopment #ACF #advancedcustomfields