The death of the content management system (CMS)
WordPress, Webflow, Framer and plenty of other content management systems (CMS) exist for one reason: editing a website used to mean editing code, and most business owners, quite reasonably, did not want to.
We think that problem is about to be solved in a much simpler way, and that the CMS as most small businesses know it is on its way out. In short, a simple change request form, an AI agent that drafts the change and a human who approves it can do the job of a CMS, without the login, the training or the plugins. Here is how we got to that view, starting with what a CMS is and what it costs.
What is a content management system (CMS)?
A content management system is software that lets someone who cannot code create and edit the pages, text and images of a website. Instead of changing code, you log in to a dashboard, change the content and publish it. We wrote about the power of a CMS, and the problem it solves was real. A business still needs its opening hours, prices and photos to stay current.
But look at what the solution costs. You pay for the platform. Someone has to learn it, and when staff change, someone has to learn it again. Plugins and themes need updating and securing. Pages break when a well-meaning person drags the wrong thing. And plenty of owners simply stop logging in, so the website goes out of date anyway.
A CMS is really a way to get a change from a person’s head onto the website. Today there is a more direct way to do that.
The website design process, as we know it
We set out our own process in Website Design Process, and it still holds up: information gathering, defining goals, wireframing, content creation, development and testing, launch, training and ongoing support. It works. It is also slow, because every step was done by hand, one person at a time.
How AI is changing the website design process
Tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini now sit inside almost every step of that process:
- Information gathering: A questionnaire can become a conversation. A business owner talks through their business and an AI turns the recording into a clear brief.
- Wireframing: Tools like Relume can generate a sitemap and wireframes in minutes and send them into platforms like Webflow and Figma. That used to take days.
- Content: AI drafts the first version of the words, and a person who knows the business edits it so the facts are right and it sounds like the business.
- Development: AI coding tools write and fix large parts of the code, and a human reads it and decides what ships.
- Testing: Automated checks catch broken links, slow pages and accessibility problems on every change, not just before launch.
Then there is a step in our own process that we think quietly disappears: training. We used to teach clients how to update their website in the CMS. That step only exists because the CMS exists.
How an AI change request system replaces the CMS
Imagine the whole thing as one form. Your customer, or your staff, types what they want changed, or sends a voice note, in plain English. Something like “Change our Saturday hours to 8 to 12 and swap the photo on the home page for the new one.” Behind the form:
- An AI agent reads the request. If it is a voice note, it is transcribed first. The agent works out which part of the website the change affects. (We explain how agents work in our practical guide to LLMs, automations and AI agents.)
- It drafts the change as a pull request. A pull request is simply a proposed change that shows exactly what was added, removed or edited, with a preview of the result.
- A human reviews it. They check the preview, fix anything that is off and approve it.
- It goes live. Approval publishes the change to the live website, and the previous version is always kept, so any change can be undone.
That is a content management system. It just has no login, no dashboard and no manual. The only interface is one people already use every day: typing a message, or talking.
Can AI update a website without a human?
The human review is there for trust, not because the technology needs it. As the process proves itself, we expect it to loosen in stages. First a person checks every change. Then a person checks only the risky ones, such as prices, forms and legal wording. A change like a new phone number or a fixed typo can pass automated tests and go live straight away.
At the far end, someone fills in a form or leaves a voice note and the website simply updates itself, with automated checks, a preview and one-click rollback standing behind it. We are not there for every kind of change, and anything that touches a customer’s money or legal position should keep a person in the loop for a long time. But the direction is clear.
Do you still need WordPress, Webflow or Framer?
These are good tools, and we are not saying they vanish overnight. Large organisations with many editors, approval chains, several languages and strict compliance needs still get real value from a full CMS, and designers will keep enjoying a visual canvas for exploring ideas. Platforms like Webflow are also a handy place for AI-generated layouts to land.
But for a trades business or a local business with a website of a few pages? We think the platform is mostly in the way. Why train a whole workforce to operate a content management system when a form and an AI agent can do the job, with a human checking the result? For a small business we expect these platforms to matter less and less, and for many the answer will soon be none of them.
What this means for a trades or local business
For a business owner, the best website is one you never have to log in to. You should not need to learn a platform, remember a password or find an hour to make a change. You should be able to tell us what you want changed and see it live.
That is what we mean by looking after a website for you. Changes each month are already part of our website plans, and handling those changes is where we see AI making the work faster and more reliable. If you would like to see how that could work for your business, get in touch.
Common questions about the future of the CMS
Is WordPress dead?
No. WordPress, Webflow and Framer will keep going, especially in large organisations. We think they will matter less for small business websites with a few pages, where a change request form and an AI agent can do the same job with less to learn and less to maintain.
Is it safe to let AI change my website?
It can be, when the AI only proposes changes. Every change is a pull request that a person reviews with a preview, nothing goes live without approval, and the previous version is always kept so a change can be undone. Anything involving prices, payments or legal wording should keep a human in the loop.
Do I still need a CMS for my business website?
For a website of a few pages, we think the answer is increasingly no. What you need is a simple way to ask for a change and someone reliable to make it. That can be a form, a text message or a voice note, with an AI agent doing the first draft and a person checking it.
The short version
The content management system solved a problem that came from code being hard to edit. AI makes code much easier to edit. When the problem changes, the tool should change too. The website of the near future has a simple way to ask for a change, an AI that drafts it, a person who checks it and nothing in between. We think that is the way things are going, and it is how we think websites should be looked after.