Drupal CMS & Drupal AI: The Future of Content Management At DrupalCon Rotterdam

Digital platforms face the challenge of serving an ever-growing number of channels and languages while meeting increasing demands for accessibility, quality, and data protection. In his keynote at DrupalCon Rotterdam, Drupal founder Dries Buytaert demonstrated how Drupal CMS and the new Drupal AI Initiative address exactly these challenges: They remove technical barriers for editorial teams, simplify multilingual workflows, and bring AI assistants directly into everyday editorial work - all while preserving full digital sovereignty.

Digital Sovereignty: Full Data Control Through "Stewarded Open Source"

In addition to user interfaces and AI, Dries emphasized a topic that is becoming increasingly critical for businesses and public-sector organizations: the independence of digital platforms. European organizations are increasingly looking for ways to reduce their dependence on proprietary technology providers (digital sovereignty).

As Stewarded Open Source, Drupal provides users with a reliable answer:

• No vendor lock-in: Source code, content, and user data remain 100% owned and controlled by the organization.
• Long-term reliability: Instead of anonymous "ship and forget" code, users benefit from an actively maintained ecosystem with continuous maintenance, reliable security releases, and a global community.
• Data protection and AI compliance: When using AI features, organizational data remains protected. All actions are governed by Drupal's proven permissions and role system, along with complete revision tracking.

Drupal CMS: Intuitive Page Building and Accessible Multilingual Content

With the Drupal CMS project (formerly Drupal Starshot), usability for end users is now firmly taking center stage. Two areas stand out in particular:

1. Visual Editing with the Canvas Page Builder

The new visual editor, Canvas, enables content teams to build pages flexibly using drag and drop, without having to rely on support from the IT department. Content, layouts, and components can be designed and adjusted directly in the live preview.

2. Multilingual Content Without Configuration Chaos

Since 80% of the world's population does not speak English as their native language, seamless translation is essential. While setting up multilingual websites used to be complex, Drupal CMS 2.2 provides a guided and straightforward solution:

• Guided setup wizard: An easy-to-understand installer allows users to select the required languages directly.
• Three-level configuration: Editorial teams can choose between a simple one-click default configuration, simplified settings for each content type, or detailed expert options.
• Visual Translation Preview: Translations can be compared directly within the Canvas visualization. An integrated AI translation option with editorial approval workflows is also available if required.
• Dashi example project: The new demo project, a multilingual food magazine, clearly demonstrates how multilingual content works with Canvas in practice.

Drupal AI: AI as an Intelligent Assistant for Everyday Editorial Work

The Drupal AI Initiative integrates artificial intelligence deeply into the system - not as a gimmick, but as reliable support for everyday work.

Quality Checks at the Click of a Button

A community-developed demo website shows how AI can support complex websites:

• Automated content checks: AI continuously analyzes pages against predefined requirements such as content accuracy, tone of voice, or inclusive language.
• Clear correction suggestions: Problematic sections are highlighted. Editors can accept or reject suggested changes with a single click.
• Reliable answers for website visitors: When website visitors ask questions, the system responds exclusively based on the site's own curated content and provides the exact source - without freely inventing information or hallucinating.

Editorial Tasks via Voice or Text Input

In a live demo, Dries presented one of the most impressive new features: editors can carry out everyday tasks directly through AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, or Slack.

• A specific example: An incorrect Dutch-language version needs to be restored to a previous revision, while the English version remains unchanged.
• No need to click through menus: Instead of navigating through menus, revision lists, and approval statuses in the admin interface, editors can simply type the instruction into the chat.
• Full security and governance: AI does not carry out the action without controls. Drupal's existing access permissions, role system, and revision safeguards continue to apply in the background. Every change is logged under the name of the person performing the action and remains fully traceable.

Conclusion: More Time for What Matters Most

The updates presented during the Driesnote in Rotterdam make one thing clear: Drupal CMS and Drupal AI are making content management future-ready. Editorial teams benefit from intuitive visual tools, automated quality support, simple translation workflows, and the assurance of full digital sovereignty.

The result is greater efficiency: repetitive and technical steps are simplified, leaving more time for excellent content and effective communication.