February 28, 2026

There's a loud narrative right now.

AI is replacing developers.
Agencies are on borrowed time.
Clients will just prompt their own websites into existence.

It's easy to believe that if you're watching from the outside.

But if you're actually doing the work… the story looks different.

Over the last 30 days inside our web studio, here's what we've been working on.

Not hypotheticals. Not thought experiments.

Real work.

A Snapshot of the Last 30 Days

Instead of describing this in one long stream, here's a clearer view of what the month actually looked like.

Compliance & Risk Management

We received a legal letter from a client. Actually, it started with a call. Out of the blue he said, “Matt, are you familiar with this?” I was.

They needed to bring two websites into ADA compliance. One on Shopify. One on WordPress.

When the client called, he wasn't even sure what the letter meant. He asked why a blind user would be taking legal action because they couldn't use the site.

That conversation wasn't about code. It was about clarity.

We walked through:

• What ADA accessibility actually requires
• What real risk exposure looks like
• Why accessibility lawsuits happen
• What a responsible plan forward should be

Now we're moving into execution:

• Analyzing the site
• Mapping what needs to be fixed
• Determining which tools and solutions make sense
• Prioritizing updates
• Ensuring everything can be completed before the required deadline

In the short term, we recommended implementing an accessibility solution like UserWay on the Shopify site where the complaint originated. That immediately improves usability and puts the client in a stronger position while we evaluate deeper, underlying code updates for long-term compliance.

Growth & Revenue Optimization

• Configured and implemented an affiliate system
• Built two new product detail pages for product launches
• Added upsell and cross-sell functionality in WooCommerce
• Built landing pages for existing sites
• Launched a new membership and website in the herbalism niche

None of this is just “installing plugins.” It's deciding how features fit into customer journeys.

Systems, Integrations & Automation

• Updated cross-domain tracking between WordPress and Google Analytics
• Built a custom API integration to handle disputes and chargebacks
• Troubleshot ShipStation automations tied to WooCommerce
• Built a custom self-service payment options page for an HVAC company with Square integration
• We scoped and are starting work on an automated stock recommendation system with safeguards in place

This is where most complexity lives today. Not in syntax. In systems thinking.

New Builds & Strategic Planning

• Started a new website build for a partner agency using Elementor and WordPress
• Began planning a membership chatbot feature for an author, including architecture and UX decisions
• Conducted advisory calls on features and roadmaps
• Performed monthly WordPress maintenance across managed sites
• Handled ongoing troubleshooting and bug fixes

This is what the last 30 days looked like.

If AI was replacing our work, it would have been a quiet month.

It wasn't. 😉

What Actually Changed

Here's what has changed.

I am not hand-writing every line of code anymore.

When a custom plugin is needed, I can outline the architecture, write a detailed spec, and have AI generate a strong first pass. That speeds up development dramatically.

But that doesn't eliminate the work.

It shifts the work.

Instead of spending most of my time typing syntax, I spend more time:

• Coordinating and communicating with clients
• Collaborating with partner agencies
• Architecting solutions
• Defining constraints
• Reviewing generated code
• Stress testing logic
• Handling edge cases
• Connecting systems
• Anticipating failure points

The leverage changed.

The responsibility did not shrink.

If anything, it expanded.

Because when you can build faster, you can also build more.

And here's something else that rarely gets said.

Even when I'm using Claude inside my AI editor to generate code, very few systems are ever that simple.

Nothing lives in isolation.

That custom feature has to talk to a third-party plugin.
That plugin has to communicate with a payment gateway.
That gateway syncs with an accounting platform.
Analytics needs clean event tracking.
Email automations depend on the right data being passed at the right time.

This system talks to that system.
That extension modifies that workflow.
A small change over here can break something over there.

A single chatbot prompt cannot see the full picture of a live production environment with years of integrations, patches, customizations, and edge cases layered on top of each other.

There is still coordination.
There is still architectural thinking.
There is still human oversight tying everything together.

AI accelerates pieces of the build.
It does not replace the responsibility of understanding the entire ecosystem.

And that's before we even talk about deployment workflows.

Staging environments.
Version control.
Backups.
Rollback plans.
Coordinating releases so updates don't interrupt revenue or break live functionality.

Generating code is one step.
Deploying it safely into a real production environment is another discipline entirely.

Business Owners Still Don't Want to Manage Their Own Tech

This is the part that rarely gets discussed.

Even with AI everywhere, most business owners still do not want to manage their own technology stack. I have yet to receive a call that says, “Hey Matt, we've decided our chatbot named Bob is going to replace you and handle everything from here.”

They don't want to decode legal letters. They don't want to research compliance requirements. They don't want to spend hours troubleshooting broken automations or checkout issues. They don't want to guess whether an integration is secure.

They want a point of contact.

They want to be able to call someone and say,

“Can you help me understand what this means?”

In the ADA case, that call wasn't about code.

It was about interpretation.

It was about explaining why accessibility matters, what the risk is, and how to respond responsibly.

We helped chart the roadmap.
We helped prioritize action.
We helped them stay compliant.

That role has not disappeared.

If anything, it's more valuable now.

Because the complexity has increased.

The Real Role of a Web Studio in 2026

The role is less about typing.

It is more about judgment.

Anyone can prompt a landing page.

Not everyone can:

• Evaluate legal risk after an ADA letter arrives
• Design cross-domain tracking that produces clean data
• Decide how upsells should feel inside a customer journey
• Architect a membership chatbot that scales
• Diagnose automation breakdowns across WooCommerce and ShipStation
• Build a self-service payment interface that customers actually understand

AI can assist in implementation.

It does not replace context.

And context is where real value lives.

The Pattern I'm Seeing

What we're really becoming is not obsolete developers.

We're becoming technical strategists with execution leverage.

Clients do not call because they cannot install a plugin.

They call because:

• Something broke.
• Something is confusing.
• Something carries risk.
• A legal letter just arrived with a deadline attached.
• Revenue is being interrupted.
• An email came in that says, “This just happened… can you look at this?”
• A launch date is approaching.
• Something needs to scale.
• Something needs to connect to something else.

There is almost always urgency attached.

There is almost always a timeline.

There is almost always context that extends beyond the code itself.

They want clarity.

And clarity still requires experience.

AI has made implementation faster.

It has not replaced interpretation.

And sometimes it isn't urgency at all.

It's stewardship.

They don't want to manage the workflow.

They don't want to think about how updates get deployed, how integrations are monitored, or whether a plugin conflict might quietly break something in the background.

They want someone responsible for watching the system.

Monitoring.
Updating.
Testing.
Making sure nothing breaks.

That ongoing stewardship is part of the role too.

The Opportunity Most People Are Missing

Because we can build faster:

• We can prototype ideas that previously felt too expensive.
• We can solve niche workflow problems.
• We can experiment more.
• We can take on higher-level conversations.

The work isn't going away.

It's maturing.

The role is shifting up the stack.

• Less time in the weeds.
• More time at the systems level.
• Less brute force.
• More pattern recognition.

When I look at the last 30 days inside our studio, I don't see decline.

• I see complexity.
• I see opportunity.
• I see more responsibility, not less.

The bar is higher now.

• Less typing.
• More judgment.
• Less brute force.
• More systems thinking.

If you build carefully, this era is not a threat. It's leverage.

The work isn't going away.

It's evolving.