Navigating AI in Open Source: Insights From Wagtail

<p>How should you manage AI contributions to an open-source project? How do you measure the impact of using AI tools for development, and what generative features do end users want from a content management system? This week on the show, we speak with Thibaud Colas and Meagen Voss from Wagtail about the complex considerations software organizations are currently facing.</p>
<p>Meagen is the Wagtail community manager, and Thibaud is a member of the core team. We discuss the impact of AI on a popular open-source project. We reference multiple articles they’ve written about managing these challenges.</p>
<p>We dig into wrangling AI-assisted contributions to the project. They share how they research options for open-weight AI models and inference providers. We also discuss building AI features into the Wagtail CMS. Finally, we touch on the recent release of Wagtail 8.0.</p>
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<p>Topics:</p>
<ul>
<li>00:00:00 – Introduction</li>
<li>00:01:49 – What is Wagtail?</li>
<li>00:08:35 – Flood of AI submissions to open-source projects</li>
<li>00:11:38 – Guidance for AI-led contributions</li>
<li>00:20:43 – Security submissions</li>
<li>00:21:56 – Ethical decisions about internal use of AI</li>
<li>00:26:31 – Resurgence of web sites</li>
<li>00:27:41 – Measuring benefits and performance</li>
<li>00:32:49 – Models understanding your framework</li>
<li>00:38:05 – Video Course Spotlight</li>
<li>00:39:42 – Adding AI features to Wagtail for creators</li>
<li>00:48:47 – Balancing the use of AI internally and the cost of inference</li>
<li>00:55:29 – Advice for other open-source projects</li>
<li>01:00:00 – Wagtail 8.0</li>
<li>01:02:10 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?</li>
<li>01:04:10 – What do you want to learn next?</li>
<li>01:05:56 – How can people follow your work online?</li>
<li>01:06:43 – Thanks and goodbye</li>
</ul>
<p>Show Links:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/">Wagtail CMS - Django Content Management System</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/wagtail-space-2026/">Wagtail Space 2026 - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/showcase/">Showcase - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/guidance-for-ai-led-contribut… for AI-led contributions - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/what-i-learned-from-two-days-… I learned from two days of hanging out with AI experts - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/ai-saved-me-10-minutes-on-a-b… saved me 10 minutes on a blog post: Was it worth it? - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/what-ai-tools-get-right-and-w… AI tools get right and wrong with Wagtail - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/comparing-open-weight-ai-mode… open weight AI models and providers - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/ai-in-the-cms-steering-the-ec… in the CMS: steering the ecosystem - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/the-carbon-footprint-of-wagta… carbon footprint of Wagtail AI - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/open-source-ai-we-use-to-work… source AI we use to work on Wagtail - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/2026-ai-dx-survey/">R… of the 2026 Wagtail DX with AI survey - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="github.com/alibaba/open-code-review">o…: Secure, fast, efficient, battle-tested - hybrid architecture code review tool</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/blog/cms-with-ai-not-ai-cms-wagtai… with AI, not AI CMS: Wagtail 8.0’s new API</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/roadmap/#august-2026">Road… - Wagtail CMS</a></li>
<li><a href="djangoproject.com/weblog/2026/sep/16/executive… Director Search Extended to September 22 - Django Weblog</a></li>
<li><a href="git-scm.com/docs/git-worktree">git-wor… Documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="wagtail.org/newsletter/">Wagtail newsletter</a></li>
<li><a href="fosstodon.org/@vossisboss">Meagen Voss (@vossisboss@fosstodon.org) - Fosstodon</a></li>
<li><a href="fosstodon.org/@thibaudcolas">Thibaud Colas (@thibaudcolas@fosstodon.org) - Fosstodon</a></li>
</ul>
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