What We Learned at DrupalCon 2025: Experience Builder, AI, and the Future of Drupal

DrupalCon Atlanta 2025 was packed with insights on where the Drupal community is headed. The latest and greatest from the community included many significant updates that will shape the future of the Drupal platform. The COLAB team attended the event with a clear focus: to explore innovative features aimed at enhancing usability, optimizing developer workflows, and streamlining client delivery. From the debut of the Experience Builder to exciting advancements in AI, there’s plenty to unpack.

In this recap, we highlight the most important takeaways from the event and discuss their potential impact on our clients and Drupal work. You’ll also find insights into how these tools can empower in-house teams to achieve more.

Experience Builder: Empowering Faster Site Creation

Experience Builder demo

One of DrupalCon’s most talked-about releases, the Experience Builder, is set to redefine how we build websites in Drupal. By enabling in-browser component creation without requiring comprehensive Drupal knowledge, this tool bridges the gap between developers, marketers, and content teams.

Why is Experience Builder a game-changer?

It simplifies site creation workflows by offering tools for non-technical users, while also speeding up more complex builds for developers. Here’s what makes it stand out:

• Multi-page editing with auto-draft saves ensures your progress is never lost.
• Global regions editing allows you to update headers, footers, or sidebars consistently across your website—all from one place.
• Reusable and configurable sections help create cohesive designs while saving time.
• Live code editing with React and Tailwind enhances flexibility for developers working directly in the browser.
• Figma-to-component AI import capabilities streamline the process of turning design concepts into functional components.

For marketers and content teams, this means more autonomy in website updates. For developers, it lightens repetitive work so they can focus on complex functionality.

COLAB’s View

Experience Builder aligns perfectly with our focus on building efficient, scalable solutions for client projects. By reducing bottlenecks in the design-to-testing process, it offers faster delivery times and more robust design systems tailored to meet user needs.

AI Everywhere: Integrating Smart Automation into Workflows

Recap from DrupalCamp Ottawa

AI is no longer a “nice-to-have” for Drupal—it’s embedded throughout the ecosystem. The AI Workflows module is central to this, connecting to more than 40 AI providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini.

Dries Buytaert’s keynote demonstrated impressive applications, such as an AI agent generating components from Figma screenshots directly in the browser. The ability to automate steps like content creation, SEO analysis, and alt text generation promises efficiencies for both developers and content creators.

Modules Worth Exploring

If you’re looking to integrate AI into your Drupal workflow, these are some standout modules to test:

• AI Core Module connects the platform to multiple AI providers.
• CKEditor AI tools enhance content writing and optimization within Drupal.
• AI SEO Analyzer ensures sites rank better by analyzing keywords and metadata.
• Image-to-Component Generation saves time by creating functional components from visual designs.

COLAB’s Perspective

AI tools like these free up valuable resources, enabling marketers to automate repetitive tasks and developers to focus on high-priority deliverables. We see immediate opportunities to adopt AI SEO tools and explore AI-generated components to improve content production times.

Recipes and Site Templates: A New Era of Convenience

Recap from DrupalCon Barcelona

The Recipes initiative has made creating pre-configured site elements faster to implement across projects. Building on this, Drupal’s Site Templates introduce a no-hassle way to launch new sites, bundling design, content, and modular Recipes for instant setups.

How Does This Benefit Businesses?

The convenience rivals platforms like Webflow’s templates, reducing the time required to move from concept to a functional site. From portfolios to e-commerce setups, businesses can adopt purpose-built templates that meet their specific needs.

COLAB’s Plans

For us, Site Templates could streamline setups for frequently requested projects, such as internal tools, small business websites, and microsites. By leveraging these templates, we’re ensuring our clients hit the ground running without sacrificing quality.

A Better Admin UX

Improved Admin UX was another hot topic at DrupalCon 2025. Enhancements in navigation and dashboard customization aim to reduce friction many teams face when managing Drupal websites.

Key Upgrades

• Next-Gen Navigation Module makes navigating the backend more intuitive and user-friendly.
• Customizable Dashboard Module integrates Recipes to create role-specific dashboards tailored to your team’s workflow.

Benefits for COLAB Clients

These features make it easier for in-house marketing teams, editors, and content strategists to focus on their work without wrestling with clunky admin panels. For COLAB, it creates the opportunity to develop more user-friendly dashboards for all client projects.

Ecosystem Collaboration

A major highlight this year was the shift toward more cohesive collaboration across Drupal’s ecosystem. By reducing redundancy in the development of modules, contributors are gradually creating a leaner, more efficient system. This culture shift is already making an impact on both the developer and editor experience.

For organizations like COLAB, this translates to more reliable tools and opportunities to contribute as community collaboration continues to grow. It also speaks to our core value of collaboration!

What’s Next for Drupal and COLAB?

The Driesnote keynote made one thing clear—2025 is a banner year for Drupal. With Experience Builder, AI integration, Admin UX upgrades, and Site Templates all gaining momentum, the platform is becoming more flexible and accessible to marketers, developers, and non-technical users alike.

At COLAB, we’re eager to put these features to the test. Over the next several months, our team will:

• Pilot Experience Builder to improve delivery workflows.
• Explore AI capabilities for SEO and image-to-component generation.
• Assess Recipes and Site Templates to enhance delivery speed for fast-to-market work.

Stay tuned as we share insights from these experiments. If you need help implementing the next generation of the Drupal platform, let’s talk about a solution.