And Why That Matters for You

Everyone keeps saying AI is taking over. Some think developers won’t have jobs soon. But here’s the thing: AI isn’t here to steal your work (yet). It’s here to help you build faster, experiment more, and find new opportunities — especially if you’re a WordPress developer or freelancer.

Let me show you how I used a tool called Bolt to build a cool little app that works with the WordPress REST API. I’ll keep it real and simple, no tech-jargon overload. Ready?

WordPress Is Not Dead. It’s Just Growing Up.

I ran a WordPress agency for 10 years. Yep, a whole decade. I worked with clients of all sizes. We built everything with themes, plugins, custom fields — the usual stuff.

A few years ago, “headless WordPress” became a big trend. The idea was: use WordPress as the content backend and something like React for the frontend. It worked great, but building it took a lot of time and effort.

Fast forward to today: now I’m building the same kind of things in minutes — using Bolt.

Meet WP API Explorer — Built with Bolt

The app I built is called WP API Explorer. You put in a WordPress site URL, and the app shows you the blog posts from that site — pulled directly from the REST API — in a nice, modern layout.

Here’s what I did:

• I asked Bolt to build a React app using Tailwind CSS
• Bolt wrote all the code for the homepage, post pages, API calls
• I gave it my website link, and boom — blog posts showed up

All of that from just typing something like:

“Let’s build a React app that pulls content from the WordPress REST API.”

Magic? Almost. Bolt makes it feel like magic.

I Added Features Like I Was Ordering Pizza

I didn’t stop there. I kept “talking” to Bolt to add more stuff.

I said:

“Add a sticky header with About and Contact pages. Add a footer too.”

And it did.

Then I said:

“Show categories from the API so people can filter posts.”

Done.

And then I went full TikTok:

“When someone clicks a featured image, let them scroll through like TikTok.”

Guess what? It worked (okay, needed a little fixing for desktop, but still — impressive!).

It was like I was building an app by just talking to my laptop. Wild.

Let’s Talk Database: Hello Supabase

So I added a newsletter signup form. But where should the email addresses go?

That’s where Supabase comes in. It’s like a modern, easy-to-use database system. Bolt connects to it without needing you to write scary backend code.

All I had to say was:

“Save the email addresses in Supabase.”

And boom — it built the form, the connection, and the table in my database. It even handled the timestamps and everything. Not bad for just a sentence, right?

Ready, Set, Deploy (with Netlify)

When everything looked good, I clicked “Deploy to Netlify” in Bolt.

In seconds, I had a live website running online — with a shareable link I could send to clients, friends, or anyone.

I didn’t even need a Netlify account at first (but if you want to keep it, you’ll need one later). Easy stuff.

Why This Is a Big Deal (Especially for Freelancers)

If you build websites for clients, listen up:

• You can prototype ideas faster and show clients what you mean
• You can use WordPress just for content and build fun, modern frontends
• You don’t need to be a React genius to make something cool
• Bolt gives you a safe way to test ideas, build MVPs, or explore new side projects

Think of Bolt as your assistant — not perfect, but very helpful.

What I’d Change Next Time

Look, Bolt isn’t perfect. Sometimes you need to tweak the code. Sometimes you’ll ask for something and get… something else entirely.

But that’s okay. You’re not handing it your job. You’re just using it to speed up the boring bits and focus on the creative parts.

Also, for serious projects, you’ll want to move the code into GitHub, clean it up, and maybe switch to your favorite editor later.

Final Thoughts

AI isn’t here to destroy your WordPress career. It’s here to supercharge it.

Use WordPress as the strong backend you already know. Use AI tools like Bolt to build fast frontends. Add in tools like Supabase and Netlify — and you’ve got a full stack, no stress.

So next time someone says “AI will take your job,” just smile and say:

“Maybe. But until then, it’s going to help me crush it.”

If you want, I can also write:

• A follow-up post just about how Supabase works with Bolt
• A post about why WordPress still matters in the AI world
• Or something like “5 Apps You Can Build with Bolt + WordPress”