Which AI plugins for WordPress can you trust

Your website runs on WordPress, and the editor now offers you a new button: «write with AI». Or someone suggests adding a chat that answers your visitors. It’s tempting, and sometimes it’s a good idea. But first you need to know one thing: almost none of these plugins have the AI inside. They send your data to another company and give you back the answer.

If someone else looks after your website, this is what you should ask them before they install anything. And if your website is with us, we already take care of this.

This post explains what an AI plugin actually does. It gives you four questions to check whether it can be trusted, and it tells you when it’s worth using one.

What an AI plugin actually does

In WordPress, plugins add features to your website. AI plugins promise to write, summarise, translate, reply to visitors or generate images.

Almost none of them do this on their own. They take your text, or your visitor’s message, send it to an outside AI company and bring back the answer. That’s why choosing a plugin isn’t just choosing a feature. You are deciding which data from your website leaves, and where it goes.

What they are used for, from lowest to highest risk

Filtering spam comments. This is the oldest use and the one that works best. It has been in WordPress for years without anyone calling it AI. It sends each comment out, along with the email address of whoever wrote it.
Searching and recommending. These improve your website’s search or suggest similar pages. They usually work with your own content.
Images. They generate images or write the text that describes each photo.
Translating. Automatic translation, with or without review afterwards.
Helping you write. They draft or rewrite texts and suggest titles and descriptions. Your content goes out to the AI company.
Chatting with visitors. They answer questions based on your content. This is where your visitors’ messages go out, along with their names and emails. It’s the use that requires the most caution.

Four questions before installing it

1. What data does it send, and to whom? Only the text you are writing, or also the rest of the website, the comments and visitors’ messages? And to which company? If the plugin doesn’t say so anywhere, be wary.

2. Where does your data end up? Is it used to train their AI? If it leaves Europe, you need to know. And if it’s used for training, you need to be able to turn that off. Plugins that work with your own account at the AI company are clearer on this. The contract is in your name, and you can choose for the data to stay in Europe.

3. Does it let you sign a contract? A chat on your website receives visitors’ names and emails. Ask the company that receives them, in writing, what it does with them, and state it on your privacy page. If the plugin doesn’t offer you this, don’t use it.

4. Is there a record? Check whether the plugin keeps track of who wrote each thing, when, and with which tool. Without that, you can’t review it later, or remove what a tool left behind once you’ve stopped using it.

And two classic questions that apply to any plugin: who maintains it, and how often it is updated? And how heavy is it? Some weigh down every page of your website even if only the person writing uses them. Your site slows down, and visitors notice.

Signs that it can’t be trusted

It doesn’t say which company it sends data to.
It hasn’t been updated in months.
It promises «AI» for things that don’t need it. A menu, a button or a regular search box doesn’t involve AI.
It adds a chat to your website without telling visitors it’s an automated system.
There’s no way to find out what it sends.

A word of warning: WordPress templates (themes) don’t include artificial intelligence, however much they advertise it. If there is AI, it’s in a plugin or in an outside service.

What it’s worth it for

For heavy, low-risk tasks. Writing the descriptions that appear in Google, which is a chore. Suggesting titles. Writing the text that describes a photo. Filtering spam comments.

For long texts, a person still needs to review them and sign off on them. And for a chat with visitors, you need the contract and a notice that it is an automated system.

Before installing anything

Start with the problem, not the plugin. What do you want to solve, and what data does it involve? Then choose the one that tells you what it sends, to whom and where, and that lets you sign the contract. And always have a person check what comes out before it is published. Write a short rule for your team. And measure your website’s speed before and after.

If your website is with us on PF Hosting, you don’t install plugins yourself. We review and install them for you. If not, and you’d like us to review the plugins on your WordPress site using these questions, get in touch.

What we use: plugins that do what they say

A short list of plugins that exist, are maintained, and whose AI features can be verified. It is not a general recommendation. Each one should still go through the four questions.

AI Engine. Helps you write in the editor, provides a chat for the website, and generates images. It connects with your own key to the provider you choose (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral or another). It is the one that is clearest about what data leaves and where it goes.
Rank Math (Content AI) and Yoast SEO. The two most widely used plugins for ranking well on Google generate titles, descriptions and drafts in the editor. Useful for search engine descriptions. Long texts still need review.
WordLift. Reads your content, tags it so Google can understand it better, and suggests links between your pages. Designed for websites with a lot of content.
Relevanssi. Improves your website’s search so it finds what people are looking for, even when they don’t type the exact words.
WPML. Translates your website into several languages. It includes automatic translation that you can review afterwards.
Jetpack. A bundle of features for WordPress. Among them, suggesting similar posts at the end of each article.
Akismet. The long-established spam filter for comments and forms. It sends each comment with its author’s address and email, so it’s worth knowing that here too.
Tidio. Visitor support chat with an AI assistant that answers based on your content. It’s the typical case that requires notifying visitors and a contract with the company that receives the data.

Several speed or translation plugins are advertised as using AI, but actually work with traditional fixed rules. They are no worse for that.

If you want to know what the law says

Europe has had an artificial intelligence regulation since 2024. For those who use these plugins, the key rules apply from 2 August 2026.

A chat on your website must state that it is an automated system.
An AI-generated text informing the public on matters of general interest must say so, unless a person has reviewed it and takes responsibility for it.
The provider of the tool must mark the images it generates.

Ask the plugin’s developer which AI company it works with and where it stores your data. If they won’t tell you in writing, look for another one.