Pragmatic AI: How to gain trust with user-centered AI adoption with Meagen Voss

With some CEOs of large AI companies claiming AI cures for cancer are just around the corner, you might feel like you’re a fool for not integrating AI right away in your software. This talk will show you why resisting that pressure can be a good thing and how taking a steady and thoughtful approach to AI adoption in your open source project can help you stand out.

At the Wagtail CMS project, we recognized the transformative potential of AI tools but we also observed that rushed AI adoption has led to poor implementations, costly mistakes, and user backlash. Not to mention, many people understandably have environmental and ethical concerns about these technologies.

I’ll show you:

The importance of creating guiding principles for AI adoption
Why we decided against incorporating AI in our core product
How we designed our Wagtail AI package to give our users agency and choice

I’ll demonstrate how our approach has built loyalty and goodwill among existing users as well as how it has attracted interest from users who prefer a more practical, evidence-based approach to AI adoption.

This talk was presented by Meagen Voss at DjangoCon US 2026 in Chicago, Illinois, USA
https://2026.djangocon.us/talks/pragmatic-ai-how-to-gain-trust-with-user-centered-ai-adoption/

LINKS:
Follow Meagen Voss 👇
On Mastodon: https://fosstodon.org/@vossisboss
Website: https://wagtail.org