From Craftsmanship to Innovation: Why Drupal’s Future Lies in AI driven Open DXP
Introduction
Over the past few weeks, the Drupal community has been buzzing with discussions about the future of Drupal. A series of posts by Josh Koenig of Pantheon—criticizing Acquia, Drupal leadership, and the very concept of Open DXP—has stirred emotions (here and here). As someone deeply invested in Drupal’s evolution, especially through Dropsolid’s work on AI-driven Open DXP, I feel compelled to offer a personal perspective on why these attacks are both damaging and shortsighted.
Below, I’ll lay out why Drupal is fully capable of thriving in an AI-first era and how Open DXP is crucial for Drupal’s future. I’ll also address why Pantheon’s recent positioning—discouraging DXP innovation—seems driven perhaps more by self-interest than by the best interests of the Drupal community.
Note: This post is personal and reflects my own thoughts. I do not intend to villainize any individual or company, but I believe it’s vital for our community’s future to clarify a few points.
The craftsmen of yesterday vs. today’s industrial revolution
A Look Back
Centuries ago, skilled artisans hand-crafted every product. They created beautiful, high-quality items but could only serve a limited market. When the Industrial Revolution arrived, with steam engines and assembly lines, it drastically changed how goods were manufactured. Many artisans who refused to adapt were left behind.
The Parallel to Drupal
In 2025 and beyond, AI, automation, and Open DXP technology are transforming how we build and maintain websites. Tasks that once required a large developer teams can now be automated, integrated, and scaled quickly. People who insist we don’t need these innovations are, in my view, acting like artisans clinging to pre-industrial methods. Meanwhile, the “factories” of the modern web—AI-driven automation, distribution-based site-building, and integrated martech—are raising efficiency and lowering costs for everyone.
The open DXP driven by AI makes Drupal more accessible to more customers. Carefully crafted composable stacks that require a lot of people to understand, build and maintain are in limited demand. If we ever want to bring Drupal to the SME market we'll need Drupal CMS, AI and links with other open source platforms like Mautic to form an open DXP. If we want the open web to thrive we need all of that.
Why It Matters
If Drupal simply remains a “craft tool” for composable stacks with manual hosting, endless DevOps tasks, and slow, custom-coded iterations, it risks losing relevance. By contrast, an Open DXP approach—where Drupal is pre-integrated with AI-driven personalization, open marketing automation (like Mautic), and seamless DevOps—offers an industrial-scale advantage. And that’s where Drupal, in my opinion, can truly shine.
We risk investing in the wrong things and fail to make Drupal really attractive to end users. I acknowledge that indeed Drupal shines as an "agile business driver" for modern digital teams, supporting an evolving customer experience and martech stack by driving continuous improvement and as a way for large organizations to have "freedom within a framework" (as I aknowledge here and here) as part of their digital strategy, vs the monolithic one-size-fits-all status quo.
In this article from 2022 I clearly explain that the open DXP is not a Monolith. Back then in an interview with Forester Josh from Pantheon is talking about DXPs as if all of them are monoliths, clearly they are not. But that is not where it ends. Drupal can also be packaged and extended so it delivers a faster time to market, less development, less development, less risk, lower entry barriers and more ROI by pre-integrating it as a DXP. Failing to recognise this, is just missing a big part of the picture.
Ask yourself this: "Do we want to talk about frameworks with customers or do we want to be talking about ROI like better customers experiences and operational efficiencies?". In the end the customer doesn't care if we call Drupal a DXP, CMS, CMF, website, whatever, ... What matters is, is how we are going to unlock ROI with Drupal. Selling Drupal a DXP is one way like I answered on linkedin.
For me selling Drupal in a composable stack and as a DXP is totaly compatible. Both have their use cases. In this article I make the case about the golden mean between a monolithical DXP and composable stacks: https://dropsolid.io/knowledge-hub/why-open-dxp-ai-best-both-worlds-betw... TLDR: Both composable stacks with Drupal and DXP have a place. Both can make Drupal stronger. We can do both. If we don't fall prey to the tyranny of the OR.
Drupal CMS for me is this genius. It combines both packaging Drupal more out of the box to deliver immediate ROI, making it appeal to end users and making it accessible to SME's. This approach can be perfectly combined with the further packaging as an open DXP with other open source platforms and it can also be combined with the composable stack approach using Drupal CMS and open DXP as a starting point.
Pantheon’s collision course
In his recent posts, Josh Koenig criticizes Acquia and challenges the notion that DXP is meaningful. He seems to argue Drupal can survive without the enterprise-level innovations Acquia and others are bringing. But let’s be honest:
Drupal Can Live Without Pantheon?
While Pantheon provides hosting/WebOps for Drupal sites, Drupal itself is far larger than any single platform provider. Its ecosystem includes thousands of contributors, numerous hosting choices, and major enterprise players like Acquia driving significant innovation.Pantheon Cannot Live Without Drupal?
Pantheon is heavily reliant on Drupal’s success. If Drupal users were to pivot away from them or lose traction, Pantheon’s core business would suffer greatly.
What’s Happening Behind the Scenes?
I suspect Pantheon is trying to woo part of the Drupal community to bolster its appeal to potential investors or acquirers. By portraying themselves as the “true guardians” of Drupal’s future—while subtly undermining Acquia and the concept of Open DXP—they may hope to secure a more favorable exit? In the startup world, it’s not uncommon to raise a rallying cry to look bigger or more influential ahead of a potential acquisition. This is called posturing.
Because is a vendor that is winning usually posturing? I don't think so. And if they are winning and we need to follow them, then where is the data that composable stacks are winning?
And for Drupal itself, that tactic risks sowing division and fear at a pivotal time—just as AI opens new doors and the entire market demands integrated solutions like DXP.
I already mentioned Patheons questionable narrative back in 2023, around the time their decline was starting: https://dominiquedecooman.com/dropsolid-diaries-2023-becoming-global-ope... (see last section on DXP)
Was it already signaling something deeper?
Could it be that the wrong strategy was chosen? It can happen. We had this too at times and I empathise with this. However start throwing mud at the the biggest contributor while you yourself are barely contributing might not be the best approach. Perhaps avoid blaming analist playbooks if you too followed those same analist advising you to go composable stack and you are the one sliding backwards (read my full linkedin comment). Just acknowledge you missed a trend and move on. And yes, that means Pantheon will have to invest, pivot, contribute, ... do a lot of hard things, the right things, if they want to have a future.
Can they? I hope for them they can.
Why this feels personal
At Dropsolid, we are deeply committed to Drupal’s evolution, pushing it toward an Open DXP model that embraces composability, personalization, AI, and more. When Pantheon (via Koenig’s critiques) dismisses Acquia or downplays DXP, this situation reflects the struggles of those working tirelessly (like Acquia and Dropsolid) to ensure Drupal stays ahead of the curve. Let’s continue working together to ensure Drupal’s place at the forefront of digital experiences.
Acquia’s Massive Contributions
Let’s not forget how Acquia has massively contributed to Drupal core, Drupal events, and the ecosystem at large. Whether you love or hate their product strategy, Acquia has invested more than any other company in Drupal’s codebase and in supporting community initiatives.An Open DXP Ecosystem
Open DXP doesn’t mean monolithic. On the contrary, it’s about modularity. Drupal as a CMS integrated with marketing and AI tools offers out-of-the-box synergy with the freedom to customize. That synergy is exactly what many mid-size and enterprise clients need.
When Koenig attacks DXP in its entirety, it overlooks the nuance that Open DXP can be composable, flexible, and adapted to each client’s needs. Koenig’s narrative seems to imply that “all DXP is doomed” or “unnecessary,” which can push the community away from the very innovation that might keep Drupal thriving.
Before you kill the DXP. Please educate yourself (like I said on linkedin) about what it really is. If it is dying, it must be also alive. Why was it alive in the first place? Why is it even growing? DXP Market is growing: According to market research, the DXP space is not in decline—on the contrary, it is expected to grow significantly. The market for DXPs is projected to reach $41.7 billion by 2032, growing at a 16.1% CAGR. Koenig’s framing of DXP as a “failed category” doesn't account for this growth, nor does it capture how companies are rethinking DXP to be modular and agile. While Koenig raises valid concerns about the challenges within the DXP space, it’s important to recognize that the category continues to evolve and grow, with new approaches emerging
Note: If anyone wants to know what an open DXP is, see Dcon Barca session. Not every DXP is a DXP like Josh describes with the ugly VHS TV. How can bringing open source projects like Mautic and Drupal together in a composable open way as a DXP be a bad thing?
A call for reflection and apologies
I understand that competition is part of business. However, when it morphs into public attacks on key contributors and a total dismissal of promising directions like AI or DXP, it crosses a line. Instead of building synergy, it creates fractures.
Dries Buytaert & Acquia
Koenig’s targeting of Acquia as a “risk factor” for Drupal is disheartening. Dries Buytaert (who also responded on linkedin), Drupal’s founder, has repeatedly emphasized composability, modularity, and open source. Those are the same principles that guided Drupal’s success for two decades. Acquia isn’t forcing monolithic solutions; they’re building enterprise-grade integrations many organizations demand.An Apology Owed
If Josh Koenig really cares about Drupal’s future, some acknowledgment of Acquia’s positive role and a recognition of Open DXP’s growing relevance would be apt. An apology for fueling division (and unfairly attacking key players) would also help heal the community’s rifts.
The Future: AI, Open DXP, and collaboration
Let’s be clear: The era of large developer teams doing everything manually (like the artisans of old) is waning. AI and automated platforms are streamlining DevOps, content management, and personalization. That doesn’t mean developers disappear; it means they can focus on high-value tasks—innovating with AI, designing advanced user experiences, handling complex integrations—rather than spinning servers or manually merging code.
Open DXP is where Drupal’s composable architecture meets AI-driven capabilities. It’s not “slapped together acquisitions.” It’s a unified but flexible approach to digital experiences, fostering faster time-to-market and richer personalization.
Dropsolid, Acquia, and Many Others are investing here, bridging Drupal with AI layers, advanced marketing automation, and personalization engines. They are future-proofing Drupal in a market that demands seamless digital experiences.
Pantheon can certainly play a role if they embrace AI capabilities, support Drupal’s broader strategy, and stop undermining the community’s efforts to modernize.
Conclusion
To circle back on the craftsman analogy: you can’t hold back the industrial revolution with hand-carved furniture. If Pantheon would for example embraces AI-driven DXP solutions, they could become a strong contributor to Drupal’s evolution—aligning more closely with the future of digital experiences.
Drupal: A living, breathing, ever-adapting platform—a shark that must keep moving and innovating.
Pantheon: Potentially stuck in an older hosting/DevOps model, which might be “artisan-level craftsmanship,” but the market is moving on. They can pivot and join the AI + DXP wave—or they can cling to old ways at the community’s expense.
The Community: We’re stronger together. If Pantheon attempts to fracture the ecosystem for short-term advantage, we risk losing sight of Drupal’s real strength: open collaboration, innovation, and readiness for the next wave of digital transformation.
Finally, let’s maintain a spirit of collaboration rather than division:
Koenig & Pantheon: Reflect on the bigger picture. Drupal does not revolve solely around composable stacks, hosting or DevOps. The community invests heavily in AI, personalization, and marketing automation. Attack Acquia less, partner more, and help Drupal expand into new frontiers. Let’s all reflect on where we’re headed as a community, and remember that we all play an essential role in Drupal’s evolution—together.
Solution: Pantheon has the opportunity to pivot and contribute meaningfully to the future of Drupal, not just through hosting and DevOps, but by embracing for example AI and contributing to the Drupal and Open DXP ecosystem. If they choose to invest in this direction, they can become part of Drupal’s evolution.
What is preventing Pantheon from contributing to the things in Drupal Pantheon values?Acquia & Dries: Keep leading with composable solutions, AI enhancements, and core Drupal investments. The community needs your enterprise-level drive and solutions like Drupal CMS to make it accessible to the SME market.
Everyone Else: Let’s not be artisans who watch the industrial revolution pass us by. Drupal can only remain relevant if we embrace the future, and that future is likely an Open DXP integrated with AI—the perfect marriage of flexibility and automation while still use it as a base for a composable stack.
Drupal is a shark, not a dinosaur like I wrote years ago. Let’s ensure it keeps moving forward, rather than getting dragged into fruitless debates that serve no one but those hoping to bolster their own exit strategy.
Both composable stacks with Drupal and DXP with Drupal have a place. Both can make Drupal stronger. We can do both and be genius and not be tyranised.
Further reading on trends in the open DXP, composable stacks, Agencies & IT-service providers working with them in AI times:
Add new comment