Nara, Japan – Drupal founder Dries Buytaert declared a "historic moment" for the platform at DrupalCon Asia today, pointing to four major initiatives running simultaneously that he says will transform Drupal: Drupal CMS 2.0 (launching early 2026), Drupal Canvas, site templates and marketplace, and the Drupal AI program.
"For 20 years people have been saying Drupal is too hard to build pages with. We are changing that," Dries said during a keynote Q&A with Pamela Barrone, CTO of Technocrat and Product Owner of Drupal CMS.
Each initiative has the potential to transform Drupal individually, Dries argued. Together, "the compounding of these ideas will be transformational."
Dries Buytaert and Pamela Barrone on stage in Nara, Japan.
Drupal Canvas: Solving the 20-Year Problem
Dries said he's heard consistently from organizations large and small: "We need an easier page builder."
Drupal Canvas, the much-hyped new page builder from Acquia and built with contributions from agencies and the broader community, does exactly that.
The State of New York, with 140 Drupal websites and over 300 content creators, is already evaluating how Drupal Canvas will enable them to build pages while maintaining accessibility standards and brand compliance.
The tool balances competing needs: locking down certain elements to maintain brand consistency and accessibility, while providing flexibility for experts who need creative control.
"It actually makes building pages fun," Barrone said during the session.
AI as Competitive Advantage
Dries made a pragmatic case for AI integration, acknowledging mixed feelings in the community while arguing Drupal can't afford to ignore it:
"We can't ignore how it's changing pretty much everything we do – it's changing how people use websites, how they build websites, and how we create content."
His argument centers on fit: Drupal's structured content, versioning capabilities, and workflow management – features that have made it more complex for beginners – are exactly what AI needs to be reliable and reversible.
"Drupal has been relatively hard to use – AI can help fix that. It can help us overcome our weaknesses and elevate our strengths," he said. "Our competitors don't have the same structural strengths, and that makes Drupal uniquely placed."
At DrupalCon Vienna, Dries demonstrated AI generating complete landing pages from single prompts – potentially reducing what might take 300 clicks to around 30.
The Drupal AI initiative now includes 25 partner organizations contributing staff time, with 1,300 people in the Slack channel.
Site Templates to Collapse the Learning Curve
Site templates build on Drupal's recipe system, bundling modules, configuration, Drupal Canvas themes, and demo content into ready-to-use websites.
"Even an expert can take days or weeks to build a Drupal site," Dries explained. "Site templates remove that learning curve."
A marketplace on Drupal.org will let users browse and install templates for specific use cases. An MVP is expected in 2026, with 10-15 partners committed to building initial templates.
The Marketing Gap
Drupal needs to market itself against proprietary platforms with enormous marketing budgets. How this is achieved is a challenge for the open source project.
Despite packed conference sessions, Dries identified a critical challenge: "Outside, the word hasn't got out there. How do we get the message out to the millions of web developers who have an outdated view of Drupal?"
He emphasized this responsibility extends to the whole community: "We need everyone to change the mindset of millions of people around the world."
January 2026 and Beyond
When asked about the decision to start the Drupal CMS project, he acknowledged initial uncertainty: "I was nervous making this announcement 18 months ago – it's not easy to create that momentum."
His three-to-five year vision focuses entirely on growth: "Everything I'm trying to help with is all about growth. Marketing, Canvas, AI – it's all about growing Drupal."
Success metrics include increased installs, more contributors, more people in leadership roles, and sustained innovation across strategic initiatives.
"More people are contributing to Drupal than ever, especially to strategic initiatives," he said. "If we can keep it up, great things will happen."
Caption: DrupalCon Asia in Nara, Japan. Flickr image by: Jakub Piasecki, CC BY-SA 4.0
DrupalCon Asia in Nara
The conference, the first DrupalCon in Japan, reflects Drupal's growing presence in Asia-Pacific. Tim Doyle, CEO of the Drupal Association, noted that the region accounts for 32% of Drupal.org traffic, one-third of project activity, and 24% of top contributors.
Mayor Gen Nakagawa welcomed attendees with a goal to make Nara "the most Drupal friendly city in the world." Half the attendees are from Japan.
DrupalCon Asia continues through November 20.
For the full DrupalCon Asia schedule and session details, visit the official DrupalCon website.
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