Understanding Sitefinity Packaged AI Service (Six Reasons Why You Should Try It Now)
At Progress, we love AI. We have integrated innovative AI/ML features into many products including Progress Sitefinity. It’s only natural that a modern, easy-to-use DXP should have powerful AI CMS capabilities built in. And we have taken a slightly different approach than many others to make AI accessible to everyone. Let’s begin at the beginning.
AI—the Good, the Bad and the Ugly?
AI is considered an enabler in many industries but with power comes responsibility. There have been countless examples in the early days of GenAI where important company IP owned by some of the biggest brands was leaked to the public due to a lack of understanding of how GenAI works.
As a result, many enterprises restricted access to popular GenAI services while determining the best AI usage policy for their business model or industry.
Meanwhile, machine learning and generative AI tools continue to flourish, contributing significantly to advancements in technology and aiding various applications effectively. Just like native flowers help pollinators thrive. Or, in this case, help marketers stay creative, or developers productive.
There are now countless tools promising (and delivering) better, faster results. However, these often come with extra costs, unclear data retention and privacy policies that most of us don’t have time to read.
As a result, your IT team continues to face the same challenges: maintaining internal compliance, protecting data, minimizing costs while enabling marketing, developers and BI teams to stay creative and productive.
Let’s Take Marketing, for Example—How We Use AI
Sitting at the crossroads of multiple teams, marketing is responsible for more than we initially bargained for—from campaigns and product releases to important announcements, web copy and internal/external sales enablement. Most organizations are in the same boat—lean A-teams that cannot afford to miss deadlines or fail their teammates.
For us, GenAI has been a great helper—from structuring webinars and conducting research to fixing typos and adhering to internal writing guidelines. (At Progress, we follow the AP Stylebook, which comes with some... guidelines that aren’t always easy to remember.)
Marketing Needs to Stay Creative Compliant
In addition to adhering to brand, style and writing guidelines, marketing must remain compliant regarding data shared with LLMs. I realized that while many of the tools I use daily now offer AI-powered capabilities, I knew little to nothing about how my information was being used. Now, don’t get me wrong—I’d never share a password or sensitive data with an external service, but I have seen examples (fortunately, not from anyone I know) of people inadvertently inputting sensitive info into prompts, potentially harming the business while trying to help.
Limiting Access to AI Is Not the Solution
The first line of defense would be to block access to any LLM that is not company approved. AI fans will always find a way to use AI… and without proper training, there’s always a risk of information leaking out.
AI Can Be as Distracting as Your Favorite Social Media Feed
A while back, I came across a study claiming that a single phone notification can result in a 30-minute productivity loss. I’d argue that switching between tools (e.g., from Word to your CMS to ChatGPT) can be just as disruptive—especially when performing repetitive tasks like generating SEO-friendly meta tags, summarizing text or creating persona-specific copy for a landing page. Add to this the fact that many LLM implementations ignore style preferences (e.g., avoiding the Oxford comma) and you might spend more time instructing the AI than actually using its output.
Why Is GenAI Integration with Sitefinity CMS a Perfect Match?
It’s straightforward:
- The most commonly used GenAI tools are available directly within the content editor in Sitefinity – Whether starting from scratch or refining existing copy, AI tools are accessible contextually.
- No need to become a prompt engineer – I’ve spent too much time refining prompts instead of focusing on the content itself. Configuring prompts at the CMS level improves consistency, compliance and content quality. For example, you can instruct the LLM to avoid certain words like “ensure,” so that you ensure that it is not used ;).
- Custom AI actions can be rolled out site-wide – Instead of hunting for a bookmarked prompt for 15 minutes, having a simple button in the content editor (e.g., “Proofread”, “Make Compliant”) accelerates the process.
- AI becomes accessible to everyone – Just like staging environments help prevent errors before pushing content live, integrating AI into your CMS mitigates risks while enabling modern technology. This keeps teams innovative without the CIO or compliance officer losing sleep over potential IP or data leaks.
- Make it yours – Beyond customizing prompts, OpenAI allows you to train your LLM with internal resources or documentation, reducing hallucinations caused by conflicting online sources.
- Control usage and track ROI – Pair your CMS with AI services like translation and image recognition and you’ve got a team ready to handle whatever comes their way.
Using GenAI in your organization can accelerate time-to-market by 50% or more, compressing delivery timelines and freeing up resources for other important tasks.
It’s true that major product launches, legal documents and official communications should be reviewed by humans. However, many internal and external documents can now be summarized, optimized and personalized in minutes rather than weeks.
AI Is at the Heart of Sitefinity CMS
AI has been part of Sitefinity CMS for quite some time—mainly in the Customer Data Platform, where we support marketers with tools for journey analysis, conversion optimization and personalization. Now, in addition to helping marketers reduce customer acquisition costs, content waste and missed opportunities, we’ve incorporated AI into the content management workflow to make content creation fast, efficient and compliant.
To help organizations get started with AI, we’ve packaged the offering to reduce the steps needed for configuration and implementation.
Enter Sitefinity Packaged AI Service.
What Is the Sitefinity Packaged AI Service?
The Sitefinity Packaged AI Service is available exclusively for Sitefinity Cloud (PaaS and SaaS). This service enhances Sitefinity’s capabilities by integrating advanced AI functionalities, simplifying digital presence management and customer interactions. It includes all the benefits outlined above while mitigating common AI adoption challenges.
If you host Sitefinity in-house, you can still use AI but you must provide your own Azure OpenAI service and configure it within Sitefinity.
The new Sitefinity Packaged AI Service follows a task-based usage model, simplifying management, increasing visibility and optimizing costs.
What Is the Sitefinity Packaged AI Subscription Model?
Each purchase of the Packaged AI Service includes 1,000 tasks. This subscription model allows businesses to scale AI usage according to their needs. If additional tasks are required, businesses can purchase more subscriptions to support their operations.
How Does the Task-Based Usage Model Work?
All AI-related actions performed in the Sitefinity backend count as tasks. The task-based model guarantees businesses only pay for the AI services they use, providing a flexible, cost-effective solution.
Examples of tasks include using GenAI to create content such as blog posts and SEO keywords, summarize, optimize and create personalized content, or auto-tag content.
Can the Service Be Scaled?
Yes! Sitefinity customers can purchase multiple add-ons, increasing the total number of available tasks. This scalability is especially useful for growing businesses that need expanded AI capabilities. Additional subscriptions provide the necessary AI resources to support ongoing growth.
How Can Customers Enable AI Capabilities in Sitefinity Cloud?
The Packaged AI Service Add-on is just one way to enable AI in Sitefinity (PaaS, SaaS). It integrates with Sitefinity Cloud, enhancing digital presence and customer engagement. The process is simple, allowing businesses to quickly enable AI functionalities. Configuring an alternative LLM provider is also possible for organizations who have opted to hosting their Sitefinity projects inhouse.
Can I Try It?
Yes! GenAI CMS integration was introduced in Sitefinity 15.2. The upcoming Sitefinity 15.3 release will add enhancements to simplify configuration and improve AI adoption.
Do I Need to Upgrade my Sitefinity CMS to Get Access to Its AI Capabilities?
GenAI capabilities and integration with OpenAI, as well as the the Packaged AI Service Add-on are only available to customers on Sitefinity Cloud customers on versions 15.2 and newer. Customer on older versions can access AI capabilities available in Sitefinity Insight such as Attribution models, Propensity Scoring, Proactive Alerts and more.
Got questions? Call one of our sales engineers for a demo.
