The PHP AI Battleground: Choosing Your Agentic Framework

Abstract

The transition from simple LLM integration to building “Agents” requires a shift in how we think about PHP. It’s no longer just about sending a prompt; it’s about managing loops, handling tool-calls, and maintaining context asynchronously.

Drawing on my experience with the Drupal AI initiative, I’ve analyzed how the PHP community is addressing these challenges. In this talk, we will compare the “big players” in the PHP AI space. We will look at how they approach Agentic workflows, Function Calling, and MCP integration, and why some favor developer experience while others prioritize architectural flexibility.

Whether you are building a specialized CLI tool or a massive enterprise CMS, you will leave this talk with a clear understanding of the current state of PHP AI and which framework will save you the most development time in 2026.