AI in BrightSite

Two ways to use AI with your site (Lumi inside the app, or your own AI tool connected from outside) and who pays for each.

There are two ways to use AI with a BrightSite site. They do similar work in different places, and they are paid for differently.

Lumi is built into BrightSite. You open a chat drawer inside the app and ask for what you want.
An external AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or any other tool that supports MCP) connects to your BrightSite account from outside and works on your site from there.

You can use both. Many people use Lumi for quick edits while they are already in the app, and an external tool for larger jobs.

A diagram of two routes to the same site. On one path you work in the BrightSite app with Lumi, which is paid for from your organization's AI wallet. On the other path you work in your own AI tool, which connects over MCP and is paid for by that tool's own subscription. Both paths end at the same site and pass through the same permissions. — Both routes end at the same site, so the choice is about where you are working and which bill the request lands on.

Side by side

	Lumi	External AI tool
Where you use it	In the BrightSite app, in a chat drawer	In your own AI tool
Setup	None	Connect the tool to BrightSite once, a few clicks for ChatGPT and Claude
Who pays	Your organization's AI wallet	Your own AI tool subscription
Good for	Quick edits, questions about your site, drafts	Bulk work, migrations, scripted or repeated jobs
Files on your computer	No access	Can work with local files, if your tool can

Who pays

This is the difference that matters most, so it is worth being exact.

Lumi draws down your organization's AI wallet. The wallet is a balance you top up in Billing. Every Lumi request uses a little of it. When the balance runs out, Lumi stops until you top up. Usage is per organization, shared by everyone in it.

An external AI tool spends its own tokens, not your wallet. When ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor works on your site, the thinking is done by that tool and billed by whoever you pay for it. BrightSite charges nothing for those requests, and your wallet is untouched. Connecting a tool costs you nothing on the BrightSite side.

Which to use

Use Lumi when you are already in the app, the change is small, and you want it done without switching context. Writing a draft, tidying a paragraph, asking what a setting does.

Use an external tool when the job is large or repetitive, such as importing a blog from another platform, generating dozens of similar pages, auditing every page for a missing description, or building a redirect map. External tools also suit anyone who would rather stay in the assistant they already use all day, and agencies running the same job across many client sites.

What is the same either way

Both routes work through the same permissions. Your role in the organization decides what the AI can do on your behalf: someone who cannot publish cannot get an AI to publish for them. Both routes leave entries in the activity log, and both produce content you should review before it goes live.

Neither route publishes without a person deciding to. Publishing stays a human step.

Last updated September 9, 2026