Theo Despoudis

Theo Despoudis is a Senior Staff Software Engineer at WP Engine, where he is part of the engineering team building the next generation of AI-Powered Search products and services for thousands of customers using WordPress. He is also responsible for supporting Headless WordPress solutions on top of Next.js and React.

books by Theo Despoudis

Build AI-Enhanced Web Apps
  • February 2026
  • ISBN 9781633436084
  • 392 pages
Included with a Manning Online subscription
  • printed in black & white
catalog / Data Science / AI
resources: Source code Book forum Source code on GitHub Register your pBook for a free eBook

This accessible book shows you how to ship real AI features—not just toy demos—using a JavaScript stack you already know: React for UI, Next.js for backend integration, and the Vercel AI SDK to connect to LLMs like Gemini and GPT. In it, you’ll acquire the skills you need to complete two portfolio-ready projects: a voice-based interview assistant and a RAG-powered corporate knowledge system. You’ll also learn how to design workflows that balance latency, cost, and UX and implement responsible guardrails for security, quality control, hallucinations, and bias.