In our May/June issue, we ran an AI Special. You can read it here and watch a recording of the accompanying webinar by registering here.
Some publishers are clearly further down the AI road than others.
Some, like Immediate Media, have taken a well-thought through and structured approach to education, experimentation and rollout of AI applications.
Others have been a little slower out of the blocks and are still in the early stages of experimentation.
Some have yet to give it any meaningful thought at all.
For the latter two groups, my advice would be to:
- Start experimenting now. The longer you leave it, the more likely it is that you’ll be left behind. You need to engage with the technology and work out how it can help your business.
- Involve everyone. Experimentation and learning should not be confined to a small team, but made into a company-wide endeavour.
- Think big. There are many processes in our daily operations which AI can streamline and make more efficient, resulting in valuable time savings. These are worth banking. But, the technology represents such a once in a generation shift in terms of opportunity that publishers should let their imaginations run wild. I’m not saying ‘go crazy’ but to brainstorm the different scenarios unconstrained by the way you currently do things.
- Don’t just do it for the sake of it. Experiment and find out what it can and can’t do for you, and give it your best shot. It’s not just about ticking the AI box on your to-do list.
- Be transparent. When you use AI in your business, be open about it both internally and externally.
- Be agile, stay iterative. With AI, we are not talking about a settled technology — it is constantly evolving, so resist the urge to over-engineer.
- Stay focused on RoI and meeting user needs. In the discovery phase, there will inevitably be a certain amount of just ‘playing around’, testing the limits of what it can and can’t do. Once you move onto the development stage, then a relentless focus on delivering RoI will serve you well.
- Be prepared to put in the hours. It’s neither a magic wand nor an out-of-the-box technology. At every stage, you and your team will need to dedicate a lot of time to making sure it works as you intend it to.
- Consider options beyond ChatGPT! Despite their hugely successful launch and the incredible name-recognition they have achieved, other AI technologies and LLMs exist and might serve you better. Only experimentation can reveal what’s right for you.
- And, finally, find a creative advantage, because AI will level the playing field, lowering the barrier to entry. The likelihood is that you will soon be facing new AI-enabled competitors, so, yes, use AI to your advantage, but make sure you retain the creative edge over your new competitors, so you can continue creating content that no amount of AI can replicate.
And, before you ask, yes, we at InPublishing are indeed experimenting, though still in the ‘playing around’ phase. It’s exciting!
This article was first published in InPublishing magazine. If you would like to be added to the free mailing list to receive the magazine, please register here.
