Ahead of our ‘AI Special — Q&A’ webinar on 18th November (not yet registered? Register here), I thought I would whet your appetite with a top tip from each of our panelists:
- “Run safe experiments now. Pilot internally and with trusted clients. The biggest adoption blocker isn’t capability — it’s fear of AI “messing things up”. Swap fear for FOMO: every month you delay is time competitors (or major platforms) gain on you.” (Markus Karlsson, CEO and founder, Affino)
- “Don’t do AI for AI’s sake. Instead, ask yourself what the challenge is that you’re trying to solve and work backwards.” (Terry Hornsby, chief product and technology officer, Reach)
- “Structure your archive. Whether by human curation or AI-driven extraction, structuring your content into rich but responsive articles — including images and formatting — is key to unlocking publication value. Once this groundwork is laid, your archive can become the foundation for new applications and reader interactions.” (Hutch Hicken, chief technology officer, BlueToad)
- “Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are a number of newsroom-friendly AI tools on the market to help with discovering opportunities to make your content discoverable in the constantly changing digital publishing world.” (Brian Alford, founder and CEO, Bright Sites)
- “Encourage experimentation. Not every AI trial will succeed, and that’s okay. Some of our early experiments such as using it to inform SEO didn’t work out, but as the technology evolves, we revisit them to see if improvements have been made. Staying open to testing and learning helps identify the most valuable applications.” (Jenni Allen, director of content, Which?)
- “Get your data in shape. Clean records and connected systems are the fuel that lets AI actually deliver results.” (Rob Green, director of product and transformation, ESco)
- “Figure out where you stand: Know your audience and your output. Re-tag content to identify audience clusters and the sub-topics that perform best with them. Map revenues by content type, to understand how much each is worth in advertising, sponsorship, subscriptions or retention. AI can help: commercial LLMs can classify articles by various content dimensions such as subject, geography, or bias at scale, giving a clearer view of what drives success.” (Adriana Whiteley, director, FT Strategies)
- “Bake credibility into the process. Our brands run on trust and defined guardrails around disclosure, testing, and data privacy. You must treat AI like any other editorial piece subject to editorial rigour and accountability at all times.” (Damian McAlonan, AI & digital solutions director, Mark Allen Group)
- “Be transparent with audiences. Make it clear when AI has played a role in producing content, and equally clear when it hasn’t. Over time, human-created journalism will carry a premium precisely because it is distinct from machine output.” (Martin Ashplant, product development & operations director, PA Media)
- “Define success metrics at the outset and use to guide decisions.” (Derek Milne, commercial pixometrist, Pixometry)
- “What works for another site might not be right for you — so experiment, and don’t be disheartened if it’s not the first, second or third thing you do that’s actually any good.” (Carl Myers, chief technology officer, Faversham House)
- “Implement AI in cooperation with the editorial team. The success of AI adoption depends on people, not technology. If editors, designers, and journalists — who will interact with AI tools daily — feel threatened or sidelined, they’ll resist. But when engaged, well-trained, and comfortable using AI to reduce drudgery, excitement grows. In short: collaborative rollout is essential. Through workshops where teams test AI features on real assignments, feedback loops to refine tools, and transparent communication about goals and limitations. By making staff co-owners of the AI journey, publishers can build trust and ensure smoother adoption.” (Tom Pijsel, VP product management, WoodWing)
You can hear more insights from our experts and put your own questions to them at the webinar — look forward to you joining us on the 18th. You can also read the articles they wrote for the AI special here.
You can catch James Evelegh’s regular column in the InPubWeekly newsletter, which you can register to receive here.
