Mobile navigation

FEATURE 

Why AI?

AI is front of mind across most industries and publishing is no exception, writes Full Fat Things’ Vicky Macey.

By Vicky Macey

Why AI?
Vicky Macey.

Many of our customers are pondering how AI’s extraordinary acceleration will affect their business, audiences and teams. There’s both fear and confidence in most discussions we have. Great ideas and understandable concern over genuinely transformative technology abound.

As natural optimists, we mainly love looking at the opportunities and tools AI can unlock to superpower publishing businesses. Here are our predictions for how AI will impact the industry – and the humans behind it – in the near future.

Editors and journalists

AI can already support research, fact-checking and even provide early drafts of articles. Does this threaten the profession? We don’t think so. Like so many other advances in technology, AI will free up space and time for journalists to concentrate on creation of high-value, absolutely must-have content.

Audiences and boardrooms have been demanding more from editorial teams to fully support digital product expectations for years; and, actually, the widespread usage of generative AI will only increase the need for the highest quality, truly outstanding content. Inevitable inaccuracies and known bias in AI tools mean they’ll only complete part of the journey; we fully expect humans to remain at the forefront of editorial quality assurance and tone but with AI in the background doing some of the legwork.

SEO

AI can quickly analyse and suggest strategies based on raw search facts and data. There is no magic here; so, let the robots help! And as a bonus, you can stop overpaying for marketing agencies’ reproduction of reports straight out of accessible SEO tools…

Data analysis

As AI provides more detailed insights into reader preferences and behaviours, analysts will play an increasingly critical role in interpretation of this information to shape strategic decisions. And traditional roles will increasingly incorporate analyst skills so it becomes affordable for smaller businesses who don’t need a dedicated human role, just the right data and questions. AI is in the background providing the data; human skill is in the foreground adding the value and analysis audiences crave.

Marketing and sales teams

AI-driven analytics will offer commercial teams richer data for more targeted marketing and sales strategies. More efficiency, greater focus, higher returns – what’s not to like?

IT & technical support

The one area in which human requirement won’t just change shape, but will likely increase – and quickly. With the adoption of AI into day-to-day operations, there will be a greater need for solid technical support to manage, integrate and maintain these systems.

We see evolution here. And have already helped customers bed in AI-based technologies to automate and enrich their workflows and create foundations for impressive products. These technologies also allow them to produce a greater volume of quality output at a speed that would have been science fiction only a decade ago. And with levels of efficiency that allow for the necessary investments to optimise these opportunities.

We say, use the tools and ditch the fear.

About us

With a combined experience of over 80 years in the publishing industry, Full Fat Things works with B2B and B2C publishing businesses to develop sustainable digital products with deep integrations with infrastructure and workflows. We create fully customised outcomes using open-source software to enable ultimate flexibility now and in the future.

vicky@fullfatthings.com

020 7099 3875

www.fullfatthings.com

linkedin.com/company/full-fat-things

Twitter/X: @fullfatthings

www.facebook.com/fullfatthings