How is AI changing the media industry?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the face of the media industry as we know it. AI is fundamentally altering the way content is produced, circulated and digested, which is shifting how people currently receive their news and entertainment - AGAIN .

To me it feels as though the headlines that "print and radio were dying" were circulating just a few years ago and programatic advertising found its way into rate cards around the world. Since then the technological developments in traditional media have been surprising, and audience consumption habits have changed dramatically. The volume of digital content now available is immense, and now with the possibilities offered by AI it's exciting to see new options emerging to further refine and deliver this content in a more personalized way.

Controversially, one of the more significant changes brought by AI is in content creation. Is it OK to leverage AI-powered solutions to create content? Personally I think if that content is used to inspire - and not replace human generated content, and if it resonates with their audiences, why not? News agencies should be able to use AI to research articles and generate sample videos from raw data. For years they've been using different data sets and AI-powered tools to analyze social media trends, predict the most popular topics, see what's trending in real time and generate relevant content. As long as the content has substance and a human slant, I don't see any issues.

Perhaps a much less controversial thing AI can help with when it comes to content is optimisation. Improving content, including headlines, photos, and captions. AI-powered systems can examine user behaviour and preferences leading to better engagement and higher click-through rates.

AI is also speeding up the post video production process. Using AI to automate and shortcut video editing, tedious tasks such as trimming, color correction, and captioning can now all be done in a few clicks. One of the biggest benefits of AI in video production is being able to using text to speech and audio indexing. This means being able to do things like create video summaries on the fly, allow audiences to quickly get the highlights of a long video, or search for specific topics or clips within a bank of audio/visual content. 

AI also offers great power when it comes to distribution of personalized content. It's exciting to see how AI powered tools are able to examine user data, such as browsing patterns, search terms, and social media activity, to suggest articles, videos, blog posts, podcasts and more that audiences will find interesting. Being able to ask for the funniest new podcast and finding suggestions based on my own personal humour is one example of how AI will deliver higher engagement rates and drive customer satisfaction.

Automating content distribution is the next AI layer on top of personalization to make a dramatic impact. Using AI-powered technologies media firms can deliver material across a variety of channels, such as social media, email, and websites. The distribution of material through automation saves time and money while reaching a larger audience.

Once you've reached your ideal audience and they're engaged, you can then use things like AI-avatars and voice assistants to enhance traditional digital content and create interactive experiences to deliver more dynamic and enjoyable content and even advertising. This leads to increased engagement and creates a more immersive experience - leading to higher commercialization potential and higher ROI for advertisers.

Despite all of these benefits, we need to touch on a few of the downsides, including the cost of implementing AI-powered tools and potential impacts on humans and their livelihoods. There are also ethical considerations associated with AI-powered media tools, including privacy concerns and the potential for AI-generated content to spread misinformation. This is why all AI solutions need to be implemented in a responsible manner, ethical implications need to be carefully considered and solutions should be closely managed by real people along the way.

To succeed with AI adoption, it's important for media companies to to avoid common mistakes, such as creating an over reliance on AI. It's critical to stay up-to-date with the latest AI advancements and predictions and to work with a trusted partner who specialises in keeping on top of developments in the industry.

It's exciting to see how AI is enhancing the media industry, bringing new ideas and solutions for content creation, distribution, and consumption. The future of journalism will be interesting to watch as AI advances over the next decade. Media companies will have to embrace these changes to stay ahead of the competition, which I'm sure they will have no issues with. The race is on.