Artificial intelligence is likely one of the most used buzzwords of our time. No matter whether you are in the automotive industry, healthcare, retail or something else, everyone is talking about AI. The media/publishing industry is no exception; Like many other industry segments, Artificial Intelligence is taking the media and publishing industry by storm.
Some people say that publishing has already been disrupted, that this current state is the new model. But I don’t think the disruption has even started yet.
Before I write more, let’s first understand what is AI?
AI is a method by which humans train machines to identify patterns and learn new patterns. It involves developing algorithms that enable machines to quickly process large swaths of data, recognize patterns within that data, and make decisions or recommendations based on that analysis.
The basic principle of AI lies in machine learning that allows computers to process vast amounts of data, and to learn from it without being specifically pre-programmed. First, machines have to rely on a set of rules in order to get sufficient knowledge of how a human would perform a particular task — and then the algorithm is set to go!
Hope it was simple to understand.
Artificial Intelligence is increasingly finding its way into the business world, and the publishing industry is no different. In fact, many different publications are already incorporating AI into their practices.
By just observing the media industry itself, it’s safe to say that AI is revolutionizing the following areas.
- Automated reporting
- Reformatting of articles
- Text auto-tagging
- Content translation
- Chatbots
- Predictive analytics
- Image recognition and auto-tagging
AI is also helping to automate Journalism AI is helping newsrooms streamline their media workflow, automate mundane tasks, dig and crunch quality data, eliminate fake news, identify frauds, and generate intelligent stories.
Another most interesting area is the content personalization.
Personalization becoming more popular
Some publishers now see personalization as a key to growing consumer revenue.
Now, what is content personalization?
Content personalization, the strategy for delivering relevant and targeted content based on what interests your audience, is instrumental for engaging customers on an individual level. Providing tailored recommendations to customers is the difference between sales and great sales. There are two kinds of personalization: Active personalization, which requires users to choose what kind of news they get, and passive personalization, which happens in the background, often in the form of content recommendations.
Personalization appeals to publishers because the technology used to target content to readers can also be used to target advertising, and vice versa.
In one of the surveys, it has been found that personalization is likely to become more popular among publishers, with 50% of publishers that do not currently personalize content said they are developing plans to do so.
“Overall, publishers are worried about not sounding caught-up if they’re not doing some form of personalization, They think they’re being left behind.”
AI applications are disrupting the media experience for consumers. The technology is empowering media companies to proactively offer the most relevant content based on an individual’s passion and interests. Features like speaking apps and chatbots are allowing viewers to communicate and engage with content and enabling media and publishing companies to improve customer experience.
Further, AI allows publishers to understand their audience at a deeper level. AI-powered machine or deep learning can synthesize content that connects with people at the appropriate time and in the right context. For instance, content read on weekends is different from other days of the week. AI can help media companies take cues from such reading habits and preferences and deliver relevant content to their audience, giving them a serious competitive edge over others.
Do you want to get started with content personalization, the following four steps can help ease the process:
Step 1: Find out if your CMS already has the capability:
Step 2: Define your audience segments
Step 3: Integrate a personalization platform
Step 4: Configure rules and create segmented content
Here are a few other ways you can expect to see publishers use AI in the near future.
1. Automating Tedious Tasks
AI is currently used by some scientific publications to catch plagiarism, find peer reviewers, and identify statistical errors. Other time-consuming tasks such as validating sources and fact-checking may soon be automated, too, freeing up authors for more important work.
2. Automating Story Content
Some articles require the personal touch of an experienced journalist. Others don’t need quite the writer-ly flourish. Publishers will increasingly use algorithms to create articles that highlight statistics or other basic information, such as financial reports and sports recaps.
3. Improving Content Distribution
AI can boost constituent engagement with your website. For example, it may help you decide the best time to email a specific message to an audience, increasing click-throughs or other transactions. It may also help you send individualized content tailored to the interests of each constituent.
Conclusion
“The Static Website Is Dead”
For those wondering whether this article has been written by an AI, well, the answer is no. At least for now, human beings are still necessary. And with due probability, humans will never be substituted by robots in publishing and media since creativity and art are a fundamental and irreplaceable part of writing. In truth, as human writers will be assisted by AI, our jobs will become easier and the average quality of our products even better.
Authored By: Amardeep Vishwakarma, CTO, The Indian Express
