Much of the news media industry’s focus on AI tools has centred around newsroom and content tools. But as the industry becomes more comfortable with the technology, generative AI is making its way into other departments.

During last week’s INMA Webinar, Effective strategies for GenAI in advertising, members heard from Michael McCarthy, senior director of AI Solutions at Hearst Newspapers, about how the company integrates generative AI into advertising sales and media planning.

One thing that differentiates Hearst’s approach, McCarthy said, is the implementation of GenAI is driven by real-world sales challenges, not technical teams: “I did not come from a tech background,” he explained.

Before stepping into this role, McCarthy was a direct manager of a sales team, giving him firsthand experience with the inefficiencies in advertising sales.

Some of the challenges included repetitive pitches that failed to resonate with clients, time-consuming pre-call research that made it difficult for sales reps to tailor their approach, low response rates to cold e-mails and outreach efforts, fragmented data that couldn’t be used effectively, and one-size-fits-all media plans that lacked the personalisation clients are looking for.

With those pain points in mind, McCarthy and his team designed an AI-driven system that automates routine tasks, freeing up sales reps to focus on high-impact activities.

A new toolbox

Hearst Newspapers has implemented several AI-driven tools to streamline advertising sales and media planning. One of the most significant advancements has been the development of AI-generated media plans.

Sales representatives can input key client information, and the AI tool instantly generates customised media plans based on historical data, pricing models, and audience insights.

“When you run a transcript through it, it automatically looks at all of our pricing structures and our rules for how you budget and scale campaigns, and it can generate good media plans immediately,” he said. “It feels like magic and it works really well.”

One of GenAI’s benefits is that it can take so much existing data “put it in a format that’s easy to understand and easy to work with.” That leads to more effective personalised campaigns, eliminates the guesswork, and ensures that each plan is optimised for maximum impact and ROI.

McCarthy shared some of the AI solutions he has developed to help guide sales teams through the sales funnel, offering automation at every step. This begins with personalised pre-call research, appointment scheduling, developing the plan itself, and, finally, closing.

McCarthy said his team has found GenAI valuable for enhancing e-mail outreach. A proprietary AI tool crafts personalised messages tailored to the client’s industry, past engagement, and advertising needs. This approach has resulted in higher response rates and improved client engagement.

In addition to automating sales outreach, Hearst developed AI-driven coaching tools that allow sales reps to practice their pitches with AI-driven feedback. These speech-to-speech training tools enable them to refine their messaging, overcome objections, and improve their overall presentation skills in real-time:

“Being able to have a rep actually practise their pitch with AI and getting personalised instruction afterwards is fantastic, and it’s working a lot better.”

In fact, during a recent training session, McCarthy received a timely note from a sales rep: “[She] shot me a note and said, ‘Hey, your AI just helped me close a US$145,000 deal,’” McCarthy said. “I pointed to the training group, the new hires, and said hey, use this stuff, [it] works.”

Speaking of new hires, the tools can help with onboarding and sharing knowledge: “We’re in a business where we have a lot of products and understanding how to calibrate those products and put them in the market is a challenge,” McCarthy said.

With AI, however, “we can make it really easy for people to understand how to talk about the products that makes people feel empowered and it helps them on ramp and be productive faster.”

Smooth scaling

To ensure the smooth integration of AI into advertising operations, Hearst took a phased approach to scaling AI across its sales teams. Initially, the AI tools were introduced to a select group of top-performing sales reps who were eager to test new technology. They provided feedback, helped refine the system, and generated early success stories.

Following this, the AI tools were expanded to a larger group of mid-level sales reps.

“We started with a core of champions, they got some buzz and excitement going, and then we moved to a bigger core of individuals, and we were intentional about this too,” McCarthy said. “We picked people that we thought had higher technical intelligence so they could use tools that would be a little bit more natural for them.”

From there, the AI tools were made available to all Hearst sales reps, supported by structured training programs and continuous performance monitoring. This gradual approach ensured AI integration was seamless and widely accepted rather than overwhelming employees with sudden changes.

“What we found is that we had created enough groundswell and use cases and peer-to-peer influence that we were able to use the feet on the street to assist us with the implementation process and getting this well adopted with the rest of the markets,” he explained.

The principles of change management

Change management is crucial when introducing AI, McCarthy said. To ensure a smooth transition, Hearst focused on securing top-down leadership support.

“Leadership needs to endorse the process, provide the mission, the objectives, access to the tools, and then education on how to use them with expectations of how often are you using them, what are you going to be using them for, et cetera,” McCarthy said. “So you put guardrails in place and make sure that those guardrails and the usage is done on a consistent basis.”

Middle management played a crucial role in coaching reps on AI usage, ensuring widespread adoption.

“You have to empower them with the knowledge to coach and implement these different processes because these can live or die on the middle management. So you want to make sure they’re evangelising this, and they feel that things are going well.”

Continuous feedback loops encourage sales reps to share their experiences and help refine AI-driven tools over time. McCarthy emphasised the importance of building trust with employees and said it is critical to have a human-first approach when implementing AI.

“My message to my team is we are not here to replace you,” McCarthy said. “I am here to give you superpowers.”

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