After an immersive six-month experience in Silicon Valley, Jovan Protic, vice president of the board at Ringier Axel Springer Polska, returned with numerous insights and unexpected discoveries. His time in the global hub of innovation and technology provided him with a deeper understanding of emerging AI trends.  

In Silicon Valley, there are as many as seven AI events happening every day. Throughout his time there, Protic immersed himself fully in the AI scene, attending everything from conferences and hackathons to AI Demo Days held in the community church in Palo Alto. 

He made it a priority to be wherever AI was being discussed or showcased, ensuring he stayed at the forefront of the latest developments in the field. 

The questions Protic wanted to cover during his time in Silicon Valley included those about traffic, monetisation, subscribers, margins, investments/partnerships, new business, hardware/partners, new products, and organisation.

Innovative tools set to expand storytelling horizons

According to Protic, companies are increasingly exploring the potential of technology to enhance storytelling. New tools utilising AI are emerging to assist with creating podcasts and videos, as well as facilitating live translations. 

One such innovation involves turning single-brand reporters into multi-brand reporters by utilising real-time translation tools. This allows reporters to speak in one language while their words are simultaneously translated into multiple languages, broadening the audience for their stories across different regions. 

By leveraging cross-brand cooperation and cutting-edge technology, companies aim to have their reporters present in more places, offering richer content to subscribers. Protic says that “while the translation tools are not yet flawless, there is optimism that within a few months, the technology will be perfected and ready for widespread use.”

What is more, with the integration of AI, every article page could now include a relevant, contextual video, which significantly enhances engagement. Pages with videos show an average time on page of three minutes, compared to just one-minute on pages without video.

Furthermore, with a tool called RIO, anyone can easily create their own podcast by simply providing a prompt. RIO allows users to generate content quickly and efficiently:

Designed specifically for journalists and editors, Copilot offers help in crafting summaries, titles, subheadings, and paraphrasing content. Editors and journalists can utilise Copilot to simplify complex sections of text or expand upon specific ideas.  

By leveraging advanced AI capabilities, Copilot aims to streamline the writing process, allowing professionals to focus more on creative storytelling and less on repetitive editing tasks.

Challenges with implementing AI to both readers and journalists 

One challenge with implementing AI on Web sites (such as new sites) is the general audience’s unfamiliarity with the technology, particularly among users aged 35 to 40, Protic said.

Many of these individuals do not fully understand how and why to use AI, which results in lower adoption rates. This gap in understanding necessitates extensive education efforts to inform users about the technology and its benefits. Interestingly, those who do begin to use AI tools tend to spend significantly more time on average articles and exhibit higher overall engagement on the website. 

Additionally, there are insights regarding the practical application of various AI tools within journalists. After introducing a range of different tools, it was observed that teams often forget to utilise them after a few days. 

This decline in usage can be attributed to the need for a cohesive ecosystem; team members prefer to have all necessary functions integrated into a single platform rather than switching between multiple tools. To address this issue, there is a plan to develop a comprehensive content management system (CMS) that would streamline operations. 

After speaking with several media companies in the United States, it became clear to Protic that there is a lot of skepticism, particularly from the editorial side: “However, I believe that journalists will be augmented by AI, and this will produce the best time ever for journalism,” he said.  

While the impact on publishing companies remains uncertain, AI’s ability to streamline repetitive tasks and improve investigative journalism by processing large amounts of data and identifying patterns that humans may struggle to find quickly is seen as a huge positive change for the industry.

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