In an era when Artificial Intelligence is revolutionising industries, Omni has taken a pioneering step to not only adopt but also deeply integrate AI into our journalistic processes. This initiative is grounded in a unique approach: empowering all our journalists to understand the fundamentals of AI and to build and use AI tools themselves. 

Our AI journey at Omni began on November 30, 2022, with the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-3.5. Recognising the transformative power of generative AI, we envisioned a future where Omni led the media industry not just in adapting to change but in driving it. And to do this we knew we’d be better off with all of us aboard rather than just a few.

But the culture of doing things radically differently from others was in our DNA from the very beginning. Omni, a news curator whose primary focus is international news and Swedish domestic news with a particular emphasis on politics, was created 10 years ago. In this relatively short time, we have already changed the way Swedish news junkies consume news.

Omni operates without a traditional hierarchy of editor-in-chief, editors, and reporters at the news desk. Instead, all journalists assume the same role and are trained as decision-making editors. This structure made the concept of equipping every single individual with AI skills a natural progression rather than a far-fetched idea.

Taking on AI

Our strategy was clear from the outset: Every Omni employee must become proficient in AI. This wasn’t just about understanding AI but mastering it so each team member could develop bespoke tools tailored to their needs.

Last fall, we launched an extensive training programme featuring workshops, hands-on assignments, and collaborations with AI experts to ensure that learning was both deep and practical. The focus was on prompting and building tools in Airops, a sophisticated AI tool builder with access to all the latest large language models. 

We have finished our third and final training session, which means almost all of our employees now have a better understanding of the great possibilities that AI brings.

Of course, implementing a company-wide AI training programme is not without its hurdles. Having journalists rather than developers build your AI tools is a great idea: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

There might be faster ways to build complex tools for journalists. However, we strongly believe that the end result is much better when the tools are tailored to the users (our editors) and when they have a deep understanding of how these tools are developed.

An additional benefit, perhaps the most important one, is that it fosters a maturity to face a future that heavily revolves around how we use AI.

What we learned

The results have been profoundly encouraging. Our journalists are not just using AI; they are innovators in their own right, crafting tools that we’re sure will bring efficiency and new capabilities to our reporting.

For instance, tools developed by our staff can summarise an extensive list of articles into smart fact boxes and transcribe and analyse lengthy podcasts for our editors.

Our most recent tool automatically reads all published Omni articles in real time and then sends suggestions for changes (along with the type of error involved) to a Slack channel. Clever! It’s a great yet simple idea that makes Omni better: fewer typos, happy users.

At Omni, we believe AI represents the most significant advancement in media since the emergence of digital news. By educating our entire staff in AI, we are not just preparing for the future; we are actively shaping it.

Our dedication to this transformative technology drives our mission to deliver cutting-edge journalism. We are excited about future innovations and are committed to leading the way in an AI-driven media landscape.

However, to truly capitalise on this potential, we must be bolder.

In our view, the media industry is not transforming quickly enough. Simply educating our staff is not sufficient. The media industry must embrace more radical change to remain relevant — or even to survive. We need to completely transform and reinvent ourselves. At Omni, we have several ideas on how to achieve this transformation, but those details will be shared in due course.

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