How can the promise of generative AI be turned into tangible results? We are honoured to have WELT’s Chief Business Editor Mr Olaf Gersemann and Mr Pascal Roski, a Fullstack Developer and AI Advisor to Axel Springer’s media brands, demonstrate how innovative AI solutions revolutionise the newsroom while ensuring quality control.
This seminar is organised by CTIC with Axel Springer SE – Europe’s largest digital publishers and owner of diverse multimedia news brands including BILD, WELT, BUSINESS INSIDER and POLITICO. The recordings are available here:
Group photo with some of our participants at i4.0 lobby
During the seminar, Mr Roski introduced the Content-Analyzer, an AI editorial application developed within Axel Springer to enhance editorial efficiency, lower the cost of production, and generate content for underserved or emerging topics. Over 30 tools are developed for SEO, editorial and administrative tasks to streamline the publication pipeline, with hundreds of articles published a day. Although it is capable of generating articles with various content elements from headlines to meta description to searching for relevant images and videos, a crucial part of the workflow is human quality control. The Content-Analyzer features an editable output for proofreading, manual editing, and approval before publishing.
(Left) Mr Pascal Roski, (Middle) Mr Olaf Gersemann, (Right) Asst. Prof Kokil Jaidka
In the second half of the presentation, Mr Gersemann showed how the Content-Analyzer can be used to personalise newsletters for subscribers based on their chosen topics or interests, such as finance or sports. This AI solution has transformed what used to be a full day’s work into a matter of minutes for compiling a newsletter. There is more efficiency in terms of journalists’ time and processes, better customisation, and ultimately higher subscribers’ retention rate.
Seminar at i4.0 Conference room
No doubt, AI offers many opportunities in the media and digital publishing industry. However, we should also be aware of its potential issues. In the Q&A session, Asst. Prof Jaidka moderated meaningful discussions among participants on topics such as transparency and accountability of AI-generated content, information bias and misinformation.