What PRs Need to Know About the Way AI is Transforming the Media
New research shows how artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the way we take in information
The media landscape is changing at pace – and keeping up with the latest developments and moves will give every comms expert an advantage over their rivals. Every week take a look at the media business from mainstream and ‘legacy’ media to cutting edge tech and the latest trends and developments – and how you can use that know-how.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine showed me his new news channel.
Using Claude AI, he had formatted his own media station which gave him personalised information on the topics he finds interesting. It included graphics, explainers, Q&As, clips of video. It also offered a bespoke news bulletin of varying lengths depending on how much time he has to listen.
And before you ask, my friend is not a software programmer or tech developer – he’s just an enthusiast who, I’ll be honest, likes new gadgets and is up for trying things.
I was reminded of him after reading about media researcher Nic Newman’s presentation to the Media Voices Publishers summit last week.
There he laid out a simple truth – AI can do what journalists do, just quicker and better.
It can find the information and it can format it astonishingly well in a way that is personalised to a user. Want data in charts? No problem. Want a three-minute audio explainer. Here it is. Need analysis of what might happen next? Sorted.
Newman described what AI is creating as “liquid content” adding: “Content is becoming much more fluid, whether we like it or not. It’s going to be remixed in many different ways, and audiences will expect and like that level of personalisation, that they can get the content in the format that they want.”
The tech is phenomenal and is only going to get better and more accurate.
It is clearly a challenge for mainstream media when the information people used to rely on is now available at a click of a button and in exactly the way you want it.
It’s a sign of how fast AI is transforming the media landscape, but it has big consequences for the media and anyone who wants to engage with it, like PRs and comms teams.
