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Roxanne Fisher is the Director of Digital Content Strategy at Immediate Media, where she has been instrumental in leading the company’s digital transformation and AI integration. Here, she discusses how Immediate has changed staff perception of AI.
How have you approached AI at Immediate?
At the start of 2023, we began our AI journey by exploring potential opportunities and understanding our staff’s sentiments towards AI. We found that opinions were split: some thought AI was just hype and not relevant to their jobs, while others were somewhat interested but unsure where to start. We knew we had a lot of work to do.
Where did you start?
In 2023, we focused on creating guardrails for AI use, ensuring that while people experimented with AI, they knew the limits. We didn’t want to flood our platforms with AI-generated content because quality and trust are paramount to us. We initiated a prescriptive testing program with our editors, which helped us gather some solid use cases. In July, we held an immersion day with external speakers discussing AI ethics and opportunities, followed by hands-on workshops. This led to a significant increase in AI-related project proposals from our staff.
What happened at the immersion day and how did it go?
The immersion day was a success, with 70 project submissions from our staff, resulting in 27 projects that were worked on over two days in September. We had about 300 people participating, which was logistically challenging but rewarding.
It was a hackathon environment in the office and at the end of the two days, we asked everyone if they were comfortable to pitch back to the whole company, so about 600, 700 people.We thought people would drop out and we might have 10 people presenting back but all 27 projects presented back which was fantastic.
Our youth and children’s team who are completely print came up with a comic book generator which was really fantastic. They used mid-journey and Runway and GPT to create comic book strips from user scripts, because users would send them. Sometimes they would get designers to do this, but it was a lengthy process and quite expensive.
We had quite a few teams working on puzzles and games as well, so people could go and actually play them after the presentation.
How did your staff’s perception of AI change?
By the end of 2023, about 80% of our staff felt positive about AI, up from 50% at the start of the year. However, in early 2024, we noticed that while we had many use cases from our experimentation days, they weren’t being integrated into daily workflows. We realised the need to provide better access to tools and support for ongoing experimentation and integration.
What are your focus areas for 2024?
In 2024, we focused on four key areas: understanding the audience ecosystem, providing continuous learning and resources, enhancing workflow productivity with AI, and driving innovation. We launched an AI toolkit, created communities of practice, and identified 130 use cases for AI across the business. We are also testing various tools and platforms to see which best meet our needs.
Can you elaborate on the tools and innovations you’re currently exploring?
We’re testing a variety of tools like GitHub Copilot for developers, which has significantly sped up coding time, and Grammarly and Jasper for content creation. We’re also exploring creative tools like MidJourney and Firefly for mood boarding and mock-ups. Additionally, we’re experimenting with AI-powered search, vectorising archives, and developing AI tools to enhance content accessibility and sustainability.
How are you building internal expertise in AI?
Building internal expertise is a work in progress. We’re doing a lot of self-learning and have partnered with an AI agency for a project aimed at up-skilling our data team. We’re also working with an agency in Bristol called Superheroic for AI training. We encourage our staff to experiment and provide them with access to tools and expert facilitation.
What advice would you give to news organisations just starting to explore AI?
My advice is to just get started and experiment. It can be challenging with the pressures of business as usual, but building in time to test the tools is crucial. Start with small, practical tasks that can save time or improve efficiency. AI tools are generally easy to use, and once people see their benefits, they’ll be more inclined to integrate them into their workflows.
What are your plans for the future regarding AI at Immediate Media?
We plan to continue fostering a culture of innovation and curiosity around AI. We have more experimentation days planned and will keep providing access to tools and training. Our goal is to integrate AI in ways that enhance our workflows, improve content quality, and drive engagement without compromising our values of quality and trust.
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