Data & AI for Media: Inspirations for AI-driven product development

Joanne Kuai

22, February 2019 | London

In the face of media industry’s next big disruption brought by the development of technology, it’s essential for the media companies to seek to drive revenue and expand audiences by leveraging data and artificial intelligence, says Martha Williams, CEO of World Newsmedia Network.

Ms Williams was speaking at the Product Development and Design Thinking Summit, which took place in London 21-22 February 2019. As part of the 9th Data & AI for Media Week, the event aims to inspire participants to imagine how to earn revenue with AI-driven products for their own media companies.

She highlights three aspects of audience-driven product development: personalisation, automation and monetisation. In a room of dozens of participants at the headquarters of the BBC, Ms Williams uses the latest examples of the pioneers of the media industry to illustrate the importance of bringing in innovative ideas as well as serious efforts in execution.

Cultural of experimentation

One key issue for media companies leveraging data and AI is the culture of experimentation, says Ms Williams. With cross-discipline teams having aligned goals, utilising tools and technologies for discovery and design, it is important always to test and optimise. She shares her insights after years of research in the industry and numerous study tours to the most prestigious media organisations around the globe.

Ms. Williams created Data & AI for Media Week in 2013, while she was a research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Since then, the conference has been held in London five times, Hong Kong once and twice in New York. The 10th Data & AI for Media Week is planned for San Francisco and Silicon Valley for 29 April to 3 May 2019. https://sanfrancisco.dataaimedia.org/

Ms Williams also welcomes the participants to join the 2019 Global BIGGIES Awards competition, which is also a part of the 10th Data & AI for Media Week events in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The BIGGIES Awards aims to reward media companies’ best practices in Data and Artificial Intelligence products, projects and strategies. The deadline to submit BIGGIES entries is 1st, April 2019.  https://sanfrancisco.dataaimedia.org/