This month: HUMANISING MEDIA
We'll be exploring how we stay human as the AI wave hits the media industry
Good morning!
Is the AI moment the most formative moment in the history of the media industry?
Or is it just another new tech wave to ride?
We’ve lived through a spectacular series of waves of change. Audience relationships, business models, and key partnerships have been challenged again and again.
As an industry, media has been resilient. It’s full of the kind of people who are pretty good at adapting and moving forward as new technology poses new challenges.
But every time, important things are challenged, and while exciting new things are built, important things are also lost - in terms of focus, culture, and basic business effectiveness.
And it feels like AI represents something genuinely different.
It’s not just a platform change, or a cultural change, but a profound change in how we think, communicate and create. It’s challenging our grip on the story of what we are doing, and why.
And strange, wonderful, risky things are happening.
On the one hand, decades of drudge work could be swept away, as if by magic.
On the other, some of us seem to be losing our ability to think and connect effectively.
If we are going to thrive through this change, we need to hold a crucial tension.
We need to innovate and question our assumptions about work-as-usual.
But we also need to stay resolutely human, focused on our audiences, our creators and our partners.
That means asking some new questions, and searching for different perspectives.
Questions like:
How do we stay human when we’re selling a tech-based dream?
Could products start to advertise themselves, autonomously?
Can AI really make the experience of working in media better?
How will AI change our experience of employment?
All this month, we’ll be exploring these questions, and how to make the tension between technology and humanity as productive as possible for the future of the industry.
As part of this, we are delighted to be hosting a series of live, online LOOK UP interviews with experts working at the leading edges of change in media.
We’d love you to join us. Taking part live is the best way to hear the full conversation, participate and ask your own questions.
For everyone else, we will share the highlights in our newsletter and on LinkedIn.
So, here’s what’s coming…
Bryan Scott (Wednesday 17th June, 1pm BST)
CMO, Ozone | The Audience Connection Platform
How do we stay human when we’re selling a tech-based dream?
We’ll kick off the series with Bryan Scott, a media business CMO with an amazing track record, working within a business that combines platform technology and editorial context.
Sign up here:
https://shorturl.at/bXFeJ
Searsha Sadek (Wednesday 24th June, 1pm BST)
CPO, Shimmr AI
Could a book ever advertise itself, autonomously?
We’ll chat to Searsha Sadek, Chief Product Officer at Shimmr AI, an AI-powered advertising platform working with the big names in publishing, a sector dedicated to the power of human creativity.
Sign up here:
https://shorturl.at/jXk8j
Hamish Nicklin (Friday 26th June, 1pm BST)
CEO & Co-Founder, Agentflow
Can AI really make working in media better?
We’ll chat with Hamish Nicklin, CEO and Co-Founder of Agentflow, formerly CEO of Dentsu Media and CRO at The Guardian, about how AI may, or may not, address the frictions of the media industry.
Sign up here:
https://shorturl.at/QgvhS
Matthew Knight (Wednesday 1st July, 1pm BST)
Independent strategist & freelance advocate
How will AI change our experience of employment?
We’ll discuss the potential futures with Matthew Knight, independent strategist and tireless advocate for freelancers, with a particular focus on how the working experience, and even the nature of employment, might change.
Sign up here:
https://shorturl.at/kQnAB
We’ll also be sharing reading lists, case studies, and a new LOOK UP Guide on how to HUMANISE TECH when taking new ideas and new solutions to market.
Thanks - if you’ve got any thoughts to share as we go, we’d love to hear them…