Over the past three years, almost all of the discussion on the use of AI in media has been about efficiency: how much time AI can save you when it helps with story ideas, research, production, headlines, social copy, and even, to some extent, writing. All of those use cases are about doing basically the same thing, only faster.

No shame in any of it—efficiency is a worthy goal, and artificial intelligence can help immensely in advancing it. But AI can also open up novel ways of achieving the ultimate goal: connecting and engaging with audiences who find your information valuable. This is “opportunity AI,” and it’s something I was inspired to write about after my former colleague NLW dedicated a recent episode of his AI Daily Brief podcast to it. He was speaking to a broad audience, but I’m interested in what opportunity AI means for the media specifically.

I also think this is an opportune time for the media to think about new ways of applying AI, because the efficiency gains haven’t exactly won over the goodwill of readers. While some newsrooms are seeing impressive numbers in terms of output (one African digital publisher told an industry conference that a single reporter’s weekly output jumped more than 150% after adopting its in-house AI tools), the experience for readers is ultimately the same as before: an article. Except now they’re looking for AI tells. Opportunity AI in media means treating the article as just the beginning.

When generative AI was new, the novel opportunity that became the default was the chatbot.

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