How AI Is Transforming Publishing: Personalization, Efficiency And Revenue Growth

Why Publishers Should See AI As A Friend, Not A Foe

Andrew Mole, CEO & Co-Founder pubX

It's not surprising that the publishing industry has mixed feelings about AI. The threat of generative AI being used to automate the production of content, leading to inaccuracies, misinformation, and the demise of creativity, is understandable, even before you consider the impact on copyright and jobs.

While it's more important than ever that creativity is protected, we shouldn't dismiss AI out of hand. The fact is that it can bring many benefits to publishers, such as automating tedious manual tasks, opening up new possibilities, streamlining back-end processes to create a better experience for audiences, and helping creativity to thrive.

Here, I'll explain why publishers should be using AI to give them a helping hand when it comes to driving advertising revenues, boosting efficiency, and giving their highly-trained and fantastically capable talent the opportunity to shine.
 

AI Can Help Publishers Connect With Audiences On A Personal Level

Advertising revenue is the lifeblood of publishing. However, to be an attractive partner for advertisers, publishers need to ensure they have a quality product, and this requires constant investment and innovation to keep audiences engaged.

There are many ways AI for publishers can be utilized by publishers to create better experiences for consumers, for instance, AI-driven personalization through curated email newsletters. Or bespoke, AI-generated landing pages that surface the content a specific reader will be interested in, and leave out any features or articles that are irrelevant. Without AI-enabled tools, there's no way a publisher would be able to create such tailored experiences for each and every member of their audience; with AI, advanced recommendation algorithms are a very real possibility.

In addition to bringing great content to the right consumers to boost engagement, there's plenty that AI in publishing can do behind the scenes. Using AI to unearth insights about audience behavior or other characteristics to inform editorial strategy is just one example. Numerous routine tasks such as reporting can be refined by automation, meaning staff have more time to dedicate to the kind of things that require the creative touch of a human. And by streamlining back-office processes, publishers can free up more financial resources to invest in quality content.
 

Using AI In Digital Advertising To Get A Fair Deal On Advertising Revenues

As well as within their own organizations, AI in adtech can have a positive impact for publishers when used by partners within the pubtech and adtech ecosystems. Programmatic technology developed as a way of connecting advertisers with unused inventory several years ago, transforming the digital advertising space. From the publishers' perspective, though, this innovation—as well as many other adtech tools—were built for the convenience and benefit of advertisers.

While programming made it easier for advertisers to reach audiences, for publishers to optimize this revenue stream, a lot of manual work was involved. That's because the real-time bidding (RTB) market is designed to favor advertisers. Demand-side platforms (DSPs) utilize highly advanced technologies that enable precise bidding to optimize spend for their advertiser partners, while publishers have traditionally relied on rudimentary tools like unified pricing rules (UPRs), introduced by Google in 2019, to try and maximize their revenue.

It's not a fair fight.

Now, however, AI can level the playing field. Developments in machine learning (ML) have made it possible for publishers to automate tasks such as setting floor prices for millions of ad auctions, maximizing revenue by dynamically pricing inventory for every single person and ad unit.
 

Taking A Responsible Approach To AI To Mitigate Negative Impacts

It's an inevitability that some publishing jobs will be affected by AI. But this was also true of other technologies—take typesetting, for example, a trade that was hugely transformed by the introduction of computers—and will also be true of future technological developments. While the negative aspects of AI have dominated headlines and discourse, publishers that take a balanced and responsible approach to this technology can make a big step forward. 

This means developing a clear AI roadmap for their organization that encompasses multiple considerations. Where jobs will be impacted, opportunities for re-training must be provided to staff. Great care should be taken to ensure the technology vendors they work with are using AI responsibly, and taking steps to track and reduce carbon emissions. Choosing the wrong partner could exacerbate the problems publishers suffer with already-bloated supply chains; just another organization taking a slice out of ad revenue. The right partner should be able to demonstrably prove the ROI of their solution and sustainability of their approach.
 

AI Should Do The Things Humans Can't—Not The Things Humans Do Well

It's no secret that many publishers are under extreme pressure right now, confronted by a turbulent economy and uncertainty over revenue streams as advertisers struggle with signal loss, while facing ever-growing competition for audience attention. AI isn't going to solve these problems at a stroke, but it can greatly improve the outlook for publishers in a number of ways.

AI for publishers can enable publishers to better serve their audience through greater personalization, increase internal efficiency, and maximize revenue in programmatic auctions. None of these tasks could realistically be achieved by humans in a cost-effective way. And by improving the quality of their product, streamlining their operations, and optimizing ad revenues, publishers can dedicate more resources to enable their teams' creativity. That's why publishers should be making AI their friend.