CHALLENGE FORUM
Leveraging AI to Unlock Creative Potential in Media
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CHALLENGE FORUM PARTICIPANTS
The media landscape continues evolving at a breakneck pace, with new platforms, formats and consumption models reshaping how content is produced and distributed. To keep pace, media companies face intensifying demands to boost output volume, optimise content for platform nuances, and rapidly adapt to shifts in viewer preferences. However, stretched teams, tangled workflows, and siloed legacy systems constrain creative velocity today.
To explore innovative ways of tackling these challenges, TechPros.io recently convened a roundtable of media leaders spanning content, data and technology functions. The lively discussion centred on how generative AI could alleviate bottlenecks and unlock creative potential at scale.
Athena Witter, Vice President of Digital Content & Programming at BBC Studios, framed the overarching imperative. "We operate in a hugely competitive market where we absolutely need to look at serving content quickly and efficiently while retaining our credibility and creative edge," she remarked. "The key is providing our talented teams the right enablers to do their jobs smarter."
The gathered executives agreed AI holds immense promise on this front by automating monotonous production tasks, surfacing data-driven creative insights, and augmenting human creativity rather than replacing it. Giano Biagini, Growth and Strategy Director at Globant, highlighted that the influence of generative AI is gathering significant attention in the media and entertainment industry in particular. “It is true that companies must learn how to adopt this technology and how to face broader impacts and implications, but it is also clear that AI will change the industry, the way we create content, workflows and how we address demand, in particular rapidly changing consumption patterns. The applications of this technology represent a powerful instrument and a big opportunity for AI project leaders, as it can drive a material impact on product quality and overall company economics.”
Adoption must progress carefully given new technology frontiers, ethical considerations, and content brand integrity to uphold. But AI can undoubtedly relieve commercial pressures and empower artists, if applied judiciously.
Globant has two episodes Part 1, Eps.20:
Part 2, Eps.21: Release date 16 January 2024
Elevating Efficiency of the Creative Process
Witter noted AI is already demonstrating value in content tagging and analytics. "We know there's natural nervousness introducing new tech into traditional broadcast workflows," she said. "But our small internal tests around closed LLMs show what's possible for boosting productivity."
By training models on vast content archives, LLMs can develop keen understanding of genre tropes, character archetypes, plot rhythms, and other creative conventions. The AI can then suggest production templates, metadata tags, performance benchmarks and storyboard options that creators refine rather than starting from scratch.
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This jumpstarts the creative process with data-driven guardrails versus just a blank page while still keeping humans firmly in charge
Angelos Oikonomopoulos Commercial Data Science Director at Global Media & Entertainment Limited
He believes melding LLM proficiencies with creator ingenuity strikes an optimal balance. "AI contributes what it's great at – uncovering hidden insights from data at scale - while leaving room for human imagination, emotion and serendipity that makes art special," Oikonomopoulos said.
Tailoring Content Across Platform nuances
Witter also sees promise applying AI to optimise content across platforms. "We deliver high video volumes across YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and more," she explained. "Adapting edits and length for each audience is incredibly labour intensive today."
By connecting content performance data from these platforms to creative workflows, media companies can dynamically customise framing, sequence, branding and other elements that perform best with each audience. AI identifies these preferential levers for templates that editors then refine manually.
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Suddenly you enable mass personalization of content without exploding production costs
Veronika Daniel Head of Data Governance at ITV Studios
She said "We have been leveraging AI to transcribe content, enhancing operational efficiencies and unlock valuable metadata that would otherwise remain unsearchable. This initiative began some time ago. However, it appears that within our industry, the design and implementation of data ecosystems to fully capitalise on the knowledge derived from our metadata is somewhat constrained, in contrast to the more enterprise end-to-end data ecosystems designs that prove beneficial in other industries.”
"Furthermore we haven’t applied similar tech to our creative process yet," Veronika acknowledged.
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But the possibilities to inform decisions, accelerate workflows and match content to viewer passions are vast once the right frameworks are in place
Veronika Daniel Head of Data Governance at ITV Studios
Navigating New Frontiers Mindfully
While equivocally bullish on AI’s prospects, the execs urged judicious adoption given ethical considerations around data, legal aspects regarding IP, and brand safety risks from moving too hastily.
"We have a duty of care for our talent, brands and audience so steps must be gradual and governed by clear principles," Witter stressed. She noted BBC Studios began testing on purely internal archives to safeguard integrity as capabilities develop. External Advisory Boards also guide policies as technologies continue maturing.
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We have a duty of care for our talent, brands and audience so steps must be gradual and governed by clear principles
Athena Witter Vice President, Digital Content & Programming, BBC Studios
Oikonomopoulos agrees completely. "It’s critical we remain deeply involved in how AI gets built, applied and assessed instead of simply installing black box tools," he said. "Cross-functional collaboration matters immensely since AI amplified across creative pipelines touches so many facets of our business."
The Path Ahead with Generative AI
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The solutions highlighted offer pragmatic first steps where AI can achieve step-change productivity gains while preserving creative licence and oversight
JJ Lopez Murphy Global Head of AI at Globant
He believes integrated content models, knowledge graphs and modular production templates set the stage for AI assisting rather than replacing human creators.
Lopez also noted that Generative AI remains an emergent frontier. Much like humans learn from experience, AI models grow more proficient through continuous training cycles.
"With careful data curation, monitoring and participation, Generative AI can keep expanding what’s creatively possible at formerly unthinkable scale,” he said.
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Media leaders must stay close to these advancing capabilities to forge partnerships between human creativity and machine capabilities that usher their brands into the future
JJ Lopez Murphy Global Head of AI at Globant
Isa Goksu, Globant’s CTO for UK and Germany, concurred that Generative AI marks a profound inflection point for media. However, he warned that innovation without an accompanying strategy results in wasteful experiments.
“Our platform helps media titans shape their AI vision, balances speed with oversight, and ties initiatives to business value,” Goksu said.
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Once core opportunities are defined, Generative AI can free creative teams to focus on their craft rather than administrative drudgery
Isa Goksu CTO, Digital Transformation, AI/ML, Distributed Computing, Globant
By blending human creative direction with automated production efficiencies, media now has a momentous chance to unleash its imagination. If stewarded strategically, Generative AI may well revolutionise content innovation for tomorrow’s omnichannel opportunities.
Globant
Globant, a $1B+ IT services enterprise, pioneers technology-driven solutions for businesses worldwide, reacting to shifts in consumer behaviour influenced by technology. Holding a significant footprint in the Media and Entertainment sector, we empower giants like Netflix, Warner Bros, Discovery, FIFA, Universal, and many more. Our expertise? Harnessing AI to revolutionise their business with unparalleled content personalisation and immersive experiences. As we steer through challenges like data privacy, intellectual property, human creativity, and ethics, we ensure a seamless transformation.
The media industry is evolving, and to remain relevant, companies must adapt to technology-driven changes in consumer habits. At Globant, we ensure businesses are always ahead, offering content that resonates deeply with audiences.
