AI for Bundle Products, the Influencer Effect, & Learning from Past Mistakes

BBC Dials Up AI for Polish-Language News

Press Gazette, Inside the pilot BBC World Service website using AI translation

The BBC World Service recently launched its first new language site since 2018, and it’s doing it with an AI twist. BBC News Polska is using global news translated into Polish using AI tools like Whisper and DeepL, which is then always vetted by real journalists.

What’s new about this AI translation is that the BBC is folding AI into its actual workflow by adding it into its CMS system. They hope to use their learnings from this project to launch the service in other languages as well.

Hearst’s Cooking Coach Puts AI on the Menu

Digiday, Why Hearst built an AI voice assistant tool for Delish

Delish just launched its first AI voice assistant, “Cooking Coach,” turning hands-free recipe help into a reality for home cooks. Born from a weekend hack by Hearst’s Alexandria Redmon (Senior Director of AI Initiatives), the tool was built with OpenAI’s tech and trained exclusively on Delish’s library of 30,000+ recipes. After five months of development with product and editorial teams, it now helps users search, adjust, and follow recipes by voice — in multiple languages.

It’s a direct play to keep users engaged on-site while Google’s AI summaries continue to drain recipe traffic. Hearst is betting that a smart, branded assistant will out-charm a generic search result.

AI in News: Insights from the Digital News Report 2025

Twipe, What the 2025 Digital News Report Tells Us About AI in News

The 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report offers one of the first large-scale snapshots of how global audiences perceive AI in journalism, drawing insights from over 100,000 respondents.

Three takeaways that stood out:

• While no single AI feature stood out as a must-have, two-thirds of people expressed interest in at least one application, signaling broad but cautious curiosity.
• Publishers are encouraged to experiment, starting with low-risk, high-utility features like article summarization and translation, which align with both user interest and newsroom priorities.
• The use of chatbots remains niche, especially among older audiences, but younger users are starting to engage, hinting at future potential if trust, UX, and value improve.

Influencers Just Outsold the Newsroom

Press Gazette, Rise of Influencers: How Publishers Should Respond

According to new research from WPP Media, 2025 will mark the first year creator content generates more ad revenue than traditional media. Experts say this shift reflects not just platform power, but also the emotional connection and audience-first mindset creators bring—something legacy media has been slow to replicate.

While traditional journalism still holds brand value and public service weight, especially in investigative reporting, it risks losing relevance without adopting the formats, tone, and engagement tactics that define influencer media.

Learning from Past Mistakes

One man and his blog, Walking the tightrope between AI and audiences

Adam Tinworth warns against the dangers of adopting AI without careful consideration, drawing parallels to how the media mishandled social media by prioritizing clicks over audience relationships, ultimately eroding trust.

The article emphasizes that journalism must prioritize maintaining audience trust over rushing to integrate AI for cost-cutting or out of fear of falling behind. Instead, it advocates for a more strategic and cautious approach, suggesting AI be used primarily for back-end tasks like data analysis and that the industry focus more on investigating AI’s societal impacts rather than merely adopting it into business models.