Since the introduction of Chat GPT, followed by Futuri’s RadioGPT, the talk in the radio industry has been all about artificial intelligence. How will AI affect our industry? Will it allow broadcasters to do new and exciting things or will corporations use it primarily as a cost-cutting tool? Will on air talent perform better when assisted with AI or will they be replaced by it?
It’s easy to get caught up in the fervor, but it’s helpful to take a step back and look at the larger picture. How should broadcasters be thinking about AI?
AI is a Tactic, Not a Strategy
I’ve always cringed when I’ve heard broadcasters talk about their “social media strategy” or their “podcasting strategy.” Social media and podcasting are tactics that can be used as part of a strategy, but they do no make up the strategy itself. The problem with singling out any one tactic and attaching the word “strategy” to it is that it tends to place undue emphasis on the use of that tool, even if other tactics might be better suited to helping the station achieve its goals.
I am guilty of using the term “digital strategy,” but even this is the wrong way to think about it. Your station should have a business strategy, of which digital tools are a part. Too often, we speak about a station’s digital strategy, programming strategy, and sales strategy as if these are independent things. In reality, they all make up one overarching business strategy.
So I don’t think the appropriate question to ask is, “What is our AI strategy?” Instead, ask, “What is our business strategy and how can AI help us with it?”
The Benefits of AI May Not Be What You Think
I was speaking to my friend Dale Bertrand, who is the founder of Fire & Spark, a successful SEO company. Dale has been incorporating AI into his business operations, and speaking at conferences around the country about what he’s doing with it. Dale told me, “Right now, everybody is focused on the content-generating powers of AI, but the real practical value lies in the automation of tasks.”
Here’s what he means: The are many facets of artificial intelligence, from machine learning to robotics, but the element that has broadcasters so intrigued is Natural Language Processing. “Natural Language Processing” is just a fancy way of saying that you can speak to the computer in plain English and the computer can speak back to you in plain English.
At the moment, everybody is focused on the output portion of the equation: “If the computer can output things in plain English, let’s use it to host radio shows and write blogposts!”
But Dale believes that the more practical use of AI will revolve around automating complicated tasks that, until now, only a human could do.
“For example, we all know that we should be monitoring our Google Analytics closely and adjusting our marketing strategy accordingly,” Dale says. “But the reality is that most of us don’t do it as often as we should, because it takes time to log in to Google Analytics and dissect the data. But what if the AI did it for you, so you didn’t have to log in and sift through the data yourself?”
In other words, what if the value comes from the input side of the equation: We can easily tell the AI to do something, and it will take care of it for us. Imagine telling the AI to:
- “Give me a list of the highest charting songs that are not currently in rotation on WKRP.”
- “Give me a list of guests on the late night talk shows this week.”
- “Make a list of all the rock concerts in Miami next month.”
With these prompts, you aren’t asking the AI to produce public-facing content, but rather using the AI to help you make better public-facing content.
Ask These Two Questions When Considering AI
The power of AI lies in helping humans do what they’re best at by automating tasks. When trying to put this concept into practice, there are two questions you should ask:
1. What are we really good at?
What does your radio station excel at? What is your core competency? What’s your station’s One Thing? Whether it’s entertaining people while they’re at work or informing them about the most important news stories of the day, keep that competency front and center in your mind.
How can AI help you do that One Thing better? By allowing you to do it faster, more often, or at a reduced cost.
For example, if you are a morning show host and your One Thing is your ability to entertain people with quirky takes on pop culture news, here are some questions you might ask about AI:
- How can we use AI to sift through more stories to find better material for the show? (Faster)
- How can we use AI to publish pieces of the show to more platforms? (More)
- How can we use AI to localize the show for more stations? (More)
- Can we use AI instead of the show prep service that we currently use? (Cost)
In this sense, it’s helpful to think about AI as steroids; it helps you supercharge your natural abilities. But while giving steroids to a professional quarterback is likely to increase his performance, steroids are not going to suddenly turn me into a professional football player. By the same token, use AI to enhance what you’re already good at; don’t try to use it to turn your station into something that it’s not.
At the same time, you don’t want to use AI if it’s going to undermine your core competency. If your station’s greatest strength is the the ability of its on-air talent to make audiences laugh, don’t replace that on-air talent with AI DJs that aren’t funny. Only use AI if it can help your station strengthen its core competency.
2. What are we doing that falls outside of our core competency?
This doesn’t mean that you can’t use AI to play to your weaknesses; you can. But the goal is to free up your time and resources so that more of them can be focused on your station’s core competency. So when it comes to things that fall outside of that competency, look for ways to use AI to eliminate or offload tasks.
For example, say you have a stellar syndicated morning show talent. Every minute she spends on show prep makes for a much stronger on-air product, but she needs to spend time recording promotional copy for 50 different markets. While it’s important for the host to provide all of her affiliates with their own reads, recording them is a laborious process that takes her away from show prep. In this situation, AI can help free her up to focus on what she does best by churning out localized reads.
When we talk about AI in the radio industry, we tend to conjure up images of Johnny Fever being replaced by Johnny 5. (“Johnny 5 is alive! Booooger!”) The reality is that we may find far more value in using it to accomplish tasks that have a lower profile. By adopting a strategy that puts your station’s One Thing at the center, instead of putting AI at the center, you’ll find that AI tools can extend your staff’s capabilities and frees them up to do what they do best.
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Yes! Great insight, Seth! AI is a tool, just as automation was (is) a tool. Does anyone think there’s a great reason to make a clever, funny host push buttons for commercials or physically segueing records when they could be talking with listeners on the phone? Or talking about the upcoming break with a co-host? Automation took a time-wasting task off the plate of the host and gave them a chance to work on something worthwhile to the listener. If AI is used properly, it can do the same thing…and having it record local breaks for markets with wildly popular syndicated shows so the hosts could focus on a break, bit or interview could be a blessing, not a curse.
I agree, Dianna. I’ve always thought that automation freed up air talent to be more creative. After all, nobody makes it into the Hall of Fame for having great segues!
AI does have the potential to empower stations to do more — if they figure out how to use it properly.
Wow. Fantastic assessment. I was involved in early digital storage, and the way it was supposed to be a “tool” for radio-creating more time to do what Diana mentions here. In many cases it’s been turned into a way to cut costs. Much of the fervor over AI is based on what the business has dealt with in regards to automation, WANs and voice-tracking. Since most commenters on here (and on Fred’s blogs) are creative and mid level managers, (and extremely brilliant), what has been shown that AI won’t be used to trim expenses? Brilliant minds can use AI to make a show more entertaining, more compelling and more fun. (AI can’t do it alone.) Budget minded folks will chop it all up and have AI spit out a product as entertaining as your local weather station-except a lot more generic. We all seem to know what the answers are but we have that concern that anyone would have when someone else-with a different vision-is driving that bus.
Thanks for the comment, Dave. It will be interesting to see if the industry’s use of AI follows the same path that it took with automation.