Founded in 1924, Hindustan Times is one of India’s largest and most influential English-language newspapers. Part of the KK Birla Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, the publication is recognised for its strong editorial stance and journalistic integrity. Binoy Prabhakar, the Chief Content Officer at Hindustan Times Digital, outlines how the publisher is currently harnessing AI and the opportunities it presents. This feature was originally published on the Bright Sites newsletter and is re-published with kind permission.
Binoy Prabhakar brings over two decades of journalism experience to one of India’s most venerable media institutions. He heads a dynamic team of 350 journalists and oversees a diverse range of platforms, including the flagship HindustanTimes.com, the business-centric LiveMint.com, and the Hindi-language LiveHindustan.com.
The Hindustan Times network also encompasses niche sites such as HealthShots, focused on women’s health, and regional websites in languages like Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, and Kannada. Binoy’s role is pivotal in navigating the vast and evolving landscape of digital media, ensuring that the legacy of Hindustan Times continues to thrive in the modern era.
How is the Hindustan Times using AI?
Binoy: Our AI journey began well over a year ago, and it accelerated significantly with the introduction of ChatGPT. We’re very excited but as an organisation built on trust, we’ve been very careful about integrating AI into our operations. We remind ourselves constantly of our 100-year legacy and the trust we’ve built. Our approach is based on three parameters: making our journalism more effective, deepening our relationship with users, and empowering our journalists.
To break this down, we have several use cases for AI. Firstly, we utilise automation for repetitive tasks like updating weather reports, pollution levels, commodity prices, and some earnings reports. For major earnings reports, where more context is required, we manually handle those. Automation also supports live blogs and announcements.
Secondly, AI assists our editorial process. We’ve integrated AI into our in-house CMS, which monitors the quality of content, reduces errors, offers SEO suggestions, and provides alternative headers and summaries. This helps journalists work faster and ensures their content meets SEO standards, which is crucial in digital journalism.
Thirdly, AI helps augment our editorial capabilities. For instance, in our regional websites with smaller teams, AI assists in translating content from our larger network and provides summaries of large documents like PDFs and annual reports. This support helps regional teams remain competitive and relevant to their audiences. Despite the heavy use of AI, human intervention remains a key part of our process to add context and ensure accuracy.
Regarding the use of AI within your CMS, is it more of a suggestion and recommendation system where journalists make the final decision based on what’s shown?
Binoy: Yes, that’s correct. The AI tools we’ve integrated into our CMS provide suggestions rather than mandatory changes. Journalists have the option to use these suggestions, such as SEO-friendly headlines or summaries, but they can also ignore them if they have a better alternative. The suggestions are designed to include relevant keywords and help maintain standards, but ultimately, the editorial team has the final say.
How did you go about introducing these tools to your newsrooms?
Binoy: Introducing AI tools in the newsroom can be challenging. There are always journalists who are sceptical or view AI with suspicion, while tech teams are usually very enthusiastic. Our approach involves bringing both sides together to understand their perspectives. We demonstrate how AI can save time and make their work easier, which helps win over those who are initially reluctant. For tech teams, it’s crucial to remember that we are a journalism organization where accuracy and context are paramount. Once both sides understand their roles and responsibilities, integration becomes smoother.
Do you mostly build AI tools in-house, or do you use external solutions?
Binoy: We mainly rely on external AI tools rather than building them in-house. We integrate APIs from tools like ChatGPT and Gemini into our systems. For example, we recently implemented chatbots for specific websites, such as our health platform, to answer user queries about content. While we don’t develop AI tools ourselves, we use these external solutions to enhance our capabilities.
What advice would you give to newsrooms just starting to explore AI integration?
Binoy: Building a culture around AI is essential. Start with the basics and pick one use case or project to begin with. This approach allows newsrooms to learn from both successes and failures. Experimentation is crucial, and fostering a culture of innovation is important. It’s also vital to maintain respect for journalism and remind everyone that AI should complement, not replace, human judgment. AI is most effective when combined with skilled human practitioners who ensure accuracy and context.
How can newsrooms build internal expertise or capacity for AI?
Binoy: Many newsrooms are now hiring data scientists or practitioners who can build or advocate for AI products. Additionally, newsrooms are increasingly looking for journalists who understand AI tools or have experience with platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. Journalists themselves are also becoming more proactive in using AI for tasks like summarising large documents or optimising content. The key is to stay informed through conferences, workshops, and collaboration with other newsrooms to understand and implement new AI technologies effectively.
Are there any AI projects you’re working on at the moment that we can expect to see soon?
Binoy: Yes, we have several exciting projects in the pipeline. We’re working on improving our translation capabilities for Indian languages, which still have room for development compared to translations between major global languages. Another project focuses on converting different formats of content, such as turning articles into scripts or listicles. We’re also exploring ways to create more engaging video content, including avatars and other innovative formats. We want to find our way of doing those things differently rather than rebuilding what everyone else is doing.
Republished courtesy of Bright Sites, the creator of the FLOW digital publishing platform which incorporates a data-driven approach combined with machine learning, AI, e-commerce, subscriptions and translation. Bright Sites developed FLOW, a software-as-a-service digital publishing CMS, that provides multi-location newsroom workflows, multi-lingual content creation and AI to personalise the user experience used by a range of global and local publishers. Clients include Irish Independent, The Independent, London Evening Standard.
