Automation of the Publishing Sector with Generative AI: Real KPIs of Its Integration

August 22, 2024

The educational publishing industry faces significant challenges in maintaining its leadership and competitiveness. In a landscape where resources, content, and content creation tools are widely accessible, the ability to innovate is more crucial than ever to stay competitive. Consequently, the educational publishing sector has embarked on a path of innovation and transformation, adapting to new educational trends and developing new business models. In this context, generative AI has emerged as a transformative tool, redefining the sector in ways no other technology has done before.

According to a Gartner survey conducted in January 2024, 40% of companies have already implemented generative AI in more than three business units, with areas such as customer service and marketing standing out. However, there is still a significant lack of clarity about the return on investment (ROI), as it can be challenging to estimate or obtain real metrics to quantify some of these units, such as the quality of customer service.

Nonetheless, the economic impacts of generative AI are evident in the educational publishing sector, particularly in the optimization of editorial processes and workflows. Based on our experience, we are pleased to share evidence of its integration and highlight some areas where the greatest benefits are being realized. Generative AI is not only optimizing content production and personalizing the educational experience, but it is also enhancing efficiency in editorial management and strategic decision-making. This allows publishers to respond more agilely to market demands, offering faster, more personalized, engaging, and accessible educational solutions.

Challenges in Implementing Generative AI

The challenges are no longer a matter of budget, as the ROI far exceeds expectations. However, there are other important challenges to consider that we have encountered along the way:

• Lack of understanding of generative AI.
• Difficulty in change management or internal resistance.
• Lack of a data strategy and integration with existing systems and processes.
• Rapid proliferation of LLM (Large Language Models).
• Concerns about intellectual property.
• Security issues.

Duplication of production and cost reduction

One of the most notable advantages of generative AI is its ability to produce content efficiently. The algorithms semantically analyze large volumes of content, vectorizing the information and generating new content aligned with needs, trends, or updates automatically. This allows publishers to release more content in less time, meeting changing curricula and the growing market demand, while maintaining absolute control over their intellectual property.

Case 1: Automated translation

Automated translations from Spanish into multiple languages have been carried out directly from InDesign or HTML, ensuring that the content is formatted with its styles. This has nearly doubled production: where 20 translations were previously done on average, now approximately 39 translations are achieved, maintaining the same quality and editorial review as traditionally done (establishing fine-tuning)

AI-driven automation not only accelerates production but also significantly reduces costs. Our experience shows that in some cases, such as automated translation, cost reductions of up to 48.5% compared to traditional budgets have been achieved. This is due to the AI's ability to automatically perform translations, understand styles, and maintain formats (InDesign, HTML, PPT, DOCX) with the same quality as traditional methods, eliminating the need for multiple reviews and corrections. Naturally, final editorial review is essential. This efficiency translates into significant budget savings, allowing those funds to be reinvested in other critical business areas or other business development goals.

Case 2: Creation of new content

Summaries, activities, assessments, solution manuals, PDAs, learning sequences, and many other projects have been created. Previously, these tasks could take hours or even days. With AI, the time and resources required have been drastically reduced by around 48-60% (depending on the project). This allows editors to focus on the quality and accuracy of the content. The algorithms ensure that the generated content is coherent, accurate, and up-to-date, following pedagogical principles and instructional models tailored to different learning levels. Various language models, such as Claude 3 Haiku, Claude 3 Sonnet, Whisper, Textract, GPT-4.0, and text-embedding 3 large, are used depending on the use cases, enabling new capabilities, cost reduction, and improvements in image, video, and audio modalities. However, at this point, publishers are initially making notable efforts to create embeddings and prompts to make this a reality.

Real KPIs of AI implementation in editorial workflows

• Increased production speed.AI has enabled nearly doubling the number of projects completed in the same period, representing an average of over 65-70% of time saved in production. This allows resources to be allocated to other projects and reduces external operating costs. Based on our experience in this sector, the McKinsey Digital study conducted in June 2023 underestimates the percentage of productivity gains achieved with these technologies.
• Cost reduction. Process automation reduces the need for manual intervention, decreasing operational costs by up to 48%.
• Improved content quality. AI algorithms ensure that the generated content is coherent, accurate, and up-to-date, following pedagogical principles and instructional models adapted to different learning levels. This adds significant value by allowing content personalization and making it accessible without significant editorial effort.

Conclusion

The integration of AI in automation processes within the publishing sector is not just a trend but an imperative necessity in today's competitive environment. The ability to double production, reduce project budgets by 48%, and gain 70% more time are advantages no publisher can afford to ignore. AI not only transforms operational efficiency but also opens up new opportunities for innovation and creativity in the industry. Publishers that adopt these technologies quickly will be better positioned to lead the market.

We invite you to share your experience with #EDT&Partners on integrating AI into editorial processes. Let's connect and discuss!