What's the most important question right now?
Whether you're optimising for the current ecosystem or building for the next one. Most AI media strategies I see are about efficiency gains in a system that's already creaking at the seams. The harder question is what information delivery looks like when we shift from an attention economy to something like an intention economy, where value could be measured by action taken, or utility, and not time spent.
What will we be shaking our heads about a year from now?
How much time was spent on AI and content production and how little on consumption and distribution. Focusing too much on production leaves the industry at risk of being blindsided by the demand-side shock I described above. What will be most consequential from this shift for media is the loss of the audience signal; when AI mediates delivery and consumption, your audience is someone else's consumer. You're blind to demand. And if you can't see demand, it's very hard to resist becoming a commodity. The opportunity cost of focusing on the wrong thing is brutal when the ecosystem is moving this fast.
What future are you looking forward to?
One where being well-informed isn't a luxury good. Right now, most media innovation is about serving the already-informed slightly better: ultra-premium products for people who already pay attention and whose information needs are more or less met. That's fine, but it's a small market. The bigger opportunity AI unlocks is for people who've never had a meaningful relationship with journalism at all. New experiences and interactions for audiences who've never been well served. This is not the same thing as better distribution and access. That would be the game changer.
