AI integrations and advanced digital CMS take center stage at Future of Content 2023

Milan, Italy. June 23, 2023

“Our customers have always looked to us to select and adapt the digital technologies that can really add value to their operations, “said Massimo Barsotti, Eidosmedia CMO. “This has never been more important than in the present moment when the frenzy surrounding generative AI makes it difficult to identify the true value of the solutions emerging.”

“At the meeting we presented our current and upcoming AI integrations, together with a road map showing how we see the technology developing. Developments in this area will have significant impact on the business of media publishing and our aim is to ensure our customers make the best use of them.”

Future of Content, Eidosmedia’s annual meeting for customers and partners, was held in the Portuguese city of Porto, home to Eidosmedia Atlantic, the company’s new technology center.

Customer stories

As well as new developments in Eidosmedia technology, the meeting is also a forum for news of ground-breaking customer projects. This year Björn Lotz, CTO at German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (F.A.Z.) presented an ambitious project to move the the title to a customer-centric, future-fit workflow based on advanced cloud deployment, entitled From the Newsstand to the Cloud.

Seeing AI at work

The emphasis on AI developments was welcomed by attendees: “The agenda was definitely relevant and interesting, and I was pleased to see so much focus on AI and LLMs,” was a typical customer comment.

Among the AI-powered products already being developed for Eidosmedia customers is AI Writing Assistant (advanced spelling and grammar checking driven by a constantly updated AI model, well ahead of ‘static’ dictionary-based approaches) and Ranking Assistant (AI-driven content selection and prioritization).

Another recent AI integration is automatic print page layout which is already being rolled out at several customer sites where it will significantly boost productivity in mixed print-digital portfolios.

Integrating Chat GPT

OpenAI’s generative AI can perform many tasks that may be useful to authors and editors and this has now been integrated into the editorial workspace. Guests saw a demonstration of the use of an integrated ChatGPT prompt box to generate and insert summaries, bullet points and disclosures directly into the story text.

“AI’s most powerful contribution to the editorial operation at the moment is not to replace authors and editors, but to increase the both the quantity and quality of what they can produce,” said Massimo.

Neon – new-generation digital publishing

New product news included the presentation of Neon - an innovative content management and delivery platform for pure digital publishing operations.

“Neon adds a fully integrated editorial back end to delivery functions even more advanced than those of our existing Cobalt solution,” said François Vermaut, Product Manager for Digital Platforms. “The result is an end-to-end digital solution optimized for multi-site, multi-channel product portfolios.”

As well as its streamlined architecture and scalability, Neon will integrate AI tools to boost productivity and quality in areas from advanced search to assisted authoring and automated content selection and page building. While dedicated to digital publishing, Neon will be backwardly compatible with Méthode and other print-oriented solutions, with ease of upgrade and integration a development priority.

Customer feedback counts

“We’re very excited about the simplicity and power of Neon as a digital publishing solution,” said François. “Feedback from customers will be valuable during the development process and we’ll be consulting closely with users to ensure the solution is fully focused on their business goals.”

Neon is being developed with the contribution of Eidosmedia Atlantic, Eidosmedia’s recently opened technology center in Porto. Staffed by developers recruited from the city’s pool of IT talent, as well as engineers from Milan, the center will play an important role in developing the next generation of digital publishing applications from Eidosmedia.