Beyond the hype: rolling out real-world applications for AI

While many broadcasters have just begun looking at adopting AI-powered tools to enhance production and audience engagement, Sky, ITV, and the Olympic Channel have already rolled out AI-enhanced products that they use to streamline content creation, offer personalised experiences, and improve data management. A common thread across their use of AI is the balance between technological innovation and maintaining human oversight, especially in editorial processes. 

Sky: personalised sports highlights 

Lodhi presented Sky’s AI-driven product “Recap” which automates the creation of personalised sports highlights, allowing users to catch up on events they may have missed or relive key moments. The system uses machine learning, computer vision, and advanced computational methods to analyse live sports footage, generating scene-level metadata. This enables the production of real-time highlights for various sports, from football to tennis. The product’s scalability also allows Sky to cover multiple sports simultaneously, ensuring that viewers can enjoy personalized content regardless of the event they follow.  

Olympic Channel: AI for real-time content generation 

The Olympic Channel’s use of AI during the 2024 Paris Olympics provided a unique testing ground for AI applications, where the goal was to tell global and local stories at scale and speed. AI was employed to generate real-time visualisations, content updates, and personalised storytelling based on athletes’ performances and event outcomes. 

Jackson spoke of the way the channel balanced AI’s capabilities with the human dimension of storytelling. While AI was employed to analyse and generate content from vast amounts of data, humans made all the editorial decisions in order to maintain the authenticity and emotional depth of the stories. The Olympic Channel used AI in the form of an editorial copilot - a tool that assisted editors in curating content without directly influencing the final output. This approach ensured that AI remained a supportive tool, rather than replacing human judgment, while providing valuable real-time insights. 

ITV: data-driven personalisation and content management 

ITV’s Dhaliwal stressed the importance of building a strong data foundation to support AI initiatives. AI’s effectiveness is directly tied to the quality and availability of data, making robust data management systems essential. To handle the complexity of AI adoption, ITV implemented a product-driven approach, focusing on cross-departmental collaboration and careful governance. This cautious rollout reflects ITV’s recognition of AI’s potential risks and the need for a measured approach to innovation. 

Read more: IBC2024 Conference: How to ensure AI models “produce trustworthy, unbiased and accurate results”  

Common themes and collaboration 

All three speakers were in agreement on the importance of human collaboration with AI. While AI offers efficiency and scalability, human oversight remains crucial to ensuring the quality and authenticity of content, as well as maintaining a focus on ethical considerations, data security, and risk management. 

A need for and real-time capabilities and scalable solutions are common across the broadcasters. AI’s ability to handle large volumes of data in real time has become essential, especially in large-scale events like the Olympics. However, despite AI’s capabilities, the broadcasters have adopted a cautious approach, ensuring that AI supports human decision-making rather than replacing it. 

Read more: Bridging AI and User Experience: Practical Tips for Editors