AI is transforming content creation, distribution and monetisation in the media industry, argued Kathleen Mitford, corporate vice president of global industry marketing at Microsoft, at IBC 2025.
She opened her keynote session, titled ‘The Frontier of Creativity’, with a personal story from the night before, when she was out to dinner and found herself surrounded by people talking about The Leopard – a new limited series based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s classic novel, released in March 2025. Having not seen it, she admitted she felt left out of the conversation. When she returned to her hotel room, she immediately downloaded the show to watch on her flight home. She explained that she wanted to be ready to take part in the conversation if it came up again – which she was sure it would.
Mitford used this moment to highlight the cultural power of shared viewing experiences. She described how media has the “power to connect people, build a sense of belonging, and shape how people see and understand the world around us.”
She then highlighted how the industry has changed dramatically compared to 40 or 50 years ago. “We are living in a new time where everyone can be a content creator, every piece of content can reach a global audience and every click is a revenue,” she said.
For media companies navigating this shift, Mitford said the path forward is obvious: “So how do you stand out? The answer is clear… AI. It’s about becoming frontier… it’s about embracing AI in every part of your business.”
She explained how tools like Microsoft Copilot and AI agents are reshaping workflows. “Think of an agent as a digital teammate that you can build to manage workflows for you, and combining them with your creativity,” she said.
To illustrate, Mitford shared the story of Jordan, a creator working on a food series. Using Copilot Studio, Jordan can build an agent to turn her ideas into a production brief, check that it meets brand guidelines, and then use additional agents to search content archives or analyse audience insights for campaign planning. “It’s copilot and agents working together with human creativity and leadership to empower content creators, streamline media workflows and unlock monetisation,” she explained.
The session also featured a panel discussion with Olaf Gersemann, deputy editor-in-chief at German newspaper Welt; Aus Alzubaidi, group chief information and security officer at media company MBC Group; Robin Cole, vice president of engineering at Microsoft; and Silvia Candiani, vice president of telecommunications, media and gaming at Microsoft.
From left: Microsoft’s Silvia Candiani, Welt’s Olaf Gersemann, MBC Group’s Aus Alzubaidi and Microsoft’s Robin Cole
Gersemann described how AI is already helping his newsroom become more efficient: “We are making what we’re already doing more efficient. Using AI to do something that wasn’t possible before.”
Welt recently launched an agent that analyses published stories, prioritises and summarises them, and creates an audio version for readers on its app.
“It wouldn’t have been feasible without AI and there’s no human intervention, apart from occasionally we listen to it ourselves to correct things like the pronunciation of names,” said Gersemann. He also pointed to the use of Microsoft-powered avatars to deliver news commentary.
Alzubaidi outlined MBC Group’s rapid experimentation with generative AI. “My job is to say yes to speed and innovation and say no to anything that’ll be a risk,” he said. Starting with Copilot for document tasks and chatbots for internal use, the company expanded into advanced use cases like text-to-image, video production, and localisation. “Having the ability to translate, adapt, fix lip sync on the fly means we can re-leverage our content easily,” he said.
AI also helped streamline CRM, booking, metadata creation and campaigns. “Experimentation to scale – having the ability to experiment and then scale was incredible,” he added.
Cole spoke about Microsoft’s engineering approach, highlighting the importance of rapid feedback loops and secure innovation. “Our organisation has a very tight bandwidth with our product group so we can provide feedback quickly so we can make integrations quickly,” she said, describing this as “hypervelocity engineering.”
She also emphasised Microsoft’s culture of testing its own products: “Microsoft likes to not only eat our own dogfood but also drink our own champagne.”
Candiani, meanwhile, stressed that responsibility must remain central to all AI deployments.
Returning to the challenges facing media, Gersemann admitted: “The media industry is very slow with innovation but in the newspaper business, we are still struggling with even the internet.” He warned that “every media company needs to become a frontier firm to survive to avoid the possibility that you won’t exist in 10 years’ time.”
Alzubaidi shared practical lessons for AI adoption: “AI needs to be managed by a task force or centre of excellence, there’s no excuse not to expand. AI is a data project – clean in, rubbish out. You need to understand your entire AI track.”
He encouraged experimentation, adding: “Four years ago, I started testing AI on my own, at home. So don’t be scared to experiment, test and fail. This will help for AI to come naturally to you.”
Cole also reflected on the journey of AI integration, describing it as a layered process.
“That first layer is where leaders are aligned to empower employees to use tools,” said Cole. “The second layer is making sure your data is in place, and the final piece is to make sure the software layers are in place.”
Addressing common misconceptions, Cole noted: “Understand the problem, then help them. Skeptics give me job security. We turn them from sceptics to full believers and then eventually industry evangelists.”
Mitford’s keynote and the panel underscored the central message: media organisations must embrace AI at every level if they are to thrive in the years ahead.