How do you get hundreds of journalists so comfortable with AI that they are proactively asking to use AI tools? Nadia Kohler, Tamedia’s director of AI and data, outlined the Swiss publisher’s remarkably successful training programme at our Berlin seminar. 

Here are some of her insights:

• Implement a mandatory, step-by-step training programme. The company launched a compulsory AI onboarding programme for every employee, regardless of role, to ensure they know the rules, tools, and where to ask questions.

• Provide dedicated time and space for development. Tamedia set up an AI Academy, a one-year programme, to ensure participants could “really dedicate time and they are not kind of struggling with, ‘Oh, I need to run to this press conference or someone is calling me,’” Kohler said.

Participants needed to apply to attend the academy. They must commit to at least two hours a week to do either testing or some training for their teammates, serving as de facto ambassadors for the AI training programme.

When the programme launched last fall, Kohler had expected the first cohort to be about 15 people. But when more than 100 employees applied to be part of it, they ended up with four cohorts of a total of 47 people.

• Talk about uncomfortable topics. Training must go beyond technical skills to address the impact on jobs and the industry, conversations that create buy-in and engagement, she said. Tamedia’s AI bootcamps cover discussions on topics such as “How is our industry changing?” and “What does it mean for our business model?”

People “have a huge need to talk about it — and they want to be a part of the solution,” she said.

• Use external voices to accelerate conversations. Bringing in an outside expert can validate internal messaging and spur dialogue.

For example, Tamedia asked Ippen Media’s Editor-in-Chief Markus Knall to address their staff. Knall has been a strong proponent of AI use for a few years now, openly talking about his bold ambitions to reshape journalism using AI. 

“I have to say, our people were a little bit shocked by the thesis and the way they are tackling it, but it really helped,” Kohler said. “Because if I am telling them all the time, ‘Hey, things are changing,’ it’s like, ‘Yeah, you need to say that.’ But if someone else is coming from a similar language area, with similar issues and challenges, it is something else.”

• Prioritise action over perfection in training. Keep training groups small and focus on application.“It’s not about being a university and having a perfect training programme. It’s about trying to figure out together how we can learn and how we can grow,” Kohler said.

• Integrate end-users early in the prototype phase. Successful adoption is driven by including the people who will ultimately use the tool from the beginning. Be prepared to listen to user feedback and remove unpopular features.

• Promote cross-functional conversation. Mixing journalists with people from other departments (like marketing and customer service) enhances product development. This mixing creates “fantastic” dynamics and helps participants understand what other departments are doing and how collaboration could work, Kohler said.

• Remember AI leadership is vital. Dedicated time for AI development requires support from leadership. “The management, the team leads are crucial for that. If you do not have the buy-in of the editors-in-chief and the team leads, it’s not going to work,” Kohler points out.

• Seek feedback from the non-adopters. It is important to understand why some people are not using the tools. Tamedia conducts an anonymous AI survey every six months, asking people who are not using the tools for reasons why. “Listening to those people is really relevant. You cannot just ignore them,” Kohler said.

• Focus on the optimistic majority. Leverage the support of employees who are already on board.“Over 80% of our employees are at least neutral to super optimistic,” she said, so Tamedia focuses on finding the people who can help bring their colleagues from the red zone into at least the gray zone.

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Banner photo: Adobe stock image by Thapana_Studio.

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