How 6 creative companies in Hamburg benefit from AI

Artificial intelligence is ushering in a radical change in the creative industries - one that Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft has been closely following over the past year. These six experts took part and provide insights into AI-supported work routines.

How are you already integrating AI into your work?

Markus Dömer : We are currently using generative AI in areas that do not relate to our core publishing product, such as in marketing for various recurring communication requirements, while of course maintaining Carlsen's typical communication style. Some employees use generative AI to increase efficiency in their day-to-day work, for example when writing their correspondence (including translations), but also as a source of inspiration for other texts.

Thomas Lehr: We have already integrated AI into many of our workflows and production steps. Our game designers use generative AI for their creative processes, our artists use it to create concepts and illustrations and it is a valuable aid to our engineers when writing code. We are currently experimenting more and more with linking AI with our own data in order to further specialise it for our use cases. Not only our productivity, but also the quality of our results is increasing noticeably.

Eduardo Garcia: We use our voice AI on a daily basis. To do this, we synthesise original voices, which - very importantly - give their consent for very explicit use before the synthesis. Of course, the voices are also paid for this. The editor-in-chief of a daily news format is pleased that she no longer has to come to the studio every day. During the production of Cornelia's Funke 'Tintenherz 4', we worked with the synthesised voice of the original narrator in some places because the script was changed at short notice and the narrator was on holiday.

Sara Egetemeyr: AI is at the heart of our solution for recognising hate speech. We use our algorithms to classify and filter messages for hate and hate speech and find potentially justifiable content. As we are dealing with large amounts of data, this is a perfectly suitable use case for AI.

Sara Egetemeyr: KI ist das Herzstück unserer Lösung zur Hatespeech-Erkennung. Mit unseren Algorithmen klassifizieren und filtern wir Nachrichten auf Hass und Hetze hin und finden potenziell justiziable Inhalte. Da wir es dabei mit großen Datenmengen zu tun haben, ist das ein perfekt geeigneter Use Case für KI.

Benjamin Bertram: Generative AI is central to my work. I use ChatGPT on a daily basis for a wide range of text tasks, from coding and brainstorming to idea development, text creation and proofreading. GPTs are used for process automation and as an external memory for contextualised answers. When analysing YouTube videos and texts, ChatGPT helps me to quickly capture important content. In image design, I rely on Dall-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion - from brainstorming to post-production. These tools increase my efficiency and allow me to specialise in customer-oriented solutions.

Abdelkader Barjiji: At an operational level, we are looking closely at AI technologies and assessing the potential applications for our business areas. For example, we are already using it for customer enquiries in digital outdoor advertising, to check campaign motifs and in our product development. We offer customers genuine, accurate and 100% data protection-compliant AI targeting products for performance and branding campaigns and actively use AI and machine learning in our AdStack for yield maximisation and campaign optimisation.

What role will AI play for your industry in the near future?

Markus Dömer: AI will characterise all stages of our value chain in the medium term. At the moment, we see particularly great advantages in making processes more efficient. For example, by quickly analysing information from various sources or automatically generating and recording data for our product databases. AI-based data discovery technology could become an important building block for increasing sales in the future.

Thomas Lehr: Investment in AI is already enormous and is constantly increasing, the models are improving and the calculations are becoming faster and faster. In our view, it is likely that we will soon see a doubling of AI capabilities. This doubling may even occur several times over the next few years. Initially, there will probably be many new games that imitate other games, as this will become easier and easier. In the next step, however, we will also see numerous new game ideas and higher quality.

Eduardo Garcia: The use of AI in the editing and processing of high-quality and extensive audio content is already facilitating and accelerating production and enabling increasingly cost-efficient, consistent communication across different platforms. I can imagine that the workflow in dubbing studios or in auditory news formats, but also in music production, will change fundamentally. However, the increasing use of AI-generated content also brings with it a certain degree of conformity. Above all, it is not only the music or language itself that plays a role in reception, but also the personality of the respective artists. I am therefore confident that the human component and the quality of the music will remain relevant in the future. Hopefully ...

Sara Egetemeyr: AI will automate many repetitive tasks and help to find patterns with a different perspective. AI is like an employee with a different perception filter. We utilise this to detect the rapidly changing forms of hate speech. However, AI should not be overestimated - and above all, the risk of bias should be taken seriously.

Benjamin Bertram: The industry is already being turned upside down as AI-generated illustrations become the competition. This is also reflected in the current copyright lawsuits. Illustrators need more experience with AI tools and education in order to adapt. AI harbours great opportunities, but also requires a conscious confrontation with the challenges.

Abdelkader Barjiji: AI can make work processes more efficient across all sectors in order to operate more sustainably and reduce emissions. It can relieve employees of time-consuming tasks so that they have more free resources for activities that are essential for the team. One thing is clear: the question of where and how AI can be used most effectively will be an important part of our work.