Huge thanks to the AI explorers in Russian exile media, to the #IJF25 speakers, and to my Kiplinger Fellows 2025 crew.
Let’s keep pushing boundaries — together

💡 Use the saved time to chase bold ideas.
AI can help you get to “good enough.”
But the truly wild, brilliant stuff still comes from talent, intuition, and… let’s be honest — a bit of creative laziness

🔍 Check everything.
AI can generate content — but it can’t take responsibility.
That’s still your job.
And always will be

🔐 Don’t give AI what you wouldn’t give an intern without an NDA.
AI tools promise privacy, but errors happen.
Stick to your security protocols.
Think twice before uploading anything sensitive

👶 Think of AI as an intern.
Eager. Fast. Kinda clueless.
You’ll need to teach it — and tweak your prompts for hours.
But it will learn.
And eventually, it’ll save you days

📋 But: break it down first.
If you can’t explain the process in steps, AI won’t help.
No structure = more chaos.
That’s a management issue — not a tech one

🧱 Automate your pain.
Start with boring, repetitive tasks:

Monitoring Telegram channels

Summarizing long transcripts

Charting dry stats
If it makes your team groan, try AI on it.

Here’s what’s working — and what we’d tell other newsrooms starting their AI journey 👇

Like many, we dove in without a roadmap.
“If it looks interesting, try it.”
We tested tools, wrote prompts, failed, retried.
Some ideas flopped.
Some changed everything

I started out writing stories by hand.
Since then, I’ve seen typesetters replaced by PCs, newspapers pushed aside by websites, and TV overtaken by TikTok.
AI? Just the next big shift.
Scary? Sure.
Inevitable? Also yes