This can drive better strategic decision-making and improved reputation management, but the most obvious advantage of AI tools is their speed and efficiency in processing massive amounts of data across a multitude of media platforms.
They also excel at detecting patterns and linkages in data that might otherwise go unnoticed.
But the power of AI extends beyond data processing, says Joe Hamman, founder and CEO at local media monitoring company Novus Group.
“AI is now able to understand context and sentiment far more accurately than ever across a range of channels.
“This can help organisations understand public opinion about their brand, their competitors in real time, and respond to emerging trends or crises more quickly,” says Hamman.
AI can also use historical data to predict future trends.
By predicting the popularity of a news topic based on past trends, it can help businesses focus their resources on the most impactful stories.
But one of its most exciting capabilities lies in data visualisation, where it can help in creating dynamic and interactive data visualisations, making complex data more understandable and engaging for the audience.
However, as powerful as AI is, it is not without its limitations, says Hamman.
It can misinterpret sarcasm or humour, and it struggles to understand cultural nuances and subtleties of language. It's also constrained by the quality and breadth of the data it's been trained on.
This is where human intelligence steps in.
“We need the human touch to verify and validate AI outputs, better understand context, detect nuances in language and tone, and overlay strategic insights.
“By combining human insight with AI's computational power, we can elevate reputation management and real-time conversation monitoring to unprecedented levels,”says Hamman.
He adds that the relationship between AI and human intelligence ensures that the insights garnered from media monitoring are not only accurate and timely but also injected with the richness of human understanding.
However, it's crucial to establish an ethical framework around the usage of AI, given its potential for bias and the impact that can have on the insights derived from media monitoring.
Europe is pioneering efforts to set up guardrails around AI usage, with the EU AI Act is designed to govern any product or service that uses an AI system.
It will classify AI systems according to levels of risk.
The next generation of AI tools holds immense promise for media monitoring.
“By harnessing their power and coupling that with human intelligence, businesses can gain more valuable insights than ever.
“The future of media monitoring lies in the integration of human and AI to deliver far more effective solutions,” says Hamman.
