Inside the AI Newsroom: Florent Daudens on Building Tools Journalists Actually Want

Jul 7, 2025

Florent Daudens, Press Lead at Hugging Face and former CBC journalist, dives into the fascinating interplay of AI and journalism. He discusses overcoming skepticism about AI in newsrooms and the blurring lines between editorial and product teams. Learn how the rise of 'product-minded reporters' is changing the landscape. Florent also explores the future of AI discovery and the concept of the 'Internet of Agents,' while introducing AIEO, the next evolution of SEO tailored for AI-driven media. A must-listen for anyone curious about the future of journalism!

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ANECDOTE

Florent's Journalism to AI Journey

Florent Daudens transitioned from 20 years in journalism to AI at Hugging Face, blending tech and media expertise.
He led digital and AI projects at Canadian newsrooms like Le Devoir and CBC before joining Hugging Face.

INSIGHT

Journalism and Open Source Link

Journalism and open source share values: independence, transparency, and collaboration.
Open source accelerates innovation by letting journalists build on existing code and models, fostering knowledge sharing.

ANECDOTE

Journalists’ AI Replacement Fears

Early conversations with journalists mostly centered on fears of job replacement by AI.
After understanding AI's capabilities and limits, skepticism shifted toward how AI might change jobs, not eliminate them.

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Hugging Face’s media liaison talks trust, tech, and why the next great newsroom might look more like a dev team.

This week on The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Florent Daudens, longtime Canadian journalist and now Press Lead at Hugging Face, the open-source powerhouse behind many of the AI models driving today’s innovation.

Florent’s unique position—right at the intersection of the developer world and the newsroom—makes him one of the most insightful voices on how AI is reshaping journalism from the inside out. Before joining Hugging Face, Florent led teams at the CBC, and now he's helping build real tools that actually work for journalists.

Pete and Florent dig into: 🔹 How to overcome journalists' lingering skepticism about AI 🔹 Why the line between editorial and product teams is disappearing 🔹 The rise of the “product-minded reporter” 🔹 The future of AI discovery—and what the “Internet of Agents” might look like 🔹 And yes, they talk AIEO—the next evolution of SEO for an AI-driven media landscape

Whether you're experimenting with AI tools in your newsroom, navigating editorial strategy in a shifting ecosystem, or just trying to understand what’s next, this conversation is a must-listen.

🎙 Guest: Florent Daudens :https://fdaudens.com/en/index.html Press Lead, Hugging Face Follow him on LinkedIn : https://ca.linkedin.com/in/fdaudens

And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔

You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.

This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.

Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License