Newsroom Robots Ludwig Siegele: Inside The Economist’s AI Playbook
Sep 23, 2025
Ludwig Siegele, Senior Editor for AI Initiatives at The Economist, dives into how the historic publication is navigating the AI revolution. He shares insights on launching the innovative AI Lab, designed to experiment with tools like AI-powered translation and TikTok video dubbing. Ludwig discusses overcoming initial fears in the newsroom and the challenges of integrating new technologies. He also predicts how automation could redefine journalism roles, emphasizing the need for quality control and reporting in an AI-driven future.
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Early Preparation Paid Off
- The Economist began AI work after a 2022 cover story and early experiments with image models, which primed the org for ChatGPT's arrival.
- That early familiarity let Ludwig pivot quickly from reporting to leading experimentation across the newsroom.
Create An Experimentation Infrastructure
- Build an experimentation infrastructure, not a fixed mandate, to let fast-changing AI evolve inside the newsroom.
- Combine tool access, internal guidelines, bootcamps, and internal competitions to spur adoption and learning.
Mix Vendors To Cover Use Cases
- The Economist secured enterprise AI licenses to protect content and partnered with startups for low-code pipelines and translation.
- A mix of vendor deals (OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSet, DeepL, HeyGen) underpins varied newsroom use cases.