Jeff Sonderman: Leveraging Generative AI to Optimize Business Processes
Oct 27, 2023
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Jeff Sonderman, founder and CEO of Delta Flow Solutions, discusses the transformative potential of generative AI in streamlining business operations. Topics include converting unstructured data from PDFs into hyperlocal news reports, implementing generative AI in consulting, leveraging AI for email assistance and optimizing workflows, and the challenges of implementing technology in the news industry.
Generative AI can transform unstructured data from PDFs into hyperlocal news reports, saving journalists time in writing police briefs.
Generative AI can streamline business operations in news organizations by automating recurring tasks using AI APIs.
AI can enhance the accessibility and quality of unstructured data in the news industry, eliminating the tedious task of manually parsing and formatting messy data.
Deep dives
AI transforming unstructured data from PDFs into hyperlocal news reports
Jeff discusses his work on using AI to transform unstructured data from PDFs into hyperlocal news reports. He explains how they are able to extract text from PDFs containing arrest reports and use AI to clean and format the data, making it usable for generating localized news reports. The AI system can accurately extract information such as names, case numbers, charges, and other details, which can save journalists time when writing police briefs.
Streamlining business operations through generative AI
Jeff highlights the usefulness of generative AI in streamlining business operations in news organizations. He explains that beyond using AI for tasks like chat-based interactions, they are focusing on building completely automated products or business processes. This involves leveraging AI APIs to develop software that can automate recurring tasks without human intervention. Jeff provides an example of a project they are working on where AI is used to gather hyperlocal data from different neighborhoods and generate localized news reports for each area.
Enhancing accessibility and quality of unstructured data through AI
Jeff discusses how AI can enhance the accessibility and quality of unstructured data in the news industry. He describes a project where AI is used to extract information from messy PDFs, such as jargon-ridden criminal charges or descriptions of road construction. AI systems can interpret and transform the data into structured, standardized formats that are ready for analysis or inclusion in news reports. This eliminates the tedious task of manually parsing and formatting messy data, ultimately saving time for journalists and improving the overall quality of news content.
Exploring the potential of generative AI in product development
Jeff explores the potential of generative AI in product development for news organizations. He explains that AI systems can assist in generating product ideas, creating marketing plans, user research, and improving personas. By leveraging AI, journalists and news startups can develop smarter marketing strategies, gain insights into user needs, and create better user experiences for their products. Jeff emphasizes the importance of using AI to enhance business operations and solve the industry's challenges, rather than just focusing on using AI to generate news stories.
The role of AI in solo entrepreneurship and everyday tasks
Jeff discusses how AI can be valuable for solo entrepreneurs and everyday tasks. He shares personal use cases where AI helps with writing professional emails, drafting difficult conversations, and providing assistance in various business operations. Whether it's crafting polite and well-worded emails or helping with brainstorming ideas, AI can be a supportive tool for solo entrepreneurs, saving time and improving the quality of their communication.
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In this episode, Jeff Sonderman, the founder and CEO of Delta Flow Solutions, joins Nikita Roy to discuss the transformative potential of generative AI in streamlining business operations across analytics, marketing, product management, and content accessibility. Jeff also shares insights from his experiments with AI, particularly in converting unstructured data from PDFs into hyperlocal news reports.
Jeff is the former Deputy Executive Director of the American Press Institute, where he created the Metrics for News analytics software, revolutionizing audience data for over 200 news enterprises, and invented the Source Matters software to enhance source diversity in newsrooms. He has been a Media Transformation Challenge fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education and continues to blend innovation with journalism.
Tune in for an episode to brainstorm diverse use cases, demonstrating how generative AI can be a game-changer on both the business and product side of running a newsroom.
đź”” Introducing the Generative AI for Media Professionals Masterclass.
A live cohort based coursed taught jointly by Jeremy Caplan and Nikita Roy.
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Jeremy Caplan is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Craig Newmark School of Graduate Journalism at the City University of New York and the founder of Wondertools.
Nikita Roy is a data scientist, journalist and media entrepreneur. She hosts the Newsroom Robots podcast and has taught AI literacy workshops for the Craig Newmark School of Graduate Journalism at the City University of New York, International Center for Journalists and University of Toronto.
