Andy, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, works on setting the strategic direction for CHAPTR’s products. With a talented and diverse team of AI Engineers, Product Managers, UX/UI Designers, and business specialists CHAPTR navigates the journey from initial idea to product launch and beyond. Their customers are their guiding force. Driven by a genuine passion to solve their challenges, CHAPTR turns their "if only" into real solutions.
Author
Andy Ländle
Co-Founder and CPO
CHAPTR
Revolutionizing the Publishing Industry: AI as a Powerful Ally
Before starting CHAPTR, I spent over ten years in digital business development and transformation within trade publishing. I've always been captivated by emerging media trends and technology's potential to revolutionize how we identify, create, share, and engage with content. AI, particularly generative AI, stands out as a monumental leap forward in this evolution. AI’s capability to enhance the entire content lifecycle, from discovery to distribution, opens up exciting possibilities. Still the publisher's mission remains steadfast – to empower creators and authors to connect with their audiences, now with AI as our powerful ally.
The exhilaration of exploring AI's potential comes with a profound sense of responsibility. The integration of such a powerful technology into a business’s operations necessitates a rigorous adherence to AI Safety & Ethics standards. And this commitment extends beyond the media industry. CHAPTR envisions a future where humans and AI collaborate seamlessly. In this envisioned world, we leverage the strengths of both human and artificial intelligence, aiming for outcomes that surpass what either could achieve independently.
Identifying Current Trends by Combining Human Expertise and AI
To illustrate this with a specific example, we collaborate with our partners at Pan Macmillan, Macmillan, and Holtzbrinck's German publishing houses to create a tool that revolutionizes management of book metadata. Our innovation boosts a book's online visibility and sales by updating keywords and descriptions based on current search trends.
The conventional method of manually updating keywords and descriptions for potentially hundreds of thousands of backlist titles is not only labor-intensive but also less effective in today's fast-paced, trend-driven markets. Our approach harnesses AI to intelligently identify current trends and match these to the relevant titles in the publishers' backlist. The AI-system then recommends updates both for keywords and book descriptions accordingly while the metadata manager stays the responsible expert - the “human in the loop”.
This is merely one example of how we assist our partners in advancing with a smarter, trend-focused, and efficient strategy that combines human insight with artificial intelligence.
Holtzbrinck Innovation Days: a Melting Pot of Ideas
We're incredibly lucky to be part of Holtzbrinck, a group that's as committed to innovation and the potential of AI as we are. It’s fantastic to work alongside diverse companies within the group, each embarking on their own unique AI journeys across education, science and publishing.
One example for this collaborative spirit are the Holtzbrinck AI Innovation Days, a conference that brings together experts from all these varied companies. It’s an incredible melting pot of ideas, where thought leaders and practitioners converge to share insights, learn from one another, and spark inspiration.
This collaborative environment at Holtzbrinck Publishing Group not only broadens our horizons and ignites new ideas. It also deepens our understanding and application of AI in various fields.
Ensuring an Innovative Culture by Collaboration and Discovery Work
Navigating the fast-paced world of AI demands not just speed but a culture of continuous innovation. At CHAPTR, we've embraced change as our constant, encouraging our team to deeply engage with problems worth solving while exploring new territories. This includes everything from scientific AI paper review sessions to our dedicated R&D team, CHAPTR Labs, and incorporating discovery spikes in all our product sprints.
Our innovation framework and pipeline ensures that everyone at CHAPTR, regardless of their role, can contribute and submit a problem worth solving. This inclusive approach to innovation is bolstered by advanced AI agents that facilitate and augment the entire innovation journey. From the precise definition of a problem, initial market research, to the development of the first proof of concept, the utilization of AI aids us at every step, ensuring that we innovate quickly and ship even faster.
Furthermore, our dedication to innovation is fundamentally collaborative. Although we excel in remote collaboration, we also acknowledge the importance of human interaction. We bring our team together for offsites and hackathons, energizing our creative spirit and driving our mission forward.