Earlier this week, the Associated Press announced that it is going to rely on automation technology to produce its reports on quarterly corporate earnings.
So instead of having a journalist crunch the numbers, these financial reports will be run through a computer that is programmed to use the key figures to create a story of 150 to 300 words. By doing this, AP will be able to provide 4,400 stories automatically each quarter, a drastic improvement from the 300 stories produced manually each quarter.
Other companies that have integrated automation technology into their operations include Amazon, Yahoo and the New York Times.
For business owners, the biggest draw about this technology is that it allows them to provide goods or services without needing too much manpower. Take Google Adwords for instance. It allows users to put up ads on Google without having to speak to anyone. Instead, users can directly input the relevant search terms and adjust the settings by themselves.
Having automated technology doesn’t mean replacing the company’s people with machines. Rather, it is there to help people improve their productivity by taking the small, time-consuming tasks off their hands. In AP’s case, managing editor Lou Ferrara has clarified that no jobs will be eliminated with this new development.
“Instead, our journalists will focus on reporting and writing stories about what the numbers mean and what gets said in earnings calls on the day of the release, identifying trends and finding exclusive stories we can publish at the time of the earnings reports,” he said in a blog post.
