Enough hype. Here’s my honest scorecard of where that stupid buzzy trend work of AI is delivering real value in media operations right now — and where it isn’t yet.
Genuinely working
- Transcription and captioning at scale, with human review for broadcast.
- Metadata generation and archive tagging — turning dark archives into searchable, monetizable assets.
- Highlights and clip generation for social, especially in sports.
- Translation and localization workflows that used to be cost-prohibitive.
- QC assistance — flagging issues for humans to review, not replacing the review.
- Creating compelling value in image enhancement, clean up and quality decision making processes.
Mostly hype, not a real domain
- “Fully automated” live production without meaningful human oversight.
- Anything replacing editorial judgment on what matters and why.
Notice the pattern: it wins at volume tasks where a human checks the output. It struggles wherever context, stakes, and judgment are the job.
The organizations getting real return aren’t the ones with the boldest strategy. They’re the ones who picked the boring, high-volume use case first, instrumented it, and expanded from evidence. That’s the same thing every durable technology transition has rewarded — you earn the next step by proving the last one, not by betting the facility on a slide.
Where has it actually earned a permanent place in your workflow?
James Stellpflug 
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