But what exactly is AI?
At its core, it is an emerging technology. A powerful one, certainly. A disruptive one, undoubtedly. But publishing has seen disruption before. Every major technological development initially creates anxiety. People predict the end of existing businesses, professions and established ways of working. Then something interesting happens.
Industries understand the technology, adapt to it, build safeguards around it and eventually discover entirely new economic possibilities. I do not believe AI will finish the publishing industry. Nor do I believe technology can replace the fundamental value of original thought, creativity, scholarship, narration and trusted content.
The publishing industry is much larger than the technology currently dominating the conversation. We discover ideas. We invest in authors. We curate knowledge. We edit, validate, design, publish, distribute, license, protect intellectual property and connect content with readers across eras and geographies.
AI can become another tool within this ecosystem. It can make certain processes faster, improve discoverability, create efficiencies, open new formats and perhaps even build markets that do not exist today.
But there is a difference between using AI intelligently and becoming obsessed with AI.
If every conversation about the future of publishing begins and ends with artificial intelligence, we may actually be limiting our own imagination.
The future of publishing will not be built by AI alone. It will be built by authors, publishers, educators, technologists, policymakers, and readers working together, with technology supporting human creativity rather than defining its boundaries.
Emerging technologies will keep coming. Our strength as an industry should not be in fearing each disruption, nor in worshipping every new technology. We can adapt, protect what has value, embrace what creates value, and continuously build new possibilities.
AI is part of the future of publishing.
It is not the entire future of publishing.
