AI brings revolution in educational content creation

We introduced the Client’s project team to the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence tools.Together with the Client, we looked for areas to use the potential of generative AI tools to address its business needs. To this end, we tested these tools on real tasks performed by Nowa Era’s employees.

Nowa Era – Poland’s largest publisher of school textbooks, exercise books and teacher’s guides.

The challenge was to verify whether generative AI technology could help address the Client’s business needs:

• Continuously increasing the profitability by reducing costs.
• Increasing the efficiency of employees by relieving them of some tasks, enabling them to work faster.
• Ensuring high quality products and maintaining a dominant market position.
• Introducing new products and services, e.g. holistic student support, 21st century hard skills development.
• Addressing the needs of students and teachers more broadly.

Our goal was to systematize the knowledge of AI tools being developed around the world and to make recommendations for the possible use of artificial intelligence in the Nowa Era.

We focused on using AI in the process of content creation and digital products, with a distinction between short and long term. As a culmination of our work, we were to prepare material to reinforce the strategic discussion at Nowa Era and the capital group on the application of artificial intelligence in business.

The project was carried out in several stages.

1. Opportunity areas:

• We identified the key content formats used at Nowa Era and the tasks performed within them.
• We created a shortlist of tasks based on feasibility and cost impact criteria.
• We identified opportunities and threats to the use of AI in Nowa Era.

2. Testing:

• We designed a framework for two stages of testing.
• On pre-selected tasks, the Nowa Era team performed tests involving the use of AI tools for tasks that employees currently perform.
• For the tests, we used GPT-4 generative AI tools, Adobe Firefly, ElevenLabs, Midjourney.

3. Summary and recommendations:

• We ranked tasks and areas according to optimization potential- from those in which AI can successfully replace humans, through those where it can very strongly support their work, ending with tasks that AI is currently unable to perform.

As part of the testing, we performed 230 tests of selected tasks. Based on the test results, we developed recommendations for the use of AI in Nowa Era in the short and long term by area and subject:

• 79% of the test results on audio were accepted for implementation.
• 74% of test results in the area of text creation were accepted.
• 60% of test results on graphics were accepted for implementation (mainly as inspiration).

We have compiled a summary and recommendations in a report that will be used to strengthen the strategic discussion at Nowa Era on the application of artificial intelligence in business.

We have demonstrated that AI can successfully streamline the content creation process in a publishing house, resulting in a significant reduction in costs and an increase in the quality of materials produced.

In some areas, such as audio recording, it will be possible to use AI tools really widely. The enthusiasm of the Nowa Era project team for the potential of using generative AI in their work has been successfully awakened and maintained.

The maturity of AI in areas such as content creation and audio generation is impressive. AI tools are ready for commercial use and can bring many benefits to companies.

With our help, the Nowa Era publishing house has taken an important step toward taking advantage of this potential. We believe that our joint work and its results will be a source of significant benefits for the company as well as its customers.