Generative AI changes the book publishing industry: reengineering of business processes

Abstract

The research defines main direction of book publishing houses reengineering based on the analysis of successful cases of AI use in publishing business. The timeline of the research started in August 2023 and was summarised in the beginning of January 2024. The main methods were expert interview, monitoring of international and Ukrainian internet platforms, and document analysis. The study showed that the main aspects of business processes reengineering in publishing houses, based on the use of AI, are: (1) development of business strategies and plans; (2) development of digital spaces in publishing houses; (3) emerging of new professions; (4) discussions and their summaries; (5) received manuscripts check; (6) finding plagiarism; (7) preparation of creative, advertising, and presentation materials; (8) working with numbers and databases. The recommendations on the use of AI in business processes are extracted from the policies of the organisations connected with the book publishing industry. They are presented in the convenient table for further use.

One of the study results showed that Ukrainian publishing houses discuss the capabilities of AI for generating different types and formats of content, and based on that, AI capabilities for reengineering are considered. One of the biggest challenges, created by AI, is that the technology develops faster than people can perceive so they struggle to describe the technology itself and its impact. It means that we should adjust to the changes, caused by exponential development of AI, finding resources to overcome unequal access to AI capabilities in the process of specialists’ preparation.