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GRABBING THE (AI) BULL BY ITS HORNS: HOW EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHERS ARE DRIVING COST SAVINGS, QUALITY AND REVENUES
How educational publishers are driving cost savings, quality and revenues. At first, generative AI is a scary proposition for any business.
Ana Isabel Calvo
Director & Partner, EMEA & LATAM, EDT&Partners
In this article
Guiding Publishers Through A New Era of Publishing
Success Stories: How AI is being leveraged in the Sector
Tackling the Challenges of Change
To begin with, generative AI was a scary proposition for any business with proprietary, high-quality content at their core—and education publishing was no exception. But a number of the educational publishers we work alongside at EDT&Partners no longer see AI as a threat. On the contrary, they are harnessing its potential to optimize workflows, reduce production costs, reach new markets more easily, and create new business opportunities. And in some cases, we’ve seen the initial return on their investment realized in less than five months.
Guiding Publishers Through A New Era of Publishing
The educational textbook industry continues to experience significant changes and face major global challenges. Sales are declining, and profitability is falling. Many factors contribute to this situation: high raw material costs that are not reflected in the sale price, the second-hand market reaching up to 25% in some countries, digitalization of the sector with new teaching methods, and more.
In this context, we are collaborating with publishers not only to reduce production costs through AI but also to increase production (while maintaining the same level of quality) and to enter new businesses and markets. Here are just a few success stories…
Success Stories: How AI is being leveraged in the Sector
- Doubling Translation Capacity. We worked with a major global educational publisher to integrate AI into their editorial translation workflows. The result? We managed to double their production in the same period while reducing costs by 47% on the doubled output.
- Accelerating Content Creation for a New Curriculum. We reduced content creation time by up to 60%, aligning it with the new curriculum, updating information from older content, and adapting it to the new instructional model. This directly impacts prototype cost reduction by 85% and frees up teams to focus on improving content, developing new projects required by the commercial department, and entering new markets.
- Supporting Teachers in Their Daily Work. We have established editorial frameworks for the creation of assessments and content, offering a more detailed analysis of student progress. This allows teachers to provide a more personalized learning experience and frees up time for direct teaching.
Tackling the Challenges of Change
We understand that implementing AI involves more than just integrating technology; it’s a cultural shift that affects all areas of the organization. The adoption of AI in the educational publishing environment comes with its own challenges: internal resistance to change, concerns about intellectual property, and the need for a clear data strategy.
At EDT&Partners we offer comprehensive support throughout the process, from training teams to demystify AI to highlighting its benefits. We cover the entire process, helping to mitigate resistance and promote a culture of innovation that drives new growth opportunities.
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