GOCOP trains members on AI tools to boost productivity, profitability

GOCOP trains members on AI Tools to boost productivity, profitability

Expert urges publishers to embrace prompt engineering, warns against overreliance on AI-generated content

The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) has trained its members on the effective use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to improve newsroom efficiency, accelerate content production and enhance profitability in the increasingly competitive digital publishing industry.

The training, titled “The AI-Powered Newsroom: AI and Prompt Engineering for Online Publishing,” was held on the sidelines of the Guild’s 10th Annual Conference, which took place on October 8 and 9, 2026, at the Radisson Blu Hotel, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.

The conference was themed “2027 Elections: Trust, Transparency and Shared Responsibilities.”

The session was facilitated by an AI expert and publisher of The Lagos Times, Sulaimon Durojaiye, who demonstrated how online publishers could deploy AI tools to produce content faster, improve quality and streamline newsroom operations without compromising professional standards.

Durojaiye defined AI as technology that enables computers to perform tasks that ordinarily require human intelligence, including understanding language, recognising patterns, analysing information, generating content, solving problems, making predictions and supporting decision-making.

He explained that publishing had evolved considerably from the traditional newsroom-newspaper-reader model, adding that journalists and publishers no longer needed programming skills to benefit from AI-powered tools.

Understanding AI and its applications

The facilitator identified Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) as two important concepts publishers should understand to maximise the technology’s benefits.

He explained that Generative AI could create text, images, audio, video and computer code, while LLMs were AI systems trained on vast amounts of information to understand and generate human language.

He cited ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot as examples of AI tools publishers could explore in their daily operations.

However, Durojaiye cautioned that AI should not be confused with a conventional search engine, explaining that search engines generally return links to information sources, which users can investigate and assess themselves.

Although generative AI can process, create, transform and analyse information, he warned that its outputs could be inaccurate, making independent verification essential.

He urged publishers to verify AI-generated facts before publication to avoid misleading audiences and exposing their organisations to reputational and professional risks.

Why prompt engineering matters

Durojaiye also introduced participants to prompt engineering, which he described as the art and science of providing clear instructions to AI systems to obtain useful and relevant results.

To illustrate the importance of effective prompting, he contrasted a vague instruction such as asking AI to “write a story about the budget” with a more detailed prompt directing it to act as a senior Nigerian newspaper correspondent, analyse a supplied budget speech and produce a 600-word news report.

The improved instruction, he explained, could further require the report to lead with the most significant development in the budget speech and follow the inverted pyramid structure of news writing.

He identified five essential elements of an effective prompt: Role, Task, Context, Requirements and Output.

According to him, the quality of instructions supplied to an AI tool significantly influences the usefulness of its response, making prompt engineering an important skill for journalists and digital publishers.

AI-powered newsroom and research

The facilitator outlined several ways AI could support newsroom operations, particularly in news gathering, research and story development.

He said the technology could help journalists analyse lengthy speeches and reports, summarise government documents, extract key facts, compare documents, generate interview questions and identify potential story angles.

Other applications include analysing datasets, researching background information, simplifying complex materials and assisting investigative journalists with preliminary research.

He stressed, however, that AI could support investigative work but could not replace the actual process of investigation, independent verification and evidence gathering.

Durojaiye further explained that AI could assist throughout the publishing workflow, including interview preparation, transcription, writing, editing, search engine optimisation (SEO), social media distribution, newsletters and audience analytics.

He noted that publishers should view AI not merely as an isolated writing tool but as a resource that could support multiple stages of newsroom production and content distribution.

One story, multiple content products

Durojaiye also demonstrated how a single news event could be developed into several content products with the assistance of AI.

These could include straight news reports, features, explainers, profiles, interviews, opinion drafts, headlines, captions, newsletters and adaptations of press releases into publishable news stories.

He emphasised that although AI could accelerate content production and help publishers maximise the value of their reporting, journalists remained responsible for factual accuracy, context, editorial judgement and the final published material.

AI and search engine optimisation

On digital visibility, the facilitator urged publishers to incorporate AI into their search engine optimisation strategies, noting that producing quality content was only part of the task; ensuring that the intended audience could find it was equally important.

He said AI tools could assist with developing search-friendly headlines, SEO titles, meta descriptions, keywords, search-intent analysis, frequently asked questions, content structures, internal-linking suggestions and content clusters.

According to him, these applications could help publishers improve their websites’ discoverability and attract relevant audiences through search engines.

“The story isn’t finished when you publish it. It is finished when the right audience can find it,” Durojaiye said.

The training underscored the growing importance of AI literacy among online publishers as digital media organisations seek to improve productivity, strengthen editorial processes and build more sustainable publishing businesses.

It also highlighted the need to balance the speed and efficiency offered by AI with the professional judgement, accuracy and accountability that underpin credible journalism.