Seven West Media has announced it has set up the Seven AI Factory, a dedicated Generative AI and machine learning team, to accelerate the creation of innovative data-driven products across the business.
Established in partnership with Databricks, the AI Factory will boost Seven’s digital engagement, audience understanding, and advertising strategies across its 7plus video streaming platform and 7NEWS digital platforms.
“As we place data, insights, and AI at the heart of our operations, our collaboration with Databricks in the AI Factory marks a significant milestone in the digital transformation of our business,” said Gereurd Roberts, managing director, Seven Digital.
“By leveraging GenAI and machine learning, we are not only enhancing our ability to predict and understand audience behaviours, we are revolutionising the way we acquire, personalise, and deliver content and engaging advertising campaigns to our viewers.
“Through the launch of the AI Factory, we will upskill and build out our own teams, ensuring these capabilities and products are in-house and at the forefront of Seven’s future, and also our partners’ future. We’re excited to engage with our clients and agencies to co-create products that drive the most effective outcomes for their businesses and brands,” he added.
A dedicated team from Databricks is now working out of Seven’s Sydney offices, side by side with the company’s data, digital content and programming, digital marketing, product, and digital sales teams to create and test AI and GenAI solutions. Together, they are developing AI-driven insights designed to enhance content relevance, optimise advertising strategies, and drive audience engagement to new levels.
The Seven AI Factory is home to data science, solution architects, machine learning engineers, and data engineers, who will work to rapidly develop AI-based pilots, but also upskill teams from across Seven as the business accelerates the push to put GenAI at its core.
The launch of Seven’s AI Factory follows the success of Seven’s work using AI and machine learning to predict audience outcomes across the 7plus video streaming platform. Seven has achieved a remarkable 94 per cent accuracy in forecasting audience against shows and genre for all video-on-demand content for the next 28 days. Building on this project, Seven and Databricks are doubling down on the insights that audience-based AI has already delivered.
“Our commitment to innovation is further exemplified by the development of a natural language-powered query engine. This groundbreaking tool will empower all business units and nontechnical users to query Seven’s extensive data repository, providing real-time insights to drive strategic decision-making and operational excellence. Simply put, we’re democratising data to create new insights across the Seven business,” said Andrew Brain, Seven’s director of data and growth.
“The company-wide GenAI solution now in progress is designed to bring back known users to 7plus, to know what VOD show will be the most viewed by time of day, and to have greater guidance on revenue forecasting with direct and programmatic business.
“The goal is to create the best user ad experience based on the user’s recency, frequency, and engagement. Why, for example, should all users receive the same ad experiences when it comes to ad breaks and ad pods; engagement and loyalty should be rewarded.
“These initiatives are a testament to our unwavering commitment to being data-driven and leveraging cutting-edge technologies to stay ahead in the digital landscape and with that, we will be releasing a new predictive version of 7REDiQ audiences mapped against data partners,” added Brain.
