The expert announced changes in the perception of news due to AI

On March 3, Alexander Tolokolnikov, Managing Director of Zen, told Izvestia why short news has become the new standard and how artificial intelligence (AI) helps to understand information flows.

Thousands of news are released every day, it's impossible to keep track of everything, and users are increasingly opting for short formats. According to Zen's internal research, more than 65% of the audience prefer to read short materials in order to get acquainted with the main events in Russia and the world in a few minutes.

But there is a contradiction here: a short format, by definition, cannot accommodate a wide context. The news headline "The Central Bank lowered the key rate," for example, introduces the fact, but does not explain why this happened. And the main thing is how it will affect the life of a particular user. At this moment, artificial intelligence appears with its ability to instantly process huge amounts of information and highlight the main thing.

"The most understandable and sought—after function of AI in the modern media environment is summarization, the transformation of long texts into short extracts. At the same time, AI assistants not only shorten, but also interpret information: they explain what certain terms mean, and provide examples relevant to the user," Tolokolnikov said.

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Adapting content to user interests is another important niche that AI occupies in the media sphere. An example is the personalization of news feeds, right down to the headlines. By itself, the practice of testing different headlines is not new — almost all media outlets are engaged in it.

"Modern technologies allow you to keep 5-10 versions of one news item at the same time with deep adaptation to the consumption patterns of a particular user. For example, for a user who is interested in cars, the news about a reduction in the key interest rate automatically gets an additional dimension: loans for cars will become more affordable. AI is able to make this connection, making the overall news personally significant," the expert explained.

Reflecting on the future of AI in the media, Tolokolnikov listed three important development vectors. According to him, the technology will find application in interactive formats, from text to video and audio conversion to dialog scenarios with the user. Personalization of the feed depth will also be an important area: with the help of AI, users will be able to choose between short summaries and detailed analytical reviews. In addition, the improvement of translation technologies will make it possible to aggregate news from any region of the world, forming personalized information flows.

On January 20, it was reported that the demand for specialists with AI experience in Russia has almost doubled — in 2025, the number of vacancies with such requirements has increased by 90%. According to the Avito Jobs study, AI skills were most often in demand among sales professionals.

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