Artificial intelligence (AI) in the book world is a reality. Indeed, AI is not reserved for sales platforms or medical applications. AI can assist with writing, support editorial work or even help the bookseller. It can respond to pressing needs; despite its obvious limitations, AI makes it possible to envisage new applications in the book chain, which are the subject of specific recommendations here.

This white paper, written by two specialists in books and artificial intelligence, aims to identify avenues of action where AI can be of service in the book world. In this book world, where decisions useful for planning the immediate future of this cultural niche must be made, the idea of consulting some of its actors on the use of AI (or even the possible pooling of acquired data) is one avenue to follow.

“While AI calls for constant vigilance regarding its use, it seems important for those in the book world to remain very attentive to technological advances, both to what they may shake up and to what they can offer”, says Virginie Clayssen, Éditis / Digital Commission of the National Publishing Union (France).

Read the press release associated with the book launch

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All economic and cultural backgrounds are not the same. In this regard, the book ecosystem certainly holds a special place. Often heir to specific cultural policies, the world of books is in fact unique in the ongoing feedback taking place between its various actors (the bookseller informing the distributor, the latter informing the publisher, etc.), due to the solidarity between those involved in this cultural niche with such a strong symbolic capital. This tradition of collaboration has often been organized through specific regulatory frameworks, in a context of increasing economic pressure caused by the stranglehold of a few online sales players, particularly Amazon. This pressure is even stronger since the book industry is very segmented between different types of publishing (scholarly, literary, etc.) and between multiple economic models (self-publishing, public funding, private companies), which sometimes hinders the planning of its response to changes in business models.

Yet the book’s ecosystem is resisting and sustaining itself, no doubt aided by a shared awareness of the idea of ​​culture, where competition is balanced by a certain spirit of community. The realities experienced daily are the same: a cruel lack of time to implement developments; the constant quest for human, technological and financial resources to ensure its operation and even more so to envisage structural transformations. In such an ecosystem, where decisions useful for planning the immediate future of this cultural niche must be made and specific actions initiated to establish new methods and new models, the idea of consulting some of its actors on the use of AI (or even the possible pooling of acquired data) is one avenue to follow, which the white paper helps to outline.