Purpose

why you use ai and what your intention is

It is easy to adopt AI because others do, without asking what it is for. This card pushes a team to name its own intention: saving time, reaching new audiences, covering more, or something else. A clear purpose makes it easier to judge later whether a tool is earning its place.

Questions to explore

// use these as prompts in a workshop or on your own. There are no right answers.

What problem are you actually trying to solve by bringing in AI?
Whose work or whose day is supposed to get better, and how would you know?
Does this purpose serve your audience, your newsroom, or your budget first?
How does using AI fit the mission and values your newsroom already holds?
What would tell you that AI is not serving the purpose you set?

Expert voices

// notes from the journalists and AI experts who helped shape this kit

“Reinvent, do not just optimize. The value is not in doing more of the same faster, it is in rethinking how your journalism is delivered.”

Martin Schori, Aftonbladet

“Poetry is the beauty in things. Plumbing is what gets things done. Where do you want to deploy AI: in the poetry of your work, or the plumbing?”

Carl Javier, Data and AI Ethicist

“'But everyone needs to use it nowadays' does not make a good-enough use case. Ask what you actually want to achieve by using AI, and let that answer drive the choice of tool.”

Jasper Steinlein, DW

Things to consider

Name the purpose before the tool, not the other way around.
A purpose tied to your audience tends to hold up better over time.
If you cannot say what it is for, that is worth noticing.

using this card

Pull Purpose when it is relevant and set it aside when it is not. Pair it with the other AI Conversations cards, lay them out on a table, and use the questions above to get everyone on the same page. Capture what you discuss on sticky notes or in a shared doc.