AI Integration Transforms Media Coverage at 47th ASEAN Summit
AI is changing how media teams work at the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur. Reporters on site are using tools like ChatGPT, Turboscribe, Gemini and automated translation to transcribe, summarise and analyse speeches within minutes-then push updates while the sessions are still running.
Over 2,000 media personnel from 290 agencies are registered, and many have folded AI into their daily workflow. The result: quicker turnarounds, tighter headlines and more consistent outputs across platforms.
What this means for PR and Communications teams
The playbook is clear: treat AI as a fast assistant, keep humans in charge and tighten your quality bar. Here's how to put that into practice without risking your reputation.
- Stand up an AI-enabled press room: Use speech-to-text for live sessions, machine translation for multilingual briefings and summarisation for rapid readouts. Set a style guide so names, titles and terms stay consistent across languages.
- Run real-time briefings: Generate quick summaries and quote lists as sessions end. Assign an editor to verify facts, check tone and add context before anything goes out.
- Protect originality: Build prompts that paraphrase responsibly and require attribution for sourced material. Add plagiarism checks to your publishing workflow.
- Scale multilingual reach: Maintain a translation memory and a glossary for key terms. Have native speakers review sensitive lines and anything that could shift meaning across cultures.
- Monitor narratives: Use AI to cluster coverage, flag spikes and surface misquotes. Set thresholds that trigger a rapid response from your comms lead.
- Data discipline: Auto-redact sensitive details from transcripts and keep an audit trail of prompts, outputs and approvals.
- Upskill the team: Train staff on prompt craft, verification and ethical use. If you need a shortcut, see curated options for PR/Comms roles at Complete AI Training.
Voices from the summit
Bernama chairman Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai called this summit a step change for newsroom digitalisation. AI tools are delivering quicker analysis and faster transcripts, but he drew a line: AI is a guide, not a substitute. Originality and integrity still lead, and credible journalists remain essential for on-the-ground verification.
Digna de Edita Aniceto Serrao from Timor-Leste's Tatoli said AI helps her team manage multilingual content and keep pace with simultaneous meetings. When terms get dense, she leans on translation and summary features to stay timely without missing the nuance.
Vijay Gupta of India's Young Bites highlighted stronger cross-language consistency and more uniform standards across platforms, thanks to digital tools. That matters when one misinterpretation can ripple across multiple channels.
From Malaysia's Foreign Ministry, Zul Izwan Hamzah noted that real-time translation has sped up the release of official speeches and documents. Even so, the human element still matters-especially with tricky wording and cultural context.
Context
Malaysia holds the ASEAN Chairmanship under the theme "Inclusivity and Sustainability," the country's fifth time since 1967. The 47th ASEAN Summit gathers leaders of all 10 member states, along with key dialogue partners including the United States, China, Japan and South Africa. Learn more about ASEAN at asean.org.
Bottom line for PR: AI can speed up the work without diluting standards-if you pair automation with strong editorial judgment and clear guardrails.
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