India Today Group is leveraging AI-powered automation to enhance newsroom efficiency and transform content creation workflows as digital journalism continues to evolve rapidly.
With the demand for real-time and high-quality news increasing, AI-driven automation is reshaping newsroom operations by enabling faster, smarter, and more scalable content production. To address challenges related to manual processes, fragmented communication between reporters and editorial teams, and slower publishing cycles, the media group has implemented an AI-led newsroom ecosystem.
At the centre of this transformation is Pragya, a proprietary AI-driven newsroom operations and workflow automation platform developed in collaboration with Google. Integrated with the Group’s Content Management System (CMS), Pragya also functions as an independent platform that supports editorial and user growth teams with AI-powered capabilities.
The platform introduces AI-assisted features including automated keyword generation, highlights, kickers, and draft story creation, enabling journalists to focus more on storytelling, analysis, and fact verification. All AI-generated outputs continue to undergo a human-led editorial review process to maintain standards of accuracy, credibility, and journalistic integrity.
Pragya also strengthens newsgathering operations through a dedicated Journalist App that allows field reporters to file text, audio, video, and documents in real time. The app integrates directly with the company’s internal broadcast and publishing systems to streamline coordination from reporting to publication.
According to the company, the AI integration has led to measurable operational gains, including a 30% reduction in content creation and publishing turnaround time, a 10% increase in content production, and a two-fold rise in user engagement.
Commenting on the development, Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson and Executive Editor-in-Chief of India Today Group, said, “In our mission to protect the rarest mineral, ‘public attention’, our partnership with Google to build Pragya has added a high-octane layer of agility to our bedrock of trust. We are perfecting the ‘AI Sandwich’: blending machine efficiency with human storytelling. It’s a newsroom upgrade where technology empowers every voice to keep news verified, vital and accessible.”
The initiative highlights the growing role of AI in supporting — rather than replacing — journalism, combining automation with editorial oversight to build more agile and future-ready newsroom operations.
