Digital Planning’s next generation AI News Editor platform has won a regional award for its impact on communication workflows.
Developed with communications agency 1284 for East Midlands Chamber, the AI News Editor has been recognised in the Best Use of AI category at the CIPR Midlands Awards.
CIPR is the leading professional body for public relations in the UK, so this recognition underlines how the platform is changing practice for communications teams.
The platform embeds artificial intelligence into a live newsroom process – with Chamber communications officers helping to shape its design at each stage of testing, ensuring the tool reflects how they work in practice.
The platform continuously monitors digital newsfeeds and uses proprietary algorithms to prioritise stories that align with East Midlands Chamber’s policy and member interests.
For selected items, it generates a draft press release and alerts available communications officers, who then review and edit the copy.
A built-in approval mechanism routes each draft to directors for sign‑off before the system automatically archives the approved release and repurposes the agreed wording for social channels.
During testing, the AI News Editor delivered strong operational gains – cutting PR response time on Government announcements by 58% to an average of 50 minutes.
This gives the Chamber a faster, more consistent voice in policy and business debates.
Co-founder Mark Underwood said: “Seeing our proprietary AI recognised in peer‑reviewed industry awards shows the real difference it is making for practitioners on the ground.
“The AI News Editor was developed in close collaboration with the Chamber’s comms team, mapping precisely where time and effort were being lost in monitoring, drafting and reformatting.
“That insight allowed us to engineer a workflow that removes friction at each stage, while deliberately keeping human editors in control of judgement, tone and the final story.”
This end‑to‑end flow means the Chamber’s team spends less time on manual drafting and reformatting and more time on judgement, stakeholder engagement and campaign planning.
The platform also helps maintain a consistent cadence of content, even during peak periods or when resources are stretched.
