Connelly: Working across our newsroom and product teams to launch ambitious, delightful AI news experiences for our users. Getting our newsroom access to AI-powered tools that let us do our jobs faster. Getting to convene complex conversations about how we employ this new tool in ways that meet our rigorous standards.

I have a dual reporting structure to [executive editor] Sally Buzbee and [chief technology officer] Vineet Khosla — our hope is this cross-functional structure will ensure we are pulling from the whole company to build with generative AI.

Of course, first on my list was how we can better serve our readers.

Connelly: Machine learning and artificial intelligence have been employed by the Post for years, and we are fortunate enough to have many skilled technologists on staff.

Last year, the Next Generation team started some experiments that leveraged generative AI. We held a company wide hackathon and our product manager, Tony Guzman started prototyping news delivery surfaces that incorporated generative AI.

The announcement of a new role is a moment that gets everyone thinking about what is possible. Now my colleagues know to come to me with ideas they’d like to see us pursue. Newsrooms are deeply collaborative places, used to forming ad hoc teams around a breaking story or pairing up to maximize reporting resources. Tackling a new technology in that type of collaborative environment is thrilling.

Connelly: In my first role at the Post — as a producer on the video team — I was asked to attend a meeting about our video player that turned into multiple meetings, which turned into a proposal to build a new video CMS. That CMS is now part of Arc XP.

Getting a crash course in product development was formative. My partner in building video products was [director of engineering] Vidya Viswanathan. She was so generous with her time, willing to talk through any problem and eager to figure out how to work with the particular rhythm of a newsroom. I learned so much working with her. We sit right next to each other again — it’s like coming home.

Building the Next Gen team really forced me to think through how an organization can tackle new problems while maintaining its core values. And I got to work with simply the most talented slice of people across the Post. We as an industry should set up more short-term teams. It was incredible to work fast and hard at a problem for two years and see what change we could accomplish.

My dad just retired from the Chicago Transit Authority. In his farewell speech he said, “The glass is always half full for me.” I am definitely my father’s daughter. I’m always looking for the upside, the opportunity. And yes, if we take a business trip together I will make you take public transit.

Connelly: We all need to encourage experimentation with generative AI. Once it stops being an idea and becomes a tool, then we can move on to the fun part which is figuring out what uses we can put it to.

I’m not afraid of AI as a journalist. We are so good at leveraging new tools to report and deliver the news. Generative AI is just the latest. Journalists introduce new facts into the conversation, and we do this through multiple-sourced, transparent reporting. This skill set and our core values are even more valuable in an AI-mediated landscape.

Connelly: We just completed our first round of prompt training in the newsroom! We were led by the excellent David Caswell — his piece for the Reuters Institute is great reading if you are trying to figure out where to start.

Connelly: This is my second “first-of-a-kind” position. The Next Gen team was a totally new type of team for the Post. I found it helpful to remind myself that we had two jobs, where a lot of teams only had one: We had to define what our mission was, and we had to execute on it. Most jobs, you are handed the plan, the mission, when you start. I find thinking about it as a two part job makes the wild range of tasks you might face in a week make more sense.

First-of-their-kind jobs are as much about culture change as they are about the task. It’s not enough that I get us thoughtfully using generative AI — I need to leave the newsroom feeling good about how we got there.