WTF is a chief AI officer, with The Washington Post's Sam Han

"We want to reach 200 million paying customers. How can you use AI to improve user engagement by providing AI-powered products? How can you use [AI to] help newsroom and businesses to improve their operations? And then at the same time, how can you use AI to optimize subscription revenue and advertisement revenue? That's the core mission of [chief] AI officer,' Han said."

"'The best benefit of having that is no more meetings to decide what rules [to set as the basis for the paywall], Han said. 'Thanksgiving sale's coming up, how should we change the paywall rules to accommodate more subscription during the sales price? We will have meetings after meetings after meetings, and then the executive with the largest voice will win, right? That's all gone now. It's all driven by machine learning.'"

Sam Han was appointed the Washington Post's chief AI officer in June. AI evolved from a niche tool to a critical component across the publisher's business and operations, prompting the creation of the role. The chief AI officer's core mission includes using AI to improve user engagement via AI-powered products, supporting newsroom and business operations, and optimizing subscription and advertisement revenue. The Post tested an AI-powered dynamic paywall against its traditional paywall and recorded a 20% increase in customer lifetime value. Machine learning now governs paywall decisioning, eliminating recurring meetings and subjective executive rule-setting.

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