by JodieAnne Sclafani
Last week (April 9, 2026), I attended the 2nd annual AI Summit at Marist University in Poughkeepsie, NY. The day opened with two questions that have stayed with me: What is possible with AI? And, just as importantly, When is it right to use AI?
In an industry moving as fast as ours, the first question gets most of the attention. The second one is where the real work is.
Attending the summit was not an exercise to discover new tools to deploy, but to listen, think critically, and ask hard questions on behalf of our clients and our craft. What I heard confirmed something Westchester already believes: the organizations that will serve publishers best right now are not the ones racing to implement every new capability. They’re the ones willing to slow down long enough to ask whether they should.
That’s a more difficult posture to hold than it sounds. The pressure to adopt, automate, and accelerate is real and, in many cases, the technology genuinely delivers. AI can handle the routine with speed and consistency, freeing skilled people to focus on work that requires judgment, nuance, and expertise. The most meaningful work—the kind that builds trust and craft—lives in the process, not just the deliverable. We see real value in that, and we’re pursuing it thoughtfully.
But the summit was a useful reminder that speed without intention carries risk. Speakers were candid: AI is advancing faster than the ethical and policy frameworks designed to govern it. Accountability doesn’t transfer to the machine. When something inevitably goes wrong, responsibility lands squarely on the humans and organizations that deployed the tool. That’s not an argument against progress. It’s an argument for moving with clarity about your values and your obligations.
For Westchester, clarity comes from decades of working side by side with publishers. We are editorial and production experts by training and by practice, and technology is one of the ways we extend that expertise. We build, adopt, and invest in tools—including AI—where they strengthen the publishing process. The methods evolve but the core mission does not.
What we’re focused on is purposeful integration: tools that enhance the quality and consistency our clients depend on, with human review and accountability built in from the start. Client data stays protected. Craft stays central. And the judgment that comes from more than 50 years in this industry stays in the room.
AI is changing publishing. We’re paying close attention and asking the hard questions. We’d love to hear what questions your team is sitting with. Reach out now to start the conversation.
We’re hosting a webinar about “AI and Its Opportunities in Publishing Operations” on May 19. Panelists include George Walkley of Outside Context, Ltd., David Stafford from Dropbox, and Jarin Pintana at Green Book Alliance.
