Unily Unite26 was held in London, September 29-30, bringing together digital workplace leaders representing internal communications, IT, and HR. Unily CEO, Lokdeep Singh announced the launch of Content Studio, in the opening keynote. Described as a “creative engine for enterprise content”, this new standalone offering is intended to help organized turn trusted source material into tailored content that different audiences can read, watch, listen to, or view, without losing the original meaning as content is transformed across formats and channels.

Content Studio Is The First Standalone Product From Unily

Content Studio is an AI-powered content transformation and production engine that allows subject matter experts take trusted corporate content sources, and transform the underlying information into a variety of “expressions”, such as an explainer video, an infographic, or a podcast designed for specific audiences.  Unily product leaders showcased a demo using the scenario of a luxury hotel chain announcing its new company strategy, and taking artifacts such as the town hall transcript, a slide deck, and documents in a Unily-based intranet and transforming the message into specific outputs (i.e., an infographic) for a specific audience (hotel housekeeping staff).  Key capabilities include:

  • Grounding in facts. Only the imported/linked source material is used to generate the content artifacts. Content Studio uses AI to extract the core facts and does not allow the expressions to use any information not found in the approved sources.
  • Output to a range of surfaces — with more to come in the future. Generated content can be pushed into Unily’s intranet platform and further edited in its CMS, but it will also support Microsoft SharePoint and digital signage.  Other platforms will be supported based on customer demand.
  • Tools to design content for specific audiences within branding guardrails. Creators can generate projects for specific initiatives, such as the company strategy communication plan, or a product launch. Within a project the creator uploads the trusted sources, and can use natural language to get AI to generate a storyboard and images. For example, create a 1 page infographic encouraging housekeeping staff how to embody the new strategy on their next shift, along with a 1 minute video for hotel managers that summarizes key points relevant to their role.
  • Brand guardrails. Content Studio provides a skills library that grounds AI in a specific company voice (i.e., tone, reading level), and defines roles and audiences. While the example skills shown in the mainstage demo were written in markdown language, plain text can also be used to create a new skill. Admins can also define overall branding (colors, fonts, etc.) and voices for podcast/video expressions that can reflect different genders, tones, accents. Third party licensed voices can be integrated, and Unily partners with a third party voice AI tool that can generate the voice of a real person — such as an executive — by recording 30 minutes of speaking.  Pronunciations can also be enforced, such as product or company names, acronyms, or names with uncommon spellings.
  • Notifications when source information changes. Content Studio provides a clear notice when one of the trusted source materials changes, allowing the project owner to refresh the various expressions and repush them to their surfaces, ensuring nothing gets out of date.

Content Studio will be a consumption-based pricing model, using the concept of “credits” that can be purchased online. Within a project, the content creator is provided with an estimate of the credit cost for each expression that is generated. A clear breakdown of the “cost” to have AI generate the storyboard, and then the asset is presented in advance, so the creator can prioritize their spend — i.e., an infographic would be less expensive than a video

What Is Next For Content Studio

While English is officially supported today, Unily reports that preview customers have been using the tool in Dutch and Spanish with generally good results. Some additional optimization is required, but this bodes well for broader language support in the future.

Currently Content Studio uses a variety of AI models provided by Microsoft, and it will select the best model for specific tasks, helping to optimize for cost and quality. Other LLMs may be supported in the future.

Early adopters should also encourage Unily to provide more flexibility in its admin console, particularly in organizations where Content Studio is used by multiple teams or lines of business. Currently there is no way to allocate a budget to a project or provide any chargeback if different cost centers consume the credits, but this would be a natural evolution.

Content Studio will appeal to audiences beyond the typical internal communication roles that currently manage Unily’s intranet and employee communication tools. Learning and development teams could explore it to create artifacts for their LMS or marketing teams for their customer-facing websites. Intranet program leaders using other platforms, such as SharePoint, or even other competitive solutions can also explore Content Studio.

If you’re a Forrester client and you want to discuss this launch or your content strategy – please reach out to inquiry@forrester.com to speak with me. I’d love to connect!

 

 

 

Share