Here’s how the editorial team of the online outlet integrated artificial intelligence to voice the news using presenters’ voices — and what other innovations the team is introducing to make their work more efficient.
One of the ways the editorial team uses AI is to create audio versions of news stories, allowing readers to listen to articles right on the website. The news isn’t voiced by a person but by AI replicas of the channel’s presenters. The AI learned to imitate the voices by analyzing broadcast recordings.
Artificial intelligence also generates short summaries of news stories. Under each article’s headline, readers can see key points that convey the essence of the publication.
The use of artificial intelligence enables Channel 24 to expand its reach and make content more accessible to audiences who prefer listening to the news. From December 2024 to September 2025, the total number of audio news plays exceeded 12 million.
Channel 24’s website team started experimenting with artificial intelligence in 2023. After the launch of ChatGPT-4 Turbo, the newsroom stepped up its efforts and began working with AI on a regular basis, even creating dedicated roles for it. Yurii Kisilchuk, Head of Research and Development, oversees the integration of AI across all editorial processes. The team also includes two specialists: Veronika Havrylenko, who brings AI ideas to life, and Yuliia Murina, who monitors and refines the tools already in use.
Editor-in-chief Anastasiia Zazuliak says that AI is now used in daily operations — it has become part of the team’s routine. According to her, the newsroom saw the potential of the new tool and decided to give it a try.
The first project Channel 24 takes pride in is AI-powered news narration. It’s made possible through OpenAI’s Audio API (an application programming interface that allows integrating OpenAI’s AI models into custom applications), which converts text into speech. The technology went live in December 2024, letting every reader not only read the news but also listen to it.
To produce audio versions of news stories, the Channel 24 team didn’t use generic synthesized voices that merely imitate human speech — instead, they used the voices of their own presenters. To make this possible, journalists came to the studio and recorded their readings of news texts. Additional training data for the AI came from broadcast recordings and video materials.
Anastasiia shared that in August 2025 alone, the audio news feature was listened to by 860,000 users, and since its launch in December 2024, the total number of plays has exceeded 12 million.
Despite the success, the team initially had doubts about the idea. “We weren’t sure whether people would actually listen to news on the website. It seemed a bit weird. But it was one of those cases where you just have to try and see what happens,” says Anastasiia.
Developing this technology required significant investment — money, time, and careful team selection. Everything was done in-house, without outside investors or partners. According to the editorial team, Channel 24 became the first media outlet in Ukraine to introduce such a technology.
Another innovation from Channel 24 is the short news overview format. The newsroom noticed that readers increasingly prefer brief updates because they’re faster and easier to browse. In response, the team launched its own format of concise summaries.
Now, when visitors open the Channel 24 website, they can see key points right under each headline — conveying the essence of the story while encouraging readers to explore the full text. Each short summary is generated by AI and then edited by an editor.
Today, over 90% of the news on the Channel 24 website is available in audio format — and just as many stories include short summaries.
The newsroom also uses a tool that helps generate headlines, tags, and SEO blocks with search keywords relevant to each article’s content. Editors then review and manually refine these suggestions before publication.
Among other AI innovations at Channel 24 is the team’s custom chatbot. It analyzes every news piece and provides section editors with automated feedback on content and headlines, ensuring continuous quality control. The chatbot operates based on internal editorial standards on headlines, clickbait, completeness of information, and Google’s content requirements.
Another tool, the Trend Bot, tracks the most-read news in real time and helps identify topics attracting the most audience attention. This allows editors to quickly highlight stories on the site, promote them to top positions or push notifications, and drive additional traffic.
Anastasiia explains that AI hasn’t replaced people on the team — it has only shifted some roles. Previously, the newsroom had translators who focused on translating texts. With the introduction of automated translation, their role evolved: they now work as literary editors, checking and refining AI-generated translations. No staff were laid off; on the contrary, new roles related to AI are being created. “Artificial intelligence is no replacement for people — it’s an additional tool that makes our work easier,” says Anastasiia.
Channel 24 has published a policy on the use of artificial intelligence. The newsroom is fully aware of the risks, so all AI-generated materials undergo editorial review and are treated as unverified source content. Final responsibility for every publication always rests with a human.
