AI Didn’t Break PBS—It Exposed What the Industry Isn’t Facing

Four uncomfortable but essential truths about data quality, governance, human judgment, and trust in an AI-driven media ecosystem.

This essay was contributed by Rebecca Avery, founder and principal of Integration Therapy, a boutique advisory firm that guides media companies in optimizing streaming operations and aligning strategy with financial performance.

One company that rarely gets enough credit for its technical ambition is PBS. In 2024, when AI was still settling in to live on media’s roadmaps, PBS was already testing how automation could strengthen metadata, improve discovery, and modernize the digital experience for viewers. There weren’t enough shared AI lessons at the time to establish deep patterns across the industry yet – there still aren’t, and what PBS did was genuinely bold. Because almost no one in our industry is this transparent.

PBS shared what worked, what didn’t, and what they learned. For data and technology leaders, their openness is a rare gift. It reveals what most companies hide: the structural gaps, operational failures, and foundational issues that surface when automation enters the pic…