During the 2025 Mega-Conference in Orlando, Mike McCarthy, senior director of AI solutions with Hearst Newspapers, shared his approach to implementing GenAI in sales and operations — an approach that he said has put Hearst among the few companies that is making money with GenAI.
He said the key has been focusing on foundational business operations, especially sales and marketing, to drive impact.
He also shared a Sales Prompting Workbook with members of America's Newspapers that is designed to provide practical guidance and adaptable prompts to enable their sales teams to leverage GenAI as a strategic tool. The workbook provides effective prompting to help their sales teams:
In implementing GenAI at Hearst, McCarthy said he emphasized the importance of emotional trust and progressive capability building with his sales team — following a “crawl, walk, run” strategy that meets team members where they are and enables them to advance.
The focus is on solving problems in pre-call research, appointment scheduling, media plan development, closing and more. Hearst Newspapers' GenAI application also is designed to protect company data.
View a recording of his address to the Mega-Conference here.
Download his slides:
AI Change Management — Your journey to buy-in, adoption and results
Download Sales Prompting Workbook:
Leveraging GenAI for Advertising Sales
This workbook is designed to equip members of America's Newspapers with foundational techniques for leveraging GenAI in their daily workflow.
