This talk will describe how the National Library of Wales established a National Broadcast Archive, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Welsh Government, and is now a host to most of Wales’ audiovisual history incuding BBC, ITV and S4C content. This project is in its final stages and has vastly improved access to this audiovisual material and also provided a springboard for developing access to other audiovisual content in the Library. The Screen and Sound team must now face new challenges in terms of technology, resources, rights, the material which is waiting to be collected, and new expectations from audiences. The team’s adoption of AI technologies features the need to support the Welsh language, and also the development of practical solutions with support from a collaborative project involving Kings University London, the BFI and other audiovisual archives in the UK.

The BBC’s archives hold decades of invaluable content but making it discoverable and reusable at scale is a significant challenge. This talk explores how AI-driven content enrichment can transform discovery and reuse workflows whilst keeping humans in the loop. We’ll examine approaches such as speech-to-text for indexing, face and object detection for tagging, and scene segmentation for improved navigation. Through real-world examples—like uncovering hidden interviews via transcripts and automating rights management with OCR—we’ll highlight how AI can be used to enhance accessibility, streamline workflows, and support editorial decision-making. Join us to explore how AI is being harnessed to support the BBC Library, unlocking new opportunities for discovery and reuse.

Technology is not only a tool—it’s a driver of transformation. In audiovisual information management, long based on human expertise, the arrival of algorithms marked a turning point. After an initial phase centered on automatic transcription and facial recognition, ATRESMEDIA’s Archive is now embracing generative AI.

This shift goes beyond innovation; it’s reshaping the identity of the audiovisual archivist. The next-gen professional is emerging as a hybrid: combining archival know-how with data skills, capable of supervising AI processes, ensuring metadata quality, and maximizing content value.

This evolution supports a larger goal: to redefine the archivist’s role as a key player in the content production ecosystem. At ATRESMEDIA, we strongly believe that the future of audiovisual archiving lies in professionals ready to collaborate with machines, shape new narratives, and actively contribute to the digital transformation of the media industry.