About Helen King

I came to technology by an unusual route. I trained as an archaeologist and historian and started out working in a museum, before finding my way into publishing, where I spent the best part of two decades building and running digital technology at Nature, BMJ and Sage. I learned partly on the job and partly through a technology degree with the Open University, which gave me both the practice and the theory, including a grounding in systems thinking that still shapes how I work.

I have led technology and change in senior roles, sat on the board of Crossref, and taken an MBA at Warwick, so I understand the commercial and organisational side of a decision as well as the technical one.

Through Innovation Ideas I work independently across AI and new technology: helping organisations decide what to do about it, researching the questions they need answered, training people to use these tools, and testing whether AI products do what is claimed. The work is grounded in doing rather than commentary. I evaluate AI models hands-on, I maintain a library of over 200 documented examples of AI at work in scholarly publishing, and I am writing a book, Generative AI for Curious People.

I also write PubTech Radar, a newsletter now read by more than 1,400 people, and co-founded the AI in Publishing Collective, a community of over 100 members whose events I lead. Both keep me close to what is actually happening in the field, week by week.

I am also on the BCSWomen committee. Technology is better when a wide mix of people has a hand in shaping it, and AI is going to touch nearly all of us, so getting more women into tech and into the conversations around AI matters to me.

If you’re weighing up what AI means for your organisation, or you’d just like to talk something through, I’d be glad to hear from you.