What if AI could do more than answer your question?
Imagine you’re working on a developing story. You need background information. You need to find related coverage. You need archive content. You need to update the story. You need to get it to the right people and eventually to air. Today, that can mean jumping between systems, searching for information, and manually moving things through your workflow.
But what if AI could help with the work around the story? That’s the idea behind agentic workflows. Powered by MCP in Octopus 13, AI agents can securely interact with newsroom information and connected systems to support real production workflows.
From “Write This” to “Help Me Get This Done”
Traditional generative AI is very good at responding to prompts. You ask it to summarize something, and it generates a summary. You ask it to write a social post, and it generates a post. You give it a script, and it can help rewrite it.
But newsroom work rarely happens in isolation. A journalist might need to find previous coverage before writing the next update. A producer might need to locate archive footage. An editor might need to notify colleagues when new material arrives.
The real value of AI comes when it can understand the context around the task and interact with the tools and information needed to support it. Instead of:
You ask → AI responds
Agentic workflows move towards:
You ask → AI understands the context → AI accesses the right information → AI performs or supports actions → you stay in control
That’s a fundamental shift.
What Could Agentic Workflows Look Like in a Newsroom?
The possibilities become much more practical once AI can work with newsroom systems.
Create a Story from a Newswire
An incoming newswire can be the starting point for a story. An agentic AI workflow could help create the story in Octopus, bringing the information into the newsroom workflow instead of leaving journalists to manually move it from one system to another.
Find Relevant Archive Content
A journalist working on a developing story may need footage or other archive material from previous coverage. An AI agent can help search for relevant content and surface clips that could be useful to the journalist. Instead of spending time figuring out where something is stored, the journalist can focus on deciding what is editorially relevant.
Prepare Social Content
Once a story is ready, it may need to travel beyond the broadcast. An AI agent can help prepare social content based on the existing story and its context, supporting the move from newsroom production to audience distribution.
Notify the Right People
News production is a team effort. When new material becomes available, an agentic workflow can help notify editors or other team members, keeping people informed without requiring someone to manually track every change.
Connect the Steps
These examples become even more powerful when they are connected. Instead of thinking of AI as a collection of individual tools, agentic workflows allow AI to support the flow of work around a story. The story remains at the centre. AI helps with the steps around it.
Why Does This Matter for Newsrooms?
For broadcasters, MCP and agentic workflows aren’t interesting simply because they represent new technology. They’re interesting because they can help solve some very real newsroom challenges.
Less Time Moving Information
Journalists and producers shouldn’t have to repeatedly copy information from one system into another just to keep a story moving. Connected AI workflows can help reduce those manual steps.
Less Searching
Finding the right story, archive clip, piece of information, or production asset can take valuable time. AI agents with access to the appropriate newsroom context can help retrieve relevant information when it’s needed.
More Connected Workflows
Editorial, production, archive, publishing, and collaboration don’t have to be treated as separate activities. MCP can help AI work across connected systems, supporting the workflow as a story moves through the newsroom.
More Possibilities for Automation
Once AI can securely interact with newsroom tools – not just generate text – the potential for intelligent workflow automation expands considerably. The question becomes less: “What can AI write?” and more: “What can AI help us do?”
A More Flexible AI Ecosystem
MCP is designed as a standard rather than a closed AI environment. That opens the door to connecting different AI applications and agents to the newsroom ecosystem as the technology continues to evolve. For broadcasters, that means AI doesn’t have to be a single tool. It can become part of a wider, connected technology environment.
What About Security and Control?
For news organizations, the ability to connect AI to newsroom systems naturally raises an important question: How do we stay in control? That’s a fundamental consideration when introducing agentic technology.
MCP provides a standardized communication server. The actual permissions, authentication, access controls, and governance around the connected newsroom remain critical to how the technology is deployed.
For Octopus, the principle is straightforward: AI should work within the newsroom – not outside its rules. Broadcasters need to decide what AI can access, which systems it can interact with, and how much autonomy different workflows should have. Agentic AI doesn’t have to mean handing over control.
It can mean giving AI the right tools, within the right boundaries, to help people more effectively. And importantly, the journalist doesn’t disappear from the process. AI supports the workflow. People remain in control.
A Smarter Connected Newsroom
MCP is not a newsroom product on its own. It’s an enabler. It creates a standardized connection between AI and the systems where the actual work happens. And that’s why it matters for Octopus 13. Octopus brings together the NRCS, integrations, AI capabilities, and workflow tools needed to create a more connected newsroom environment.
MCP adds another layer to that ecosystem, allowing AI agents and applications to interact with newsroom information and capabilities in ways that support real production workflows.
See Agentic Workflows in Action
At IBC2026, we will demonstrate how MCP connects Octopus 13 with AI agents and applications and how those connections can be used to create smarter newsroom workflows. From newswire ingest and archive search to social publishing and team notifications, discover what happens when AI gets connected to the newsroom.
Visit us at booth 6.C12 and see agentic workflows in action.