Next Chapter AI Announces First Free, Multi-Day AI Summit Designed By and For the Book Publishing Industry

Free three-day virtual event May 26–28, 2026 brings together publishing professionals and cross-industry experts for the industry’s first dedicated, action-focused AI summit.

New York, NY, May 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Next Chapter AI announces the Human-Aligned & Ethical AI in Publishing Summit, a free three-day virtual event designed specifically for the book publishing industry, will be live next week May 26 - 28, 2026. Hosted by publishing veterans and Next Chapter AI co-founders Ayanna Coleman and Meredith Barnes, the summit features 15+ publishing professionals and cross-industry experts from communications, law, audio, and AI strategy. The summit addresses what its organizers describe as the industry’s most urgent gap: the space between AI anxiety and AI literacy.

Human-Aligned & Ethical AI in Publishing summit co-host Ayanna Coleman

“Publishing has been arguing about AI for years, and most of that argument has happened on panels. Interesting, but not entirely actionable,” said Ayanna Coleman. “We built this summit to do something different. Every session is around 20 minutes. Every session is concrete and ends with a workflow, a checklist, or actions attendees can take back to their desks that morning. This is where you come to make a plan for AI, not to debate it.”

At a Glance

• The first free, multi-day AI summit designed completely by and for book publishing professionals in a landscape where tech companies are increasingly hosting these summits, trying to sell a service.
• Two women co-founders. A roster that is 87% women, with substantial representation from speakers of color and international perspectives.
• 15+ working publishing and AI content professionals drawn from inside the book industry as well as complementary industries that have learned some AI lessons already.
• Every session ends with a concrete deliverable: a walkthrough, checklist, worksheet, or action steps attendees can take back to their desks and implement immediately.
• Free to attend live and for 48 hours after airing on demand. Comparable AI summits start at $399 and run as high as $1,795 and above. Optional paid passes available for ongoing access.

The full speaker roster is available at nxtchapterai.com/summit.

A Three-Day Arc: Fear to Curiosity to Action to Dreaming

The summit is structured as a deliberate progression, with each day building on the next. It is also built on cross-pollination between publishing insiders and outside voices. Because the strategies and possibilities publishing needs to absorb are already showing up in adjacent industries.

Day 1, Change How You Work, focuses on individual contributors and the repetitive, non-craft work AI handles well, like metadata, press materials, event planning, sales materials, copy variations, and social content. Featured speakers include Julie Hochheiser Ilkovich, co-founder and managing partner at Masthead Media and founder of the AI Marketing Innovation Summit, presenting “25 Tools in 25 Weeks: Solving Marketing Challenges with Human-Tested AI Solutions,” and Gloria Chou, an AI visibility strategist and small business PR coach, on “Get Featured in the Media and Recommended on ChatGPT.” Day 1 moves attendees from fear to curiosity.

Day 2, Change How Your Team Works, addresses publishing organizations, teams, and systems such as workflow efficiency, discovery, team adoption, and human-AI collaboration. Featured speakers include Sara Lloyd, Group Communications Director and Global AI Lead at Pan Macmillan, with “Inside Pan Macmillan’s AI Implementation”; Katie Robbert, CEO of Trust Insights, with "Why Your Publishing Team's AI Rollout Stalled"; and Ani Attamian, founder of LEMA® Collective and a veteran of Google leading EMEA Publishing Product Partnerships, who speaks across all three days. Day 2 moves attendees from curiosity to operational confidence.

Day 3, Change What’s Possible, brings speakers from outside publishing (communications, law, audio, design) for cross-industry pattern recognition and ideas the industry has not yet imported. Featured speakers include Gemma Bonham-Carter, an online business strategist and AI educator featured in Entrepreneur, Inc., and Fast Company, presenting “The AI Assist: Custom Tools That Support the Humans Doing the Work.” Day 3 moves attendees from confidence to imagination.

Every session is shaped by Next Chapter AI’s six-point ethics framework: Consent, Credit, Context, Control, Clarity, and Craft. The summit addresses the questions the industry is already asking about training data, attribution, voice, and human judgment.

“We remember the ebook era,” said Meredith Barnes. “In 2010, publishing hesitated, debated endlessly, and lost big. We don’t want to see that happen with this technological wave. This summit gives publishing professionals the tech literacy, the workflows, and the language to make real decisions, without hype and without panic.”

About Next Chapter AI

Next Chapter AI is a publishing-industry consultancy dedicated to helping writers, publishers, agents, and cultural leaders harness artificial intelligence with integrity and intelligence. Founded by Meredith Barnes and Ayanna Coleman, the company offers AI readiness audits, team training, organizational consulting, and Publishing Pulse Pro—a paid newsletter delivering timely AI signals decoded for publishing leaders. Next Chapter AI rejects both AI hype and AI panic. Its operating principle: craft stays human, drudgery goes to AI.

Learn more at nxtchapterai.com.

About the Founders

Meredith Barnes is a creator-career strategist with 15 years of experience across the publishing industry and its ancillaries. Barnes founded Queen Mab Media to help creators build confident, sustainable career strategies in partnership with the teams they work with to produce their art.

Ayanna Coleman is a publishing strategist and educator who has worked globally across startup, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial spaces since founding Quill Shift in 2013. Coleman built Quill Shift around the conviction that what creators and businesses need most is authentic audience connection and the operational systems to sustain it.

Human-Aligned & Ethical AI in Publishing summit co-host Meredith Barnes

About Next Chapter AI

Next Chapter AI is an AI consulting and training firm for the book publishing industry. The company provides ethical AI readiness audits, team upskilling, author programs, and implementation support. Founded by Meredith Barnes (Queen Mab Media) and Ayanna Coleman (QuillShift). Headquartered in New York. Founded February 2026. Learn more at NxtChapterAI.com.

Press Inquiries

Meredith Barnes
hello@nxtchapterai.com
281-782-0488
https://nxtchapterai.com/
418 Broadway # 10942
Albany, NY 12207

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