CNN doubles its data team as it expands AI across products

CNN has doubled its data team over the past two years as it expands artificial intelligence across subscriptions, audience analytics and newsroom tools.

Kendell Timmers, CNN’s senior vice president of data analytics, science and insights, described the changes in a Forbes interview. CNN also reorganized machine learning engineers, data scientists, data engineers and analysts into one group.

Timmers joined CNN in 2024 after nearly seven years leading data and insights at The New York Times. She previously spent more than a decade in digital and big data roles at American Express.

CNN says it is on pace to more than double its annual A/B tests. The company has built dedicated experimentation and analytics teams to make testing faster.

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CNN’s All Access subscription, launched in October 2025, has become one testing ground. The service includes live news, video and unlimited article access. Timmers said CNN has been able to test and adjust the offering more quickly since launch.

CNN also personalizes article selection and adjusts paywalls based on user behavior and subscription likelihood. Timmers described those tools as part of a broader effort to make data-driven decisions at scale.

Inside the newsroom, CNN is using AI to organize coverage across formats. Articles and videos historically carried different tags, ranging from broad subjects to narrow keywords.

CNN built a system that groups content into storylines at several levels. It can connect a single development, a weeklong arc and a broader topic across text and video.

The new CNN Weather app also uses AI to turn forecast data into short summaries. CNN does not say journalists review every generated weather summary before it appears.

Instead, Timmers said journalists retain editorial responsibility when using AI for newsgathering. They must vet content before publication. CNN also vets new employee-facing AI tools and major AI use cases before production. Customer-facing AI receives additional scrutiny, she said.

Timmers described 2026 as a year for building the foundation. CNN is tracking measures such as AI-readable data and the number of experiments it runs.

Other publishers are also changing their audience operations. Media Copilot has separately reported on restructuring at USA Today Co. and new AI-discovery roles elsewhere.

For 2027, Timmers said CNN will target lower compute and storage costs, first-party data revenue and faster analytics. CNN is also building a semantic layer that both people and AI systems can read.

CNN has built the infrastructure and put AI into products readers can see. The next test is whether those tools translate into measurable gains in subscriptions, revenue or efficiency.