Examining the enterprise adoption curve of internal AI assistants: how Macmillan Publishers rolled out the NOA assistant in early 2024 and ultimately wound down the project by October 2025 following low staff adoption and reliability feedback.
In January 2024, employees at the company’s New York offices were greeted with a tool called “NOA,” which was short for “No Ordinary Assistant.” The program was developed by German software company Chaptr, which is backed by Macmillan’s parent company, Holtzbrinck. Management assured staff that the system was safe for internal data entry, and employees were encouraged to use it for email writing, marketing research, and idea generation.
However, several employees found the assistant's name offensive, while many reported that the tool proved unreliable and few actually used it. In October 2025, the company informed staff that Chaptr would stop supporting the program. Management then attempted to integrate Google Gemini into its processes, although according to employees, the results were not satisfactory.
Kelly Collins, Macmillan's vice president of communications, said the company uses Gemini for business operations, but clarified that there has never been a directive from management to use it in the book publishing process or review letters. She also noted that the company takes a cautious approach to the technology.
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The issue of artificial intelligence is also causing friction at other major publishing groups, such as Penguin Random House, where employees have been encouraged to use ChatGPT Enterprise, even though the group’s German subsidiary has taken legal action against OpenAI for copyright infringement. Claire von Schilling of Penguin Random House said the company approaches the technology with precautions to protect intellectual property and human judgment.
At the same time, many popular authors are expressing strong dissatisfaction with the use of artificial intelligence by publishers, citing cases of fake content and considering turning to self-publishing.
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