Preparing Tomorrow's Post Professionals: AI in the Edit Suite by Phillippa Swanson

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the postproduction landscape faster than any of us anticipated and as an educator, that raises an urgent question: are the next generation of editors and finishing artists being equipped to work with these tools, or are they being left behind? At Ravensbourne University London, my colleagues and I have made it our business to ensure the answer is the former. 

The BA Hons Editing and Postproduction BA has made AI literacy a central pillar of its curriculum. We do not simply teach our students the craft of postproduction, we teach them how technology is redefining that craft in real time. That means getting their hands on the tools, understanding the pipelines, and developing the critical judgement to know when AI accelerates the work and when human instinct is still irreplaceable. 

In April 2026, I am taking that commitment to one of the industry's most significant global stages. At NAB Show in Las Vegas, I will deliver a hands-on demonstration: Speeding Up Picture Finishing with DaVinci Resolve AI Tools. The session explores how Blackmagic Design's AI-powered feature set from Magic Mask and Speed Warp to automated colour matching and neural-engine noise reduction is compressing finishing timelines and opening new creative possibilities for artists working under ever-tighter commercial pressures. 

The tools are changing faster than any textbook can keep up with. I have prepped sessions on a Friday afternoon, only to frantically update them the following Sunday evening for Monday due to the rapid changes.  What we teach our students is not just how to use a piece of software, it is how to think critically about what these tools do, where they save time, and where human judgement stays irreplaceable. 

The conversation does not end in Las Vegas. This July, we bring the debate home. On 10th July, Ravensbourne's own postproduction event The Assemble, at the base of the Greenwich Peninsula, opposite the O2. The same AI-driven pipelines and technologies that underpin my NAB demonstration will form the backbone of the day's programme, with our teaching team joined by an industry panel that includes AI and media lawyer Kelsey Farish, offering a frank and expert examination of where artificial intelligence is taking post production creatively, technically, and legally. 

As course leader Greg Loftin puts it: "The goal is to develop practitioners who are fluent in both the creative and technical dimensions of modern postproduction, ready to contribute from day one. Our graduates thrive." That means not just hard skills, but the soft skills that make a professional genuinely employable: adaptability, critical thinking, and creative confidence alongside technical fluency. Students on the programme engage daily with AI-assisted workflows across colour grading, audio finishing, and conform the same pipelines now embedded at leading post houses across the UK and beyond. 

Ravensbourne's presence at NAB this April is a clear signal that UK higher education is not watching the AI revolution from the sidelines. We are helping to shape it.