Barcelona Developers Conference (@devbcn.bsky.social)

Gabriele Brambilla - Enhancing User Engagement Through Personalized Recommendation at Dow Jones Speaker Gabriele Brambilla Abstract Dow Jones has developed a content recommendation system leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand the subtle connections between the vast array of articles it publishes (e.g. from the Wall Street Journal) and the diverse interests of its user base. This presentation will delve into the specific NLP methodologies employed to achieve this nuanced understanding. We will explore the models used to extract semantic meaning from textual content, enabling the system to go beyond simple keyword matching and identify conceptually related articles. Furthermore, the presentation will address a common challenge in recommendation systems: the tendency towards homogeneity and a lack of novel suggestions. We will detail our approach to mitigate this issue by strategically combining data-driven techniques with informed editorial oversight. This balanced strategy ensures that while user preferences are accurately reflected, it also introduces users to a broader spectrum of relevant and potentially surprising content, fostering discovery and exploration. Finally, we will provide a comprehensive overview of the lean and efficient data pipeline we have built to support these advanced recommendation techniques. This will include a discussion of the various data sources that are collected, processed, and integrated into the system. The presentation will conclude with evidence of the system's effectiveness, demonstrating the significant positive impact on user engagement metrics resulting from this enhanced semantic understanding and more diverse recommendation strategy. Attendees will gain valuable insights into building and deploying an efficient NLP-driven content recommendation system successfully balancing tradeoffs to improve user experience and drive engagement. https://www.devbcn.com https://youtu.be/LOzNT91RD34