[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee] Newsletter platform Beehiiv has released a feature that automates newsletter publishing work using AI chatbots such as Claude and ChatGPT.

Business Insider reported on Monday that the feature can handle tasks such as adding image captions, tagging posts and modifying newsletter templates using text prompts only, and is limited to paying subscribers.

The tool is built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Beehiiv has previously offered a feature that links readership and performance data with AI tools such as Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity for use in daily reports and analysis. This time it has expanded the scope of automation to actual publishing and editing tasks.

Beehiiv Chief Executive Tyler Denk (타일러 덴크) suggested it could also have creators build new templates matching a brand style based on their top-performing posts, compile an annual survey to gauge reader demand, and write search engine optimization titles and descriptions for podcasts.

Competitors are moving in a similar direction. Substack said last month it is testing a feature that connects to its chatbot. This is interpreted as a move to compete through products and user experience rather than push back against the trend of more users adopting large language models (LLMs).

Moves to integrate AI into work are also spreading in the field. Jan Jurkiewicz (얀 유리카스), who runs the electric vehicle newsletter EV Wire, said he has secured about 14,000 subscribers and is using Claude — trained to match his writing style — for research, drafting and structuring articles. He said the approach doubled a small team's publishing output within days.

Not all creators want to hand over planning itself to AI. Brandon Smitheryk (브랜던 스미스릭), an analyst at the content strategy newsletter Content Two Commas, said he drafts directly in Notion and uses Beehiiv's MCP tool to generate reports on who is reading and what content performs well. He also said that while he has AI grade each article, he does not want to leave all writing work to Claude, adding that differentiation lies in the ability to generate new ideas.

The feature is drawing attention for suggesting the axis of competition among newsletter platforms is changing rather than simply adding another support tool. Until now, platforms such as Substack and Ghost have competed to secure creators by emphasizing features such as social feeds, video and podcasts. Beehiiv, which is moving to get ahead in user acquisition, appears to be seeking to cut repetitive tasks beyond writing first.

As a result, the next phase of competition among newsletter platforms is increasingly likely to focus not on whether they have AI functions, but on which tasks they automate and which parts they leave as creators' own domain. A key point to watch is whether they can raise productivity while maintaining distinctive content that paying subscribers will open their wallets for.