# Macmillan Staff Say the Publisher Threw a Party for a Workplace AI Assistant That Was Later Killed

> **Publication**: aitalky (Independent AI Journalism)
> **Canonical Citation URL**: https://aitalky.vercel.app/news/macmillan-staff-say-the-publisher-threw-a-party-for-a-workplace-ai-assistant-that
> **Original Source**: [Wired AI](https://www.wired.com/story/macmillan-staff-say-the-publisher-threw-a-party-for-a-workplace-ai-assistant-that-was-later-killed/)
> **Author**: Adam Morgan (undefined)
> **Published Date**: Wednesday, October 28, 2026
> **Category**: CULTURE
> **Tags**: AI, Wired AI, culture

## Executive Summary
Workers tell WIRED that NOA—or "No Ordinary Assistant"—was unhelpful. Bestselling authors also say AI is ruining their relationships with Big Five publishers



## Full Coverage
NOA was an acronym for No Ordinary Assistant, which many of Macmillan's human assistants found "offensive," multiple employees tell WIRED. In an email to staff, NOA was introduced as an AI chatbot developed by the German software company Chaptr, which is "backed" by Holtzbrinck, Macmillan's parent company

The email also assured employees NOA was "a safe environment where you can input proprietary information without the risk of sharing that data with any third party." Ostensibly, this means NOA was a closed-loop enterprise tool that did not retain or share data for model training

Macmillan staffers say they were warned during training sessions that NOA could hallucinate and would always need to be fact-checked by humans. Still, employees say, they were encouraged to use NOA for composing emails, drafting copy, doing marketing research, and generating ideas. Multiple staffers say they were told to "only" paste a "percentage" of authors' manuscripts into NOA. Employees could also adjust NOA's speaking tone, with options including "lighthearted," "spartan," pessimistic," "sarcastic," and "regretful."

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