First Impressions and Onboarding
Upon visiting The Economic Times website, I was greeted by a dense, information-heavy homepage typical of a financial news portal. The layout is cluttered with live market indices (Nifty, Sensex), featured mutual funds, stock quotes, and a relentless scroll of headlines covering politics, business, and AI. For a first-time user, the sheer volume can be overwhelming. However, the site does offer a clear navigation bar with sections like Markets, ETPrime, Masterclass, and IPO News. The "AI" tag under News suggests the publication covers artificial intelligence extensively, but the primary AI tool here is the "Generate AI Newsletter" feature—a small widget at the bottom of the page promising an auto-generated newsletter tailored to your interests. This is the core text AI offering: a learning platform that curates news using AI.
Onboarding is minimal. You simply click the "Generate AI Newsletter" link, and a pop-up asks you to select topics (e.g., Markets, Tech, AI). After choosing, the system delivers a personalized email newsletter. I tested this by selecting "AI" and "Markets." Within seconds, I received a sample in the browser—a clean, well-structured list of articles with summaries. The AI seemed to pull from recent stories like "India seeks fair access to Anthropic's Mythos" and "Lenders turn to AI for collections." It's a practical way to stay informed without manually scanning pages.
The AI Newsletter Tool: How It Actually Works
The AI newsletter generator is the standout feature. It uses natural language processing to filter, summarize, and prioritize news based on user preferences. The interface is straightforward: select up to five topics from a predefined list (AI, Economy, Tech, etc.), and the tool generates a newsletter instantly. I observed that the summaries were concise but accurate, retaining key facts like company names and percentage movements. The technology appears to be a custom recommendation engine trained on Economic Times' own corpus of articles. No API is publicly available, and the tool is currently free—no payment wall or login required during testing. This is a notable advantage over competitors like Google News or Bloomberg Terminal, which either lack personalization or come with high subscription costs.
However, the tool has limitations. It only works within the Economic Times ecosystem; you cannot add external RSS feeds. The newsletter format is static—no dynamic updates or interactive elements. Also, the topic selection is basic; there is no option to specify keywords or exclude certain sources. For deeper learning, the site offers ETPrime (premium articles) and Masterclass (video courses), but these are not AI-driven. The AI newsletter is best for a quick daily digest, not for deep research.
Learning Resources and Market Position
The Economic Times positions itself as a comprehensive business news and learning platform. Beyond the AI newsletter, users can access ETPrime for exclusive analysis and Masterclass for expert-led videos on investing, AI trends, and industry insights. These sections are more traditional learning tools—human-curated, not AI-powered. The site’s coverage of AI news is strong, with dedicated articles on Anthropic, OpenAI, and AI in banking. For someone wanting to learn about AI’s impact on finance, this is a valuable resource.
Compared to dedicated AI learning platforms like Coursera or DataCamp, The Economic Times lacks structured courses. It is better suited for passive reading and staying updated rather than active skill-building. Competitors like Yahoo Finance offer similar newsletters but without the AI personalization. The tool’s strength is its integration with a major Indian financial news source, giving it local relevance (e.g., SEBI, RBI news). The backing of Times Group adds credibility, though user base numbers are not disclosed. The main weakness is the lack of interactive AI features—no chatbots, no query-based search, just a one-way newsletter.
Pricing and Verdict
Pricing is not publicly listed on the website for the AI newsletter—it’s currently free. ETPrime articles are behind a paywall (subscription required), but the newsletter is open to all. This makes it accessible to a wide audience. However, the constant ads and pop-ups on the site can be distracting. The tool is best for Indian professionals, investors, or students wanting a daily, AI-curated dose of business news. It is not suitable for those seeking a deep learning platform or hands-on AI training. If you want to learn AI concepts, look elsewhere. But if you want to let AI do the filtering while you read, this is a decent, free option. Visit The Economic Times at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ to explore it yourself.
Comments