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Macmillan retires NOA, the AI assistant it threw a party for

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TL;DR

  • NOA, short for No Ordinary Assistant, launched to Macmillan's New York staff in January 2024 and was retired in October 2025.
  • The tool was built by German software firm Chaptr, which is backed by Macmillan's parent company Holtzbrinck.
  • After shelving NOA, Macmillan tried Google Gemini for business operations but kept it out of the book publishing process and review letters.

Macmillan rolled out NOA, short for "No Ordinary Assistant," to its New York staff in January 2024 with balloons, banners and doughnuts, then emailed employees in October 2025 that the chatbot would be retired. Several staff told Wired the tool was unhelpful and unreliable. "It was terrible, and no one used it," one said.

NOA was built by Chaptr, a German software company backed by Macmillan's parent, Holtzbrinck. An email to staff described it as "a safe environment where you can input proprietary information without the risk of sharing that data with any third party," pitched as a closed-loop enterprise tool. Training sessions warned the assistant could hallucinate, and employees say they were nevertheless encouraged to use it to generate performance review goals, write emails, do market research and brainstorm ideas. Several also found the name itself offensive.

After NOA was shelved, Macmillan tried to integrate Google Gemini into its processes, and employees say the results have not been satisfactory either. Kelly Collins, Macmillan's vice president of communications, said the company uses Gemini for business operations but that there has never been a directive from management to use it in the book publishing process or review letters, and that Macmillan takes a cautious approach to the technology.

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Originally reported by wired.com

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