Macmillan Publishers integrated access to Essence, an AI tool built by CHAPTR (Holtzbrinck's AI company), which summarizes manuscripts and extracts key information to help publishing teams evaluate submissions more efficiently.

Essence is described by CHAPTR as an AI-powered tool that creates summaries of manuscripts in different lengths and extracts key information, turning long texts into 'clear, comparable insights for day-to-day decision-making.' Publishers Weekly reported the tool is designed to 'help publishing teams understand and assess manuscripts more efficiently.' Macmillan's new CTO, appointed in March 2026, was previously co-CEO of CHAPTR and is expected to advance integration of tools like Essence into Macmillan's workflows. Whether Essence is currently actively deployed at Macmillan US specifically, as opposed to being available to Macmillan-affiliated publishers through CHAPTR, is not confirmed from primary sources.