How much current news reporting is actually re-reporting from reports found on Google? How many embellishments, adaptations and mistakes are made in that process?
Could we eventually reach a point in which AI benefits certain types of news reporting by cross-referencing different sources and reconciling contradictions?
In that scenario, AI might even serve as a kitemark for trustworthiness. If so, this could free up newsrooms to redeploy resources toward more valuable, first-hand, human-centred reporting.
The IT or technology department is likely to be the second-largest cost base within a news organisation. The competition for engineering talent has driven up salaries and potentially created cultural tensions due to differing values and ways of working.
Digital transformation may have simply replaced the legacy costs of print distribution with those of digital infrastructure—but leading to a similar outcome: fewer resources being allocated to actual journalists and journalism.
The latest buzzword is ‘vibe coding’—the idea that technology will become accessible to everyone, eliminating the dominance of product directors, developers, and rigid roadmaps.
Does it sound fanciful to suggest we are all on the path to becoming programmers?
Consider how lean many of these multi-billion-pound AI companies already are and the mass layoffs of engineers at the major tech firms.
I take no pleasure in the prospect of anyone losing their job. However, AI does present a plausible future in which news organisations could rebalance their structures, focusing on excelling in journalism rather than engineering.
The news industry has a mixed track record when it comes to navigating previous waves of tech hype. Who remembers micropayments, blockchain, or the ‘internet of things’?
‘Big data’ once promised unique, succinct and actionable insights but often resulted in large analytical teams struggling to define the very questions they were meant to address.
A more productive approach may be to pose the counterfactual: “What are the risks or jeopardy of not adopting these new technologies?”
Sitting back and letting others take the lead is often a perfectly legitimate strategy.
Currently, the prevailing mood music suggests that most short-term benefits of AI will come from cost savings and targeted automation, rather than unlocking the elusive promise of new revenue streams and markets.
Ironically, as many have pointed out, the best use case for AI in a news organisation may be investigating AI itself. Power is increasingly concealed in darker, more sophisticated places, and we need the brightest and most sophisticated tools to bring it into the light and hold it accountable.
Again, some perspective is frankly required on the value and substance of many current roles.
Even at the most senior levels, leaders often spend a significant portion of their day on “high-level completion tasks” like generating reports, editing recommendations, and conducting reviews. These tasks provide a sense of predictability and tangible accomplishment but can trap leaders in a comfort zone, limiting time for strategic thinking and innovation.
Those organisations who use AI tools to help manage this tend to be most open to helping staff find better balance including four-day weeks.
In the immediate term, your job is more likely to be at risk from individuals who know how to use AI than from AI itself.
The effectiveness of AI tools depends on the quality of the questions (or prompts) you provide, as well as the level of engagement and follow-up. It requires practice; trust and confidence remain essential to any relationship—even one with a piece of code
From the board team downwards, we need to embrace curiosity and get our hands dirty playing with these applications.
We face some very challenging discussions—whether with boards and shareholders about future investments, colleagues and unions about the future of work, or governments and tech platforms about regulation.
We need to approach this with a practical and first hand understanding of what is at stake. But this also requires an objective assessment of our current position. Only then can we clearly define where we might want to go.
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