10 conclusions from the experiences of about a thousand British journalists with artificial intelligence | information

62% of British journalists see artificial intelligence as a big or very big threat to journalism, while only 15% see it as a big or very big opportunity, according to a recent report published by the Reuters Institute of Journalism that highlights how journalists and newsrooms in Britain use artificial intelligence in their work tasks.

According to the report, which was published the day before yesterday and is based on a survey that included more than a thousand journalists and was conducted between August and November 2024, more than half of British journalists (56%) use artificial intelligence in their work at least once a week, but those who always use it professionally are younger and male journalists.

From its detailed report on the use of artificial intelligence by journalists and newsrooms in the United Kingdom, the institute concluded 10 key findings:

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1. How often is artificial intelligence used?

56% of UK journalists said they use AI professionally at least once a week, while only 16% said they never used it.

The use of artificial intelligence was more prevalent among younger and male journalists, as well as journalists with more managerial responsibilities.

2. How is artificial intelligence used?

The report showed that the most common weekly uses were language processing tasks as follows:

• Copying (49%).
• Text editing/grammar (30%).
• Translation (33%).

Creating the first draft of text articles (8%) and verifying the accuracy of information (8%) using artificial intelligence are less common uses, while only a limited minority use artificial intelligence to create audio files (4%) or video (2%).

However, the results show that UK journalists also use AI for core journalistic tasks, with 22% using it at least once a month to research news stories, 16% to generate ideas/brainstorming, and 16% to create pieces of text articles such as headlines.

3. Which journalists use artificial intelligence?

Among young and male journalists, artificial intelligence is used more by journalists with greater managerial responsibilities, and there are differences between fields, as 43% of economic journalists use artificial intelligence professionally at least once a week, compared to 21% of lifestyle journalists.

4. Has artificial intelligence improved journalists’ job satisfaction?

The report showed that journalists who use artificial intelligence frequently believe that they are working on low-level tasks, and that they are not satisfied with the amount of time they spend working on complex and creative tasks.

5. How do journalists view artificial intelligence?

Most UK journalists view AI as a major threat (62%), and only a small minority (15%) view it as a major opportunity. Overall, most journalists are pessimistic, but more experienced journalists, those with higher levels of knowledge of AI, and those who use it regularly were less pessimistic.

6. What do journalists fear about the rise of artificial intelligence?

The report concluded that more than half of UK journalists are “very concerned” about the potential negative impact of AI, and the most common concerns for British journalists include:

• Impact on public confidence in the press (60%).
• Impact on accuracy value (57%).
• Impact on the originality of journalistic content (54%).
• Unintentional disclosure of personal data (25%).

7. How is artificial intelligence used in newsrooms?

60% of UK journalists say there is some integration between AI and newsrooms, although many describe it as limited. However, most expect its use in the media they work for to increase in the future.

8. Does newsroom size matter?

Unlike larger organisations, journalists working in independent newsrooms revealed lower levels of AI integration, and greater reliance on third-party AI tools in their workplace.

9. What training do newsrooms provide?

60% of British journalists say that the major media outlets they work for have established protocols or guidelines around artificial intelligence.

The most common instructions were:

• Human supervision (44%).
• Data privacy and security (43%).
• Transparency (42%).

However, only 32% say the media they work for provides AI training.

10. Are newsrooms building their own AI tools?

Only 9% of journalists indicate that their organizations only use proprietary tools developed internally, while 57% say their newsroom only uses third-party AI tools.

34% say that the newspaper organizations they work for use a combination of the two, and according to the report, publicly owned media outlets and large companies are much less likely to use tools from third parties only.