Gulf between AI journalism hype and concerns on the front lines revealed

There appears to be a gulf between the hype and promise of AI in the newsroom and the impact on journalists at the coalface.

[Ed. note: “coalface” is British English referring to active, front-line work, as opposed to the theoretical.]  

New research from the Reuters Institute finds that AI tools are widely adopted by UK journalists.

But whereas proponents of the technology have repeatedly promised that it will free journalists from mundane toil, enabling them to focus on higher-value newsgathering, this research suggests the opposite is the case.

The Reuters Institute surveyed 1,004 UK journalists between August and November 2024.

It found that 89% of journalists use some sort of AI tool at least once a month.

More than 60% use transcription tools, around half use it for translation and a third use grammar/copy-editing tools.

Around a quarter of respondents used AI for tasks like story research, summarising, ideas and headline writing.

Only 15% admitted to using AI to actually write the first draft of an article.

The section of the survey which dealt with job satisfaction and AI use suggested those using the technology the most enjoyed their jobs the least.

Far from freeing journalists up to do more satisfying work, it appears that many journalists who use AI are focused on repetitive and low-level tasks. Instead of freeing journalists from mundane ‘churnalism’ AI could be enabling it.

Report co-author Neil Thurman told Press Gazette: “Despite the hype, our findings show that AI hasn’t dramatically lightened journalists’ grunt work. In fact, those who use AI most seem to feel more bogged down by low-level tasks – from cleaning data to checking AI output – suggesting the technology may be adding chores, as well as removing them”.

Some 59% of journalists who use AI every day said they spent too much time working on low-level tasks compared with 37% who don’t use AI at all.

Journalists are far more likely to see AI as a threat to journalism rather than an opportunity.

Some 62% said they saw AI as a large or very large threat to journalism versus 15% who saw it as a large or very large opportunity.

Some 83% of respondents were strongly concerned use of AI in journalism would have a negative impact on public trust.

And 81% were strongly concerned about AI’s negative impact on journalistic accuracy.

Only 4% of respondents said AI had been fully or extensively integrated into their newsroom.

Some 44% of respondents said their publication had guidelines in place around human oversight of AI output. And 42% said their publication had rules around the labelling of AI content.

When it comes to AI training, 32% of respondents said this was offered by their employer.

Download the report: How Journalists Use AI, from the Reuters Insititute or the Study of Journalism.

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