Generative AI and News Report 2026: From standalone tools to information infrastructure

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has published its Generative AI and News Report 2026, subtitled "From standalone tools to information infrastructure." It is based on a survey in nine countries: Argentina, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, Norway, the UK and the USA.

The survey asked how people use generative AI in their everyday lives, what impact they expect it to have on different sectors of society, and what they think about its use in news and journalism specifically. The report follows earlier editions published in 2024 and 2025, which drew on survey data from six of these countries (Fletcher and Nielsen 2024; Simon et al. 2025).

The one finding available from the text is about understanding of AI's limitations. Respondents in Denmark scored relatively well, at 71%. Respondents in France and Japan scored around 50%, which is close to what would be expected by chance. That puts Denmark among the better performers on this measure, while two other countries did little better than guessing.

The report is part of the Institute's AI and the Future of News project. It has seed funding from Reuters News and core funding from the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Further support comes from the National Center for AI in Society (CAISA) in Denmark, the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation in Finland, Fritt Ord in Norway and the University of Canberra in Australia.

Three of the nine countries surveyed are Nordic, and CAISA in Denmark is among the funders, so the report offers a comparative view of how Nordic audiences use and understand generative AI. The subtitle points to a shift from standalone tools toward AI as part of the wider information infrastructure, though the text available here does not detail the evidence behind that framing.