Publishers are moving past the question of whether to use artificial intelligence and into the harder issue of what it is actually worth. A new WAN-IFRA report, drawing on a global survey of 125 publishing executives in 40 countries, suggests that roughly four in five describe their organisations' AI use as either emerging or advanced. Yet the same survey shows a striking gap between enthusiasm and proof: 78% say they struggle to measure value, while only 10% say AI has helped generate revenue.

That tension runs through the report's wider analysis of how news organisations are deploying the technology. Ezra Eeman examines where publishers are already seeing productivity gains, but also why benefits are often diffuse, difficult to isolate and vulnerable to being lost in broader changes to traffic and audience behaviour. The report also points to uncertainty over search referrals and licensing, both of which could shape how much commercial return publishers ultimately capture from AI.

The cases collected in the report show a sector experimenting with very different uses. Nikkei is using AI-assisted drafts to widen its corporate coverage, while POLITICO is helping subscribers search specialist reporting. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and The Hindu are using propensity models to steer readers towards more relevant journeys, Ippen is examining how distribution works inside AI conversations and The Mail is testing how visible its journalism is in AI-generated answers.

The report comes as the industry is under pressure to move from isolated pilots to more organised adoption. Katya Gorchinskaya, through Jindex.ai, draws on a database of more than 3,150 publicly disclosed AI use cases to show where adoption is concentrated and how much deeper organisational change still remains. Her work reflects a broader shift visible across publishing: the technology is spreading quickly, but governance, training, editorial standards and measurement are becoming just as important as the tools themselves.

Other research points in the same direction. A separate 2026 survey of the North American book industry by the Book Industry Study Group and BookNet Canada found that 63% of organisations were using AI, up from 48% in 2025, but also that publishers and book businesses were moving towards more structured use with policies, controlled workflows and training. At the same time, concerns about copyright, accuracy and trust have remained prominent, underscoring the same problem now confronting news publishers: adoption may be easy to demonstrate, but value, accountability and audience impact are much harder to pin down.

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Source: Noah Wire Services