Tamedia staff protest job cuts in Switzerland
Keystone / Michael Schmid
No major Swiss media company wants to do without artificial intelligence (AI). But none of them can exactly define how much time or money the technology is saving.
Media organisations are increasingly using AI to transcribe interviews, create summaries and suggest headlines. According to Nadia Kohler, head of the data and AI unit at the Tamedia media group, AI is primarily a tool.
The goal is not to let AI generate journalistic texts without oversight. Whenever AI is used in writing, the content must be checked, contextualised and, if necessary, modified by humans.
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Other major media groups, including NZZ, Ringier, CH Media and Swiss public broadcaster SBC, take a similar approach. They want AI to assist journalists while humans retain control over important content. Barnaby Skinner, deputy editor-in-chief of NZZ, says the newspaper will never allow an editorial to be written entirely by AI.
Public attitudes toward AI-generated journalism are cautious. A 2024 survey by the University of Zurich’s Research Centre for the Public Sphere and Society found that 83% of respondents would read articles written by journalists without AI assistance.
That figure drops to 54% for articles created with AI support, while only 24% would read a text written entirely by AI. Nine out of ten respondents want AI-generated content to be clearly labelled.
The scepticism does not appear to stem from quality concerns. In an experiment conducted by the University of Zurich, participants did not rate AI-generated texts as worse than human-written ones when they did not know the author.
When they later learned that AI had written the texts, they were even more inclined to continue reading them. However, that did not make them want to consume more AI-generated news in the future.
The Swiss Press Council recommends that newsrooms clearly disclose where and how they use AI tools. In practice, however, such disclosures remain rare, even though audiences say they want them.
Most media organisations do not indicate whether a human reviewed and approved content, regardless of how much AI was involved in its creation.
Has AI already replaced workers in Swiss journalism? According to CH Media, the answer is yes, at least in copy editing. Editor-in-chief Patrik Müller says the company’s copy editing department has been reduced because AI can now correct texts effectively.
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Recent layoffs at Tamedia and SBC, Swissinfo’s parent company, were also accompanied by statements that AI would play a larger role in newsroom operations going forward. At SBC, AI is viewed as a potential cost-saving measure during financially challenging times.
Thierry Zweifel, who heads SBC‘s data and AI business division, says it is not AI that is driving the savings effort. Rather, the need for savings is forcing the organisation to consider tools that can help achieve them. He acknowledges that AI can contribute to cost reductions and that, in some cases, this can also lead to job cuts.
AI cost savings unknown
All Swiss media companies expect AI to improve efficiency. Yet none can currently quantify how much time or money it saves. Patrick Rademacher, who is responsible for strategy at Ringier, says no comprehensive figures exist yet, although the company is trying to understand whether each AI application actually delivers efficiency gains.
A study from Denmark suggests that the benefits may be more modest than many hope. Researchers surveyed 25,000 workers, including journalists, and found that those using AI chatbots saved an average of only about 3% of their working time. As a result, Swiss media companies are investing in a technology whose benefits they still cannot accurately measure, while much of the public remains skeptical about its growing role in journalism.
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Translated from German, sub-edited by Matthew Allen/ac
