The applications, already at the moment, could be wide-ranging, as Colin Porlezza of theInstitute of Media and Journalism (IMeG) at USI: «Although for a long time it was conceived almost exclusively in relation to the automatic production of texts, its applications range from the identification of trends to the search and verification of sources, from the transcription of interviews to assistance in writing, up to the automatic generation of texts and the analysis of consumer data». In even more practical terms, according to Paride Pelli, editor-in-chief of the Corriere del Ticino, «it can speed up the search for sources, help with drafting presentations as well as analyzing large amounts of data».
According to Roberto Porta, director of the Ticino Journalists' Association and a journalist for RSI, it could theoretically "replace human beings and with them various professional categories, including, unfortunately, our own." He is, however, convinced that journalists still have "several cards to play: creativity, on-site presence (think of producing reports that tell us about the many realities of our societies). And then there's the central aspect of controlling and verifying news, where a human presence is indispensable in a world already inundated with fake news of all kinds," as well as in interview transcripts.
Beyond the cantonal borders, "our primary goal is to provide editorial staff with useful tools to automate repetitive tasks and improve our audience's reading experience. Throughout this process, transparency, oversight, and compliance with journalistic standards remain our top priorities," explains the Tamedia Group's communications office.
Marcello Foa emphasizes that this historical period is already characterized by "a partially reworked copy-and-paste" that responds to the needs, particularly of online portals, of being the first to publish news, often picked up by agencies, to generate traffic. "If journalism is like that, we could be replaced. But I hope that our best colleagues can find support to improve the quality of their work."
Rapidly finding sources currently appears to be the main advantage and use of AI in journalism: however, it can harbor various pitfalls that could jeopardize the neutrality of information, as the former president of RAI put it, "to ideologically and politically biased responses, without the certainty that they were developed to provide a fair and balanced view." Pelli also emphasizes how "AI feeds on information, which is why it's very difficult for it to churn out a scoop, that is, to anticipate a news story, and in journalism, this is a significant limitation."
As in other sectors, therefore, artificial intelligence is capable of automating certain functions, such as transcribing interviews, freeing up time for tasks that can truly add value, such as "searching for news, contacts, studying dossiers, carefully writing an article, investigations" according to Porta, "the creative, investigative, and analytical part" according to Pelli, and in general for those activities, such as investigations and in-depth analyses, where a human presence cannot and should not be ignored.
The secret, according to our interlocutors, seems to lie in intelligent and ethical use, using technology to enhance human beings rather than replace them. Certainly, at a time when many media outlets must contain costs, automatically generated articles could allow editorial continuity without the physical presence of journalists, allowing each individual to produce a large number of pieces per day, something otherwise impossible. "But readers, after a while, notice," says Foa, citing the example of TV Blog, an Italian website created entirely with AI, which doesn't seem to convince the public. The issue of ethics comes into play here. While there are currently no codified, legally binding guidelines, Porlezza believes that "editorial staffs are required to ensure transparency, clearly explaining publicly which AI tools are being used, for what purposes, and with what limitations." At the Swiss level, Roberto Porta adds, the ATG refers to the proposals of the Swiss Press Council, which in its guidelines, for example, states that "content created with the help of an AI program must be marked as such," with "the greatest possible transparency."
In the CdT group, "while we trust our journalists implicitly, we intend to implement guidelines that can more clearly and precisely regulate the use of AI in our work, also because AI itself will be increasingly present in the future and we will need the tools to manage it optimally," Pelli emphasizes. Pelli, who manages a network that integrates different types of media, from print newspapers to online portals, notes that "the use and effectiveness of artificial intelligence varies depending on the type of journalism and the media. For example, in news journalism, it can help generate rapid, acceptable-quality content, but it may lack depth and human analysis. For investigations, however, its use makes much less sense, because investigative work requires relationships, insights, and investigations that only humans can perform."
While the potential appears vast, the application currently doesn't appear to be widespread. According to Foa, it's being used in Ticino by a few individual journalists, not at the editorial level. Tamedia, on the other hand, currently "uses AI in a targeted manner to support our journalists in their daily work—for example, with the Ask the Archive tool, which allows for AI-powered searches of all articles published digitally by Tamedia and, through a chat function, allows for direct interaction with the content. Our readers can also benefit from an improved user experience, for example, thanks to the AI-powered automatic reading function or the use of chatbots," while maintaining the belief that "transparency, oversight, and compliance with journalistic standards remain our top priorities."
An internal survey by the group reveals that "almost no journalist fears losing their job due to technology. Our goal, in fact, is not to reduce staff, but to invest and further develop our products through artificial intelligence." Conversely, the use of AI in journalism can impact reader trust, which is certainly not at an all-time high, as revealed in a study conducted by Fog in 2024 and cited by Porlezza. "Research shows that the use of artificial intelligence in journalism has ambivalent effects: on the one hand, it can increase operational efficiency; on the other, it raises critical questions about the impact technology can have on the quality of information and the perceived authority of a profession already under strong economic and symbolic pressure." For Porta, the potentially negative effects are indirect and linked to those brought on by social media: their use, "even for trivial matters," takes away time "that could be used to follow the news, read a newspaper, listen to the radio, watch the news, or connect to an online news site. The technological revolution we are experiencing is damaging our sector, in this way too."
As always, training remains central. ATG members raise the topic at both formal and informal meetings, and updates are currently being offered at journalism courses in Italian-speaking Switzerland, aimed not only at professionals in training. Marcello Foa emphasizes the importance of journalists graduating from school being better trained, including on a technical level, even though he sees an underlying problem: "The schools themselves are in crisis, because the profession is in crisis, increasingly less attractive." But he concludes with a sign of hope: "The real difference in our work is made by the emotional and personal side, everything that is interpretative, intuitive, not rational technicality but the magical and unexplored connection between heart and brain," which AI cannot reproduce.
In short, if journalism in general does not appear to be in good health, artificial intelligence is currently seen as a complement, with certain potential but not yet fully implemented, which will not be able to solve the crisis but does not appear destined to definitively defeat the profession either.
