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J·Index / Countries / Australia

AI in Australia's news media

28 verified, source-linked AI implementations across 15 news organizations, 2019–2026. Australia ranks 15th worldwide by documented cases.
East Asia and the Pacific2019–2026
Cases
28
Organizations
15
Active since
2019
Controversies
3
Compared with the global pattern, AI Ethics & Editorial Policy accounts for 11% of cases here against 4% worldwide.

What AI is used for — and how that differs

Australiaworldwide sharepp = percentage-point difference
Content Production & Automation5+4pp
Research & Investigation3+1pp
Audience Experience & Personalisation3+4pp
Editorial Workflow & Writing Assistance3-6pp
Talent Development & Upskilling3+4pp
AI Ethics & Editorial Policy3+7pp
Content Licensing & Partnerships2+2pp
Advertising & Ad Operations2+6pp
Multimedia & Visual Production1-0pp

How far adoption has gone

1 – Access3
2 – Adoption13
3 – Proficiency10
4 – Ways of Working2
5 – Reorganizing0

Who is adopting

Funding: Own budget (15), Public broadcaster / state media (8), Tech company (Google/GNI) (4), Tech company (other) (1)

Notable cases

2026ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Deal with Anthropic to bring Claude into news production, marking a shift from the public broadcaster's earlier caution on generative AI. Initial scope is narrow — chiefly converting radio programs into written articles — but the ABC has signalled willingness to expand to other tasks and will hire specialists to support AI adoption. Stated aim is to free journalists' time for core work such as investigations…

Content Production & Automation2 – Adoption
Anthropic ClaudeSource →

2026Nine Entertainment

Content licensing deal with Microsoft: Microsoft's AI chatbot Copilot will reference content from Nine's mastheads (The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review) in its search results, with Microsoft paying Nine for the journalism. Reported as a landmark agreement and one of the first major AI content-licensing deals struck by a large Australian publisher.

Content Licensing & Partnerships3 – Proficiency
Microsoft Copilot (licensed content in AI search results)Source →

2024ARN Media / CADA (Australian Radio Network)

AI-generated radio presenter 'Thy' — ElevenLabs voice clone of a consenting ARN employee (finance department) — hosted a four-hour weekday music programme on CADA Sydney for six months without disclosure to listeners;" exposed by a journalist in April 2025

Multimedia & Visual Production3 – Proficiency⚑ controversy
ElevenLabs (voice cloning)Source →

2026Nine Publishing

Board mandate requiring all Nine Publishing staff to adopt and use AI tools; managing director monitors staff AI usage; publishing division cited as underperforming in AI utilisation relative to rest of Nine group

AI Ethics & Editorial Policy2 – Adoption⚑ controversy
Not specified (various AI tools)Source →

2025News Corp Australia

AI text-to-speech 'Listen to this article' feature using voice models cloned from real News Corp journalists deployed across 15 mastheads including The Australian, Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and news.com.au; readers can adjust playback speed and skip by paragraph

Audience Experience & Personalisation3 – Proficiency
BeyondWords (text-to-speech platform with voice cloning)"; 15 journalist voice modelsSource →

2025SCA (Southern Cross Austereo)

'LiSTNR Precision Plus' real-time AI audience targeting and optimisation layer for digital audio advertising; planners can adjust target audiences mid-flight using first-party data instead of waiting for post-campaign analysis

Advertising & Ad Operations3 – Proficiency
First-party data AI targeting; real-time audience optimisation (proprietary LiSTNR PrecisiSource →

Elsewhere in East Asia and the Pacific

Cambodia 2China 75Hong Kong 6Indonesia 24Japan 24Malaysia 11Mongolia 2Myanmar 1New Zealand 25Philippines 16Singapore 8
Data from J·Index, the Journalism AI Index — every case verified against a published source. See the methodological note for how cases are collected and coded. Updated 2026-07-23.