Seventeen experts forecast how AI will transform newsrooms worldwide.
In the Balkans, the risks and consequences may arrive sooner, and hit harder.
Author: NarativAi
In the Western Balkans, journalism rarely has the luxury of long planning. Newsrooms work with small teams, limited budgets, and constant political and economic pressure. Editors and journalists handle breaking news, social media demands, and audience trust, often all at once. Into this reality, artificial intelligence has quietly entered daily newsroom life.
For some journalists in the region, AI already helps with simple tasks: transcribing interviews, translating content, summarising documents, or speeding up basic editing. These uses save time, and time is the one resource Balkan newsrooms never have enough of. But speed also brings new risks. When everything moves faster, mistakes spread faster too.
According to a new global forecast by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, AI will soon influence far more than routine tasks. Experts warn that in 2026, AI systems will play a growing role in deciding what news people see, how it is ranked, and how it reaches audiences. In other words, editorial choices will increasingly be shaped outside the newsroom.
This is not a small concern for Balkan media. Many outlets already depend heavily on platforms for visibility and revenue. If AI-driven systems reward speed, emotion, and engagement over context and accuracy, local journalism risks being pushed further to the margins. Several experts in the Reuters Institute analysis point out that this shift could weaken public-interest reporting, especially in smaller and politically sensitive markets.
The analysis also highlights a deeper problem: most newsrooms are adopting AI tools without clear rules. Few have internal guidelines, transparency policies, or clear lines of responsibility. In fragile media environments, this lack of structure makes it harder to explain decisions to audiences, and easier to lose trust.
At the same time, the experts are clear on one thing: refusing to engage with AI is not a solution. Newsrooms that ignore these tools risk falling behind in efficiency, audience reach, and sustainability. The real challenge is learning how to use AI without letting it take control of editorial values.
For Balkan journalism, this means asking difficult but necessary questions now. What tasks can be automated without harming quality? How do newsrooms stay transparent about AI use? And how can small media protect editorial independence when technology is built far outside their context?
The Reuters Institute forecasts do not offer quick fixes. But they do offer a warning , and an opportunity, for newsrooms that still want to shape their own future.
Read the full analysis here:
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/how-will-ai-reshape-news-2026-forecasts-17-experts-around-world
(This text was written and reviewed by the editor with support from artificial intelligence tools for language editing and stylistic refinement. More on how NarativAi uses AI — Link)