The 2026 edition of the JournalismAI Festival, a global forum which brings together journalists, newsroom leaders, media executives, technology professionals, and journalism innovators from around the world to examine the practical implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for journalism and the future of news, will take place in London, in the United Kingdom, on November 17 and 18.
Organised by JournalismAI, a global initiative that empowers news organisations to use AI responsibly, the annual festival will combine in-person activities in London with a free online programme, offering participants opportunities to explore how AI is changing newsroom operations, journalism practices, audience needs, investigative reporting, and the relationship between publishers and technology companies.
Described by JournalismAI as a leading gathering for journalists, newsroom leaders, and technologists seeking to move beyond theoretical discussions about AI and examine what the technology means for publishers and journalists in practice, the Festival will feature a combination of keynote sessions, fireside conversations, panel discussions, interactive workshops, lightning talks, networking sessions, roundtables, and presentations.
JournalismAI explained that the programme is designed to encourage meaningful conversations while providing practical learning opportunities for participants.
Among the sessions for the Festival is a fireside discussion titled “Beyond ‘update me’: What AI chatbots reveal about the future of audience needs,” which will feature media Dmitry Shishkin, an independent media strategist and adviser, as well as Ezra Eeman, Strategy and Innovation Director at NPO, the Dutch Public Broadcaster.
The discussion will examine how AI assistants are changing the relationship between audiences and news by providing explanations, synthesis, and advice in addition to conventional news updates, while also considering what the development means for audience needs and the future relationship between journalism and AI-powered systems.
Another workshop, “How to build AI agent workflows for investigations,” will examine the use of AI agents and sub-agents in investigative journalism. Led by Rune Ytreberg, Data Editor at iTromsø, and Lars Giske, Head of AI and Editorial Tools at Polaris, the session will demonstrate how journalists can design agentic workflows, assign specialised roles to AI systems, incorporate verification checkpoints, and create audit trails connecting outputs to their sources.
The programme will also address the increasingly important question of how news organisations should value their intellectual property when negotiating with AI companies.
A roundtable titled “Should publishers value IP more significantly when making deals with AI companies?” will be led by Monica Attard, Professor of Journalism Practice at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, with Caspar Llewellyn Smith, Chief AI Officer at The Guardian newspaper in London. The discussion will examine the growing number of licensing arrangements between publishers and AI companies and questions around the value of news archives and content used as training data.
The Festival will also explore the application of AI in election broadcasting through a presentation on “Inside Korea’s first AI-powered election broadcast: Lessons from SBS.”
Hyejin Jung, Senior Manager and Legal Affairs Team Lead at SBS, and Julie Yoonnyung Lee, Senior Journalist at the BBC, are expected to discuss the development and implementation of the AI-powered election broadcast, including challenges encountered under live conditions and lessons that could be applied by other newsrooms.
With elections increasingly becoming an arena for the use of generative AI, synthetic media, and automated content production, the session is expected to provide practical insights for news organisations seeking to experiment with AI while maintaining editorial standards and public trust.
The Festival will also devote attention to the organisational and human challenges associated with introducing AI into newsrooms.
A workshop titled “The people problem: AI adoption in newsrooms”, led by Markus Ikehata, Head of Visuals at Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), will focus on skills gaps, resistance to organisational change, and uncertainty over appropriate AI use cases.
According to the organisers, participants will be encouraged to develop practical plans for incorporating AI into their own teams, drawing on experiences from the transformation of visual, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), data journalism, and development functions at NZZ.
Another workshop, “Prompting like a film director,” led by Daniela Späth, DW Lab Lead at Deutsche Welle, will explore the production of vertical video using generative AI. It will draw on DW’s experiment in producing visual content for a podcast without conventional footage and introduce participants to techniques for scripting, developing shot lists, and creating storyboards with generative AI tools.
The Festival will provide a free online option for participants unable to attend in person. Online participants will have access to selected sessions on both days, including interactive sessions, panels, and lightning talks. However, registration in advance is required for online participation.
Participants attending physically in London will have access to the full Festival experience, including in-person sessions, workshops, and networking opportunities.
The organisers said in-person attendance will be subject to an application process because of limited venue capacity. A fee of £50 for both days or £25 for a single day will apply to approved in-person participants, although fee waivers will be available for those unable to afford the cost.
The Festival is expected to attract participants from different parts of the global journalism community. The 2026 Festival follows the sixth edition, which was held on November 11 and 12, 2025, and brought together journalism and technology professionals for discussions and case studies on the intersection of journalism and AI.
JournalismAI is emphasizing diversity and inclusion in the Festival programming, with a stated commitment to increasing representation of women, LGBTQ+ people, people of colour, professionals from the Global South, and other underrepresented communities in journalism and AI.
