Journalism is being rebuilt in real time,  and AI is the most powerful tool in the construction kit.

Newsrooms are using AI to analyze millions of documents overnight, uncover patterns human eyes would miss, and produce local election results in dozens of languages simultaneously. Small outlets are suddenly competing with legacy media. Investigative teams are cracking stories that would’ve taken years. This is the upside, and it’s already happening.

But every breakthrough brings new battles: Can we trust AI to get facts right? Will it replace the jobs of the next generation of journalists? Who owns the stories when AI helps report them? And as platforms use AI to summarize our work without sending readers our way, how do we survive?

This virtual panel discussion will bring together experts and journalists working with and reporting on AI for a candid conversation about the opportunities and risks of this revolution in the newsroom.

Additional Resources and Links

In a new episode of The Banking on AI Podcast, Canadian Journalism Foundation President and Executive Director Natalie Turvey sits down with host Grant McDonald to unpack how AI can support small, local newsrooms and investigative reporting and why media literacy is now an essential life skill.

Listen to the episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or watch it on the TD website.

AP Resources for the AI Newsroom

AP Verify, a verification dashboard for user-generated content

AP Intelligence, turning news into data

Talking About AI Newsroom Toolkit: guide is for journalists and media professionals who want to incorporate AI literacy into their reporting and other newsroom processes

AP’s chapter on how to cover AI, and link for a 30-day free trial of AP Stylebook: apstylebook.com/aitraining

Speakers 

Sonali Verma – International News Media Association

Sonali Verma leads International News Media Association (INMA) Newsroom Innovation Initiative, surfacing practical use cases of AI at news brands and sharing her expertise with the INMA community through conferences, newsletters, webinars and workshops. She is an executive media consultant who also works as an AI coach for five U.S. news publishers and runs AI training sessions for journalists in Europe.

Sonali worked at the Globe and Mail for 15 years, where she led a mind shift in getting journalists to understand how data and AI could make them more effective in attracting and retaining subscribers. She also collaborated with The Globe’s data science team to build Sophi.io, a machine-learning platform that is now used by media companies on five continents.

She was a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, focusing on the use of AI in journalism. She previously worked as a journalist at Reuters, CNBC and Bloomberg in Asia, North America and Europe.

Christine Boyd – AI Transformation Office, CBC

Christine Boyd is the AI Advisor for CBC/Radio-Canada’s Transformation Office, where she helps the national public broadcaster navigate the intersection of generative AI and media. Drawing on her extensive background as a journalist at the CBC, The Globe and Mail, and the Ottawa Citizen, Christine leads initiatives that empower staff to adapt to a shifting digital landscape.

Her work combines strategic governance with hands-on application. She leads the CBC’s AI literacy training for leadership, co-chairs the Generative AI Community of Practice, and helps drive generative AI pilots designed to support content intelligence, accessibility, and news gathering and production. Christine is dedicated to the responsible adoption of tools that enhance creativity and accessibility without replacing the journalist.

Nicholas Hune-Brown – Executive Editor, The Local

Nicholas Hune-Brown is a writer and the Executive Editor of The Local, an online non-profit publication that tells in-depth stories from corners of Toronto too often overlooked. In its first six years, The Local has been recognized as one of the country’s best new journalism outlets, earning some of the industry’s highest honours. As a magazine writer for publications like The Walrus, Toronto Life, and The Guardian, Nicholas has won a number of awards, including multiple National Magazine Awards, the Canadian Association of Journalists award, and the 2022 Hillman Prize.

Moderator

Nikita Roy – Founder, Newsroom Robots Lab

Nikita Roy is a data scientist, journalist, and Harvard-recognized AI futurist. She is the founder of Newsroom Robots Lab, an AI training and advisory firm for media organizations, currently incubating at Harvard Innovation Labs. She also hosts Newsroom Robots, a globally charting podcast on AI and the future of journalism. As a Knight Fellow at the International Center for Journalists, she led global efforts to accelerate AI adoption in journalism, including launching the AI Journalism Lab at the City University of New York, supported by Microsoft. Nikita also serves on the national board of the Canadian Association of Journalists and is co-chair of its 2026 national conference in Ottawa. She was named one of twelve pioneers and power players shaping the future of news in the 2025 Future Today Strategy Group Tech Trends Report