Overview and analysis of the AI Launchpad Programme 2025

FT Strategies, supported by the Google News Initiative, is pleased to share learnings from the third AI Launchpad programme, our largest undertaking to date to support publishers in their AI transformations. The 2025 report highlights how publishers are moving beyond experimentation with isolated tools to embedding AI within their editorial workflows, commercial strategies, and long-term organisational planning.

The programme ran from January to June 2025 and supported 24 publishers from across the EMEA region. This year’s participants explored how AI can drive efficiency, support stronger governance, and unlock new audience-facing opportunities, from real-time news visualisation and automated tagging to personalised formats and audio experiences.

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In this report, you will find:

  • Key insights into how publishers are measuring the value of AI, balancing efficiency gains with audience and revenue impact
  • Common success factors for embedding AI into editorial, product, and commercial teams
  • Practical lessons on governance, staff training and cross-functional collaboration to sustain responsible AI adoption
  • Case studies from across the cohort, ranging from foundational metadata projects to frontier experiments in video, data visualisation and conversational tools

We are grateful to the 24 publishers who took part courtesy of our partnership with the Google News Initiative:

  • 20 Minuten (Switzerland)
  • Aktuality, Ringier (Slovakia)
  • Al Jazeera (Qatar)
  • Aller Media Nordic (Nordics)
  • Arena Holdings (South Africa)
  • Bauer Media Group (UK/Germany)
  • Economia.cz (Czechia)
  • Fanatik.ro (Romania)
  • Haaretz (Israel)
  • Henneo (Spain)
  • Heute.at (Austria)
  • Il Messaggero, Caltagirone Editori (Italy)
  • iTromsø (Norway)
  • Megaphone.news (Lebanon)
  • Milano Finanza, Class Editori (Italy)
  • NetInfo.bg (Bulgaria)
  • Pulse, Ringier (Nigeria/Ghana)
  • Enikos, Real News (Greece)
  • RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, Madsack (Germany)
  • Nation Media Group (Kenya)
  • The Irish Times (Ireland)
  • The National (UAE)
  • The Sun (UK)
  • Abidjan.net, Weblogy (Côte d’Ivoire)

We look forward to sharing and discussing the findings of this year’s report with the wider industry. You can learn more about the programmes that we run in partnership with the Google News Initiative here.