In the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026, 10 percent of respondents said they use AI chatbots for news in a typical week, up from 7 percent a year earlier. Only 20 percent said they trust news from chatbots, compared with 37 percent who trust news in general, and a separate study of AI assistants found a significant problem in 45 percent of their news answers.
Key takeaways
- Weekly use of AI chatbots for news reached 10 percent in the 2026 survey, with 17 percent in the youngest age group and 5 percent in the oldest.
- Growth was uneven: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany showed no increase from the year before.
- The most common use is asking follow-up questions (42 percent), ahead of getting the latest news (35 percent).
- Across 27 markets, only 4 percent of all respondents said they often or always click through from a chatbot answer to the original source.
- A study led by the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC found at least one significant issue in 45 percent of AI assistant answers about news.
What the survey measured and what it left out
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford publishes the Digital News Report every June. The 2026 edition, released on June 16, 2026, draws on an online survey with a total sample of 97,520 people in 48 markets, roughly 2,000 respondents per market. The question about chatbots was asked in 45 of those markets.
Two limits matter when reading the numbers. First, the chatbot figures do not include Google AI Overviews or AI Mode, so a person who reads an AI summary above search results is not counted as a chatbot user. Second, the survey is conducted online, so, as the report's executive summary frames it, the findings describe online news users. The 10 percent figure therefore does not describe whole populations.
Who uses chatbots for news
Use is concentrated among younger people and among people who already follow the news closely. The report's chapter on chatbots puts weekly use at 17 percent in the youngest age group and 5 percent in the oldest, and the executive summary gives 16 percent for everyone under 35. People the report labels "news lovers" make up 38 percent of chatbot news users but 22 percent of all respondents.
The national picture differs. South Korea rose to 14 percent and Greece to 12 percent, and Spain roughly doubled. The United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany showed no increase, and the United Kingdom had the lowest share at 4 percent. Only 1 percent of respondents said a chatbot is their main source of news, so chatbots remain an add-on to other sources for nearly everyone.
What people ask chatbots to do with news
The 45-market question asked users how they use chatbots for news. The answers lean toward working with a story rather than replacing it.
| Use | Share of chatbot news users |
|---|---|
| Ask follow-up questions | 42 percent |
| Get the latest news | 35 percent |
| Summarize news | 34 percent |
| Assess whether a news source is reliable | 33 percent |
| Make news easier to understand | 30 percent |
Follow-up questions ranked first in 33 of the 45 markets. Asking a chatbot to judge a source's reliability is the use that deserves the most caution, because it hands a verification task to a tool whose own accuracy is in question, as the later sections show.
Trust and the click to the original
Across the general population, 20 percent said they trust news from AI chatbots, against 37 percent for news in general. Among chatbot users the figure is 44 percent, and among non-users 17 percent, so trust is highest where experience is greatest. Users and non-users are different kinds of people, so the gap does not show that use builds trust.
Click-through is the measure that matters for publishers. Among chatbot news users, 42 percent said they always or often click through to the original source, close to search users (44 percent) and above social media users (36 percent), although the report cautions that these come from different user bases. Counted across the full sample in 27 markets, the numbers are far smaller: 4 percent for chatbots, 19 percent for search, and 17 percent for social media. A reader who stays inside the chatbot sees only what the tool chose to say.
How accurate the answers are
In October 2025, the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC released a study in which public broadcasters in 18 countries, including Canada and the United States, assessed more than 3,000 answers to news questions from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity. Evaluators found at least one significant issue in 45 percent of answers, a sourcing problem in 31 percent, and a major accuracy problem, such as invented or outdated details, in 20 percent. The percentages describe that test, with its own questions and scoring rules, and not every possible query.
Checks before relying on a chatbot's news answer
- Is a named news organization cited, and does the link open a real article?
- Does the article say what the answer claims, including the date?
- Is the event recent enough that a tool with older training data could be wrong?
- Does a second outlet report the same facts independently?
- If the answer judges a source as reliable, what is the basis, and can it be checked elsewhere?
The Canadian picture in the same report
The report's Canada page gives no chatbot-use figure, so the share of Canadians who use chatbots for news cannot be stated from this source. It does report that trust in news overall is 37 percent, with its lowest score yet for both English-language and French-language audiences, and that CBC/Radio-Canada, The Globe and Mail, and La Presse updated their AI guidelines. It also cites a 2026 research report by Owen and Bridgman concluding that major AI systems make extensive use of Canadian journalism with little attribution or payment.
FAQ
How many people use AI chatbots for news?
The Digital News Report 2026 puts weekly use at 10 percent of online respondents across the surveyed markets, up from 7 percent in 2025. Rates vary widely by country and age.
Do AI chatbots give accurate news?
Not reliably. In the EBU and BBC study, 45 percent of answers had at least one significant issue, and 31 percent had a sourcing problem. Checking the cited article is the practical safeguard.
Do chatbot users read the original articles?
Some do. Among chatbot news users, 42 percent said they often or always click through, but across all respondents in 27 markets only 4 percent did.
Are Google AI Overviews counted as chatbot use?
No. The report excludes Google AI Overviews and AI Mode from its chatbot figures, so AI summaries in search results are outside these numbers.
Related reading
- The impact of AI on modern society
- AI and copyright in generated content
- Ethical dilemmas raised by AI
- What artificial intelligence is
More in AI Basics.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Digital News Report 2026, executive summary, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, June 16, 2026
- Emerging uses of AI chatbots for news and what it means for journalism, Digital News Report 2026, Reuters Institute, 2026
- Digital News Report 2026, Canada, Reuters Institute, 2026
- Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time, press release, VRT, October 22, 2025 (study by EBU and BBC)