This research maps the readiness level of AMSI-member media companies in adopting AI through the AI Readiness Index (AIRI) framework. The findings reveal that readiness levels vary significantly and correlate directly with company size. While large-scale media companies are relatively better prepared, small and medium media companies require more fundamental support, including AI literacy, training, governance, infrastructure, and technical assistance.

The findings of the AIRI survey, which involved 262 AMSI-member media companies, were enriched with FGDs and interviews. The objective is to provide context regarding the utilisation of AI by media companies and the challenges they face.

All media companies involved in this research benefit greatly from the presence of AI tools, especially Generative AI, which helps increase productivity and work quality.

However, they face serious challenges as more and more audiences use Generative AI platforms to find information.

The first challenge: audience visits to media websites continue to decline due to the widespread use of AI by audiences. When visits decline, revenue from programmatic advertising also drops, causing companies to experience further financial difficulties.

The second challenge is the scraping of media website content by AI platform crawlers without any financial compensation for the media that produce it.

This research yields two primary recommendations. First, internal strengthening of media companies includes the development of modules, training, mentoring, and software and hardware support. The topics are highly diverse, ranging from technical capacity in utilising Gen AI tools, ethics and risk mitigation, data management, and content protection from AI crawlers to business exploration and collaboration between media companies. This capacity building needs to be tailored to the specific conditions of each media company.

Second, the external recommendations focus on the relationship between media companies and AI platforms. This requires a collective negotiation strategy with AI platforms. In conducting these negotiations, the bargaining position of media companies will be much stronger if supported by a legal framework, specifically the revision of the Copyright Act, which is currently being discussed by the government and the House of Representatives. The current 2014 Copyright Law fails to recognise the economic value of journalism. As a result, global platforms, which include AI systems, social media, and search engines, that profit from journalistic content are not legally required to share earnings with news companies. 

The research report can be found here.