Moving from experiments to agentic workflows that journalists come up with is a tale of people, shared vision, and scale, said Marcus Ekdahl, editor-in-chief at Bonnier News’ Helsingborgs Dagbladin Sweden. 

“This is not primarily a tech presentation. It’s about journalism, leadership, and organisation, and how we try to move fast without giving up our editorial responsibility,”  Ekdahl told master class attendees.

The news brand has three staff at the forefront of their editorial AI work who train colleagues and develop tools. Still, AI is part of every employee’s goals.

Ekdahl said the line between the machine and the human is clear: AI tools find information, but the journalist makes sense of it: “Journalism begins and ends with people. AI changes what is possible in between.”

The team has used AI to do work that would not have been possible otherwise. For example, they have turned long political speeches and debates into searchable source material, making it possible to examine what politicians actually say. 

The purpose: “To extend the newsroom’s ability to investigate, explain, and serve our readers … . The technology increased our capacity, but the journalists created the meaning, tested the evidence, and took responsibility for publication.”

Ekdahl showed attendees some of their agentic workflows, built by one of their journalists.

“Ideas that previously entered a long development queue can now become working prototypes in hours or days. A journalist can describe a well-defined problem, build an initial solution, test it with colleagues, and improve it immediately. That democratises development,” he pointed out.

But as more people build, the organisation realised it needed clearer ways to review security architecture, maintenance, and data handling. At Bonnier, a shared central structure approves tools and provides a secure environment, access controls, and professional review, as well as spreading best practices across the organisation.

Ekdahl cited four conditions for creating success:

• Strong local solutions, built by those close to real newsroom problems.

• Publishers who use the tools and understand their limits.

• Protected time for specialist practitioners.

• Central structures that make sharing safe and efficient.

Ekdahl also highlighted a gap many news brands need to address: “A great deal of attention has gone into developing tools for reporters or editors. That is reasonable, and in many newsrooms, they are now the people furthest ahead. But this creates a risk. The people expected to lead the transformation may be the ones who understand the tools least. Publishers and newsroom leaders need hands-on experience.”

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Banner photo: Adobe stock image by InfiniteFlow.

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