Weekly AI Use Climbs to 51% in Six Countries
A Reuters Institute report finds generative AI use for information and news is growing quickly, while public comfort with AI-made news remains limited.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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The Reuters Institute's 2026 report, based on a YouGov survey across nine countries, finds weekly use of standalone generative AI systems rose from 34% in 2025 to 51% in 2026 across six tracked countries. Daily use rose from 16% to 28% over the same period.
Why it matters
The figures suggest generative AI is moving from novelty to routine information source for a large share of the public. Comfort with AI-produced news, however, stays low, which bears on how news organizations and platforms deploy these tools.
The YouGov survey shows 12% of respondents across nine countries are comfortable with news produced entirely by AI, versus 19% when human oversight is involved. Growth figures cover six countries, while comfort figures span all nine surveyed countries.
The players
Reuters Institute
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford publishes annual research on news consumption and digital media trends.
YouGov
YouGov is an international market research and data analytics firm that conducted the survey underlying the report.
The details
The survey covered Argentina, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. ChatGPT weekly use rose from 22% to 34%, Google Gemini from 11% to 24%, Microsoft Copilot from 6% to 11%, and Anthropic's Claude from 1% to 7%. Respondents cited faster, easier answers (64%) and the interactive nature of conversational interfaces (56%) as reasons for use.
Timeline
2024: Baseline year for AI information-seeking and AI news-use comparisons
2025: Baseline year for weekly standalone generative AI use
2026: Reuters Institute report on generative AI published
Big Picture
The findings extend the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report, which has tracked how audiences access news since 2012, to AI tools that now answer questions directly. The growth from 11% to 38% in AI-based information-seeking marks a sharp shift in that longer trend.
People who use AI tools for quick answers may find the convenience appealing, but the survey shows many remain uneasy about news written entirely by machines. Checking how AI-generated answers are sourced can help readers judge reliability.
The takeaway
Readers relying on AI for information should verify important claims against original sources, since the survey finds public trust in AI-produced news is still limited. Attention to how answers are generated can help separate useful summaries from unreliable ones.
Further reading
For broader context on how these tools are changing information habits, explore Artificial Intelligence coverage on Wisevoter.
Source note: This article includes information reported by The Media Online.
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