Lessons learned from the JournalismAI Skills Lab pilot
The JournalismAI Skills Lab helped editorial and product leaders from newsrooms upskill in practically using AI technologies. They built tools or prototypes that helped them in their newsroom workflows and reporting.
Fabrizio Matarese / Better Images of AI / CC BY 4.0
The JournalismAI Skills Lab is a bridge programme designed to close the gap between editorial/product and technical departments in news organisations. The guiding question behind its creation was: how might we equip journalists and news product leaders with hands-on skills to participate in AI developments in the newsroom?
In 2025, over 12 weeks, 20 media practitioners from 16 countries underwent a learning journey that exposed them to practical knowledge of AI technologies during this pilot for the Skills Lab. The goal was to build proofs-of-concept, minimum viable products, or prototypes by the end of the programme. We achieved this through live, instructor-led lecture and practice sessions. The programme’s lead instructors were Jenny Romano and Pedro Henriques, co-founders of thenewsroom.ai.
A majority of the Skills Lab participants (65%) identified as being editorial staff or in leadership roles, while the remaining identified as contributing to the product or technical side of an organisation. During the programme, 55.6% used AI to improve their newsroom workflows, 38.9% used it for improving storytelling and 6% applied it to both areas.
“The JournalismAI Skills Lab taught me more than technical skills — they showed me new ways to tackle newsroom challenges with the help of technology. I’m not a coder, but I feel empowered and inspired to keep learning and building. Thank you for this incredible experience,.” said Robyn Wilkinson, AI Lead at Metroland in Canada.
Participants created several prototypes or working tools during the course of this programme. For example, Graciela Rock, editor of La Cadera de Eva, part of Mexican news outlet La Silla Rota built an internal tool that matches trending topics with audience metrics and the result of this arrives as an email recommendation for editors.
Another Skills Lab participant, Taiwan-based producer for CBC, Afore Hsieh, built an AI-powered news monitoring tool to help journalists stay ahead with trending topics in China.
Other projects varied in scope and topic, such as building a RAG -based tool that makes multi-source healthcare data accessible to journalists without specialised Python or R skills, and building an AI-powered metadata classification tool, to name a few.
At the end of the programme, we received feedback from 19 out of 20 participants about their experience with the Skills Lab and the outcomes. The primary goals of participants as they joined the programme were to learn about AI application and implementation, gain skills to contribute to newsroom AI projects, challenge themselves to obtain more skills at the intersection of AI and Journalism.
On completing the programme, a strong majority (94.5%) of participants agreed that the Skills Lab helped them take their ideas towards implementation. They (89%) agreed that the programme provided them with the confidence to contribute to interdisciplinary newsroom projects, and it helped them gain skills, expertise, or know-how in using AI for their respective projects.
“The intensive Python sessions were particularly transformative. Before the programme, I understood AI mostly in theory; now I can see how automation actually works behind the scenes.,” said RUYANGE Jean-Fraterne, Executive Director at Streaming Asylum in Uganda.
Building on the momentum from the inaugural cohort, we currently have applications open for two cohorts in 2026. Read all about the programme and how to apply here.