Thomson Reuters is remodeling its news structure with AI integration in its already credible news distribution system; the company has published its AI principles to ensure users trust in its deployment of technology. Back in March, Steve Hasker, chief executive of Reuters, said that the company would invest $8 billion in artificial intelligence investments and acquisitions.
Thomson Reuters thinks AI is a transformative force
The Canada-based media group also runs a corporate venture capital unit called Thomas Reuters Ventures. This group invests in different series-A enterprises and seeds that work in risk, insurance, tax, legal, fraud, finance, and compliance technologies. The company is looking to integrate AI tools into its services and also train its 26,000 employees to use AI effectively. Like its research tool, which will be based on Westlaw Precision AI technology to improve the search process.
Reuters thinks that AI will transform its business rather than undermine it. The group plans to sell its holdings in the London Stock Exchange Group, and it has the financial resources to broaden its business across professional services fueled by AI and information, as its business generates good amounts of cash and the company does not rely heavily on debts.
The company is planning to spend around $100 million every year on developing its own AI technology for legal, accounting, and tax purposes to serve its customers. The company has also transformed from being a content provider to a technology company that is driven by content after it completed a two-year program designed specifically for this purpose.
According to the Reuters CEO, customer spending patterns were very unclear over the last year, and the impact of AI on these is still unknown, but the company accepts that AI helped it secure business.
Reuters is acquiring AI firms
Over the past year and a half the company has spent $2 billion on acquisitions by buying companies such as Pagero, which is an e-invoicing and tax solution provider on a global level, Sureprep, and Casetext, and it will be focusing on companies that are mainly with AI capacities.
Reuters business structure is such that it generates 80% of its revenue from the US market only, but the company is looking to change that in the next five years and is focusing on acquiring business in Asian regions of Japan and Southeast Asia, and in America in Brazil and Mexico.
According to the Financial Times, the commercial terms are not known, but the company has also made some deals with AI firms that want to use their news to train their models. The companies turn to Reuters for the high-quality content they have, which is essential for training a good AI model. Reuters also launched new AI services last year, which provide the facility to ask complex questions and get AI-assisted answers from credible legal resources. The group is also planning more than a half dozen new AI products to launch in the coming months.
Thomson Reuters AI principles can be seen here, and its CEO’s talk can be seen here.
