AI won't replace journalism; trust, accountability are key: Media leaders

India-AI Impact Summit 2026: Media leaders said while AI is changing newsrooms, human judgement and accountability remain essential, as AI should support journalists, not replace them

Media leaders at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 said while artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how content is produced and consumed, trust, human oversight and institutional accountability remain key to journalism’s future.

 

The industry leaders were part of a panel session titled ‘AI and Media: Opportunity, Responsibility, and the Road Ahead’, where they discussed how AI is affecting newsrooms, revenue models and public discourse.

 

Trust, editorial judgment remain foundational

 

Bennett Coleman Group Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director Mohit Jain said that despite AI’s rapid rise, journalism’s core strengths lie in editorial discretion and responsibility.

 

"India is a vibrant country and in such an environment, editorial discretion, verification and institutional memory is not optional. It is foundational and the press is not just something which produces information. It curates trust, it provides context and it accepts the moral and the legal responsibility for what it publishes," said Jain.

 

 

"And that layer of accountability is the differentiator. And when AI begins to commoditise information, trust will become scarce and that scarcity will create value," he added.

 

On AI’s impact on accountability, he said, "It depends on how we are anchoring the AI models in trust and responsibility. In the current environment, the human mode is not just a legacy advantage, it is a structure of necessity to sustain a public discourse."

 

Jain also highlighted the sensitivity of news as a sector. "In foreign direct investment, there is a cap on news because news carries influence. It has an ability to impact national security elections, social stability and market economics. That is the reason why journalism is called the fourth pillar of democracy," he said.   

 

Concerns over ‘AI slop’ and accountability gaps

 

India Today Group's Vice-Chairperson and Executive Editor-in-Chief Kalli Purie warned about the risks of AI-generated content. "Right now, AI is not creating accountable information. In fact, what you're creating is an AI slop which we have seen and that can create an illusion of trust."

 

She said that it is important to get a human imprint in AI.

 

AI seen as a tool, not a replacement

 

Amar Ujala Managing Director Tanmay Maheshwari said his organisation views AI primarily as an enabler. "For us, AI is just another technology," he said.

 

"The use of AI is to complement human work and how to go deeper into an article, how to enhance the content value. So we don't see AI as a replacement for anything," he added.

 

AI can drive engagement and revenue

 

The Hindu Chief Executive Officer LV Navaneeth said trust in media is built by institutions rather than technology. "When it comes to media, trust is not generated by technology. It's produced by institutions," he said.

 

Navaneeth there are multiple ways of using AI to increase revenue. "In terms of subscription revenues, we are able to AI to build propensity models to increase our retention," he said.

 

He also highlighted the need for media platforms to be responsible in taking accountability for incorrect content.   

 

Technology transforming consumption patterns

 

Dainik Bhaskar Deputy Managing Director Pawan Kumar pointed to earlier technological shifts that reshaped media consumption.

 

"We've seen two big technological changes. One is 'all you can eat data' packages. India saw this in 2015, when companies started charging anything between ₹200 and ₹300 a month to use as much internet as a user can," Kumar said, adding that it transformed consumption. 

 

"And now with the advent of AI, technology is empowering every single person with content, with free data and with information," he added.

 

Risks of misinformation at scale

 

Robert Whitehead of the International News Media Association warned about the speed and scale at which AI can spread misinformation. "Misinformation, disinformation accidentally trained in a model can spread around the world 3 million times before a reporter gets out of bed in the morning," he said.

 

"AI is already trained on all the biggest English language models, on incorrect information," he added.

 

Whitehead said if AI starts to blend, summarise and distribute journalism, then it is not just handling content, it is "participating in public discourse". "Anything that begins to participate in a democratic process, it deserves a different standard of care," he said.

 

According to him, a human mode is essential to "handle the governance part of AI". "The AI revolution is the mother of all revolutions. It will define the coexistence of man and machine. But what that relationship is going to look like, depends on our intelligence," Whitehead said.