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Artificial intelligence is entering the newsroom. For years, the fear has been that it might replace journalists. But the real disruption may come from something else entirely: a flood of AI-generated content.
Timo Kämäräinen, the newly appointed AI director at Alma Media, sees it differently. “Humans are the real competitive edge,” he says.
Rather than replacing reporters, Kämäräinen believes artificial intelligence will reshape how journalism is done. Machines will increasingly handle routine tasks, while human journalists focus on work that requires judgment, relationships, and credibility.
“AI has already changed the work of journalists a lot,” he says. “At the moment, I feel that we are getting more speed in the transition.”
Kämäräinen spent more than two decades at Finland’s public broadcaster Yle before joining Alma Media in 2024. His new role reflects how central artificial intelligence has become to the strategy of the Helsinki-listed media company.
And AI is already deeply embedded in the newsroom. “We have over 30 different tools for our journalists,” he says.
These systems assist with tasks such as translation, language editing, research support, and headline suggestions. The goal is not to automate journalism but to make everyday editorial work more efficient.
Alma Media itself has been transforming for years. The company has evolved from a traditional newspaper publisher into a digital media and services business operating across Europe. In Finland, its best-known brands include Kauppalehti, Talouselämä, and Iltalehti, alongside marketplaces such as Etuovi.com, Nettiauto, and Nettimoto. The group also operates recruitment platforms in Central and Eastern Europe.
Artificial intelligence is becoming the next step in that transformation. But AI does more than change newsroom workflows. It also changes the economics of information.
The abundance paradox
The most immediate effect of AI is that it makes producing text extremely easy.
“Everybody can use AI to create masses of content, and the internet is full of AI-created content,” Kämäräinen says.
That shift changes the economics of information.
More than fifty years ago, economist and Nobel laureate Herbert Simon described the dynamic that follows when information becomes abundant: attention becomes scarce.
AI accelerates the shift. Publishing is easy. For readers, the challenge is knowing what to trust.
“They want something authentic, unique,” Kämäräinen says.
The trust premium
“In the Nordic markets, we have a very strong relationship with our audience,” Kämäräinen says. “People really come to the front page or the app.”
That direct connection with readers reduces reliance on social media platforms and external traffic. “We are not as dependent on external traffic as, for example, US companies are,” he says.
Strong audience relationships are a defining feature of Nordic media markets. Finland consistently ranks among the countries with the highest levels of trust in news globally. In the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, roughly seven in 10 Finns say they trust most news most of the time.
In an information environment increasingly filled with AI-generated content, that trust becomes a strategic advantage.
“Humans make the news brand credible,” Kämäräinen says. Or as he puts it more bluntly: “Humans are the real competitive edge.”
The centaur newsroom
One way to understand the future newsroom is through what researchers call the centaur model. The term comes from chess, where the strongest teams turned out not to be humans or computers alone, but combinations of both. Humans provided judgment and strategy, while machines handled calculation and pattern recognition.
Researchers writing in Harvard Business Review argue that organizations often gain the most value when AI systems augment human expertise rather than replace it.
Kämäräinen believes journalism is moving in a similar direction.
“It’s a combination of human lead and AI,” he says.
Inside Alma Media’s editorial teams, that collaboration is already visible in daily workflows. Artificial intelligence is used to assist reporters rather than replace them.
One example is the company’s headline generation system. Based on historical data, the AI headline generator produces a range of headline options and then highlights the five with the highest predicted hit potential, Kämäräinen explains.
“The reporter can choose the best one or combine them or even invent something on top.”
The human-led model reflects a broader principle. “In journalism, there’s a strong need for humans to make the last decisions,” Kämäräinen says.
A different job for journalists
As AI takes over routine newsroom tasks, the role of reporters is shifting.
Much of the daily work in journalism involves repetitive processes—rewriting agency copy, translating material, or polishing language. AI can handle many of these tasks faster.
Few reporters are likely to miss transcribing long interviews or checking grammar. “Reporters can already spend more time on research or, for example, meeting people,” Kämäräinen says.
But some parts of journalism cannot be outsourced to machines. “AI doesn’t go to the war zone and interview local people,” he says.
Reporting often depends on trust between journalists and sources, as well as the ability to interpret events in context—tasks that remain difficult for machines to replicate.
“Quite often the most valuable part is something which AI can’t replace,” the AI director says.
In other words, Kämäräinen encourages journalists to ask themselves: “Where are you better than the machine?”
Investigative reporting, deep interviews, and field reporting still depend on human judgment and access.
Experimentation and leadership
AI in journalism is not a one-time upgrade. It requires constant testing.
“You basically have to try and test tools every day,” Kämäräinen says, adding that his advice to young journalists is: “Use AI tools. Test them. Be open-minded.”
Regarding newsrooms, the question for Kämäräinen is not whether media companies should adopt AI but how they use it.
“Best media companies have found ways to use AI to the max while at the same time giving human reporters room to flourish,” he says.
Organizations that treat AI purely as a cost-cutting tool may miss the bigger opportunity. Those that combine machine efficiency with human expertise could gain an advantage.
Asked how optimistic he is about the future of journalism, Kämäräinen answers without hesitation. “Nine.”
He believes the future of journalism will depend less on the technology itself and more on how it is used.
“If we play the game right and use AI wisely, we have all the ingredients for success.”
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