This article opens a three-part series exploring how different media sub-sectors are engaging with AI today. Each piece builds on this shared foundation while focusing on the specific realities, pressures, and opportunities faced by various sub-sectors such as news media, news agencies, producers and broadcasters.
Artificial intelligence is no longer an abstract concept for Europe’s media organisations. It is already part of everyday work—sometimes quietly, sometimes experimentally, and often with a fair amount of caution. Over the past year, TEMS has listened closely to how media actors are using AI, what they hope it can bring, and where their concerns lie. What emerges is not a single story, but a shared direction of travel.
For many organisations, AI is first and foremost a practical tool. It helps translate content, generate transcripts, enrich metadata, classify archives, and make information easier to find. These uses may sit behind the scenes, but they already play a meaningful role in improving efficiency and accessibility. At the same time, AI is rarely deployed in isolation: it is usually layered onto existing workflows and often relies on external services rather than in-house systems.
Alongside this pragmatic adoption comes a strong sense of responsibility. Media organisations are acutely aware that AI raises questions about data protection, intellectual property, ethics, and trust. Many have introduced internal rules to govern how AI can be used, ensuring alignment with GDPR and anticipating the requirements of the EU AI Act. This caution is not a barrier to innovation; it reflects the sector’s role as a trusted intermediary between information and the public.
The picture is also uneven. Some organisations are well equipped to explore new uses of AI, while others face constraints linked to resources, skills, or legal uncertainty. Yet all of them share a common challenge: how to adopt AI in ways that are sustainable, compliant, and meaningful.
This is where TEMS can make a difference. By offering a shared, trusted framework for data and AI-enabled services, TEMS can help lower barriers, support transparency, and create conditions for responsible innovation—at different levels of readiness. Rather than prescribing one way forward, TEMS aims to enable many.
AI will continue to shape how media is created, distributed, and discovered. The real question is how to ensure this transformation strengthens Europe’s media ecosystem. TEMS is being built to support that collective effort—grounded in trust, collaboration, and shared values.