Tool Of The Trade: AI Adoption Rising Among Journalists … But Concerns Persist

As far as a consensus goes, four out of five used to be the standard of excellence when it came to the dentists making recommendations during toothpaste commercials.

Today, that four-out-of-five consensus — 82%, to be precise — represents the journalists who’ve adopted and incorporated AI in their work, according to Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2026 report.

“AI usage continues to grow,” the report says. “Just 18% of journalists say they use none of the listed tools, down from 23% last year, meaning adoption has risen from 77% to 82%.”

Of the tools used, ChatGPT still leads — gaining ground from 42% of journalists last year to 47% this year — while Gemini and Claude gained major ground (13% to 22% and 6% to 12%, respectively).

(Source: Muck Rack)

Still, even with that widespread adoption, use of AI in journalism remains a concern … even for journalists.

“Concern about unchecked AI use jumped from 18% in 2025 to 26%, an 8 percentage-point increase, putting it level with public trust at 26%,” the report says, which found unregulated AI to be biggest journalism concern behind only lack of funding (32%) and disinformation (32%). “The threat landscape is widening rather than consolidating around a single issue.”