BBC begins public trials of two generative AI news-workflow tools

BBC announced June 27 it will begin public trials of two generative AI tools designed to support its news-production workflow.

The pilots, announced June 27 by Rhodri Talfan Davies, BBC’s executive sponsor for generative AI, will focus on “at a glance” summaries and a style-assist formatting tool.

Over the last 18 months, the corporation has run internal tests to assess how generative AI can aid production processes. The new public phase will evaluate whether AI-generated bullet-point summaries help readers grasp the main points of longer articles, and whether an AI-powered style assistant can speed up reformatting of partner content into BBC house style.

For the “at a glance” pilot, journalists will use a single approved prompt to generate short, scannable summaries of selected news stories. They will review and edit every output before publication, ensuring editorial control and transparency about AI usage. Short bullet-point summaries have proven popular with younger audiences as a quick way to understand complex stories.

The Style Assist pilot will apply a BBC-trained large language model to reformat reports from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

The LDRS, funded by the BBC and provided by local news organisations, delivers daily local-interest reporting. By automating house-style editing, the BBC aims to increase the number of LDRS stories it can publish without extending production time.

Under the Style Assist workflow, a trusted report is submitted to the BBC’s content system, reformatted by the AI model, then reviewed by a senior journalist for accuracy and clarity. Nothing is published without human approval, and any AI assistance will be disclosed to audiences as part of the BBC’s commitment to transparency.

In the first phase, newsroom teams in BBC Wales and the east of England will test Style Assist, providing feedback and data on production benefits. The BBC will measure each tool’s performance, identify shortcomings and determine whether to expand the pilots.

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