ABC News is bringing more regional stories to audiences using AI with journalist oversightTopic:ABCTue 30 Jun 2026 at 4:38pmTue 30 Jun 2026 at 4:38pmTue 30 Jun 2026 at 4:38pmABC Gippsland journalist Jack Colantuono reads the radio news in Sale before creating a local news briefing. (ABC News)In short:ABC News is piloting an AI-assisted workflow that converts original journalism gathered by reporters for local radio bulletins into a digital briefing, expanding access to regional stories that might otherwise not feature online.Using an ABC-developed AI tool, journalists can quickly reformat existing verified stories, freeing up time to do more original reporting.All stories are fact-checked, edited and approved before publication.ABC Radio is a vital daily news source. Each weekday, regionally presented and produced news bulletins air on more than 40 stations across Australia with important local news and information.But many of those stories do not make it online, so if you miss the bulletin, you might not hear about them.ABC News is piloting an AI-assisted project to help bridge that gap and bring this important local journalism to a wider audience using existing resources.The pilot will enhance our local news offering on the ABC News website and app by converting existing regional radio stories into digital briefings to make them available to the online audience across the day.While the AI tool helps reformat the copy, the original stories are written by ABC journalists. The reformatted versions are always fact-checked, edited and approved by our journalists before publication. The AI tool does not generate any stories.Why get AI involved?The digital local briefings are a new product that get more local stories to more people. Using this AI production tool assists journalists to do that without replacing any existing processes, tasks or jobs.Manually converting existing radio stories to digital articles is time-consuming. Internal trials using an ABC-developed AI tool called ABC Assist to help with this task have showed it can reduce the time it takes by up to half, while still meeting editorial standards. This creates a more sustainable workflow for our reporters without impacting quality and accuracy.Journalists are freed up to do more original reporting and news gathering for audiences rather than just repurposing content. While the AI tool helps reformat the stories, the original stories are written by ABC journalists and the reformatted versions are always fact-checked, edited and approved by our journalists before publication. The AI tool does not generate any new stories.Any content produced with AI assistance must comply with the ABC's AI Editorial Policies and AI Principles, including being clearly disclosed to the audience.The pilot of this new service will start in regional WA and Tasmania.What is ABC Assist?Read more ABC Assist was designed by ABC staff for ABC staff, considering our Editorial Policies, Guidance and the ABC's AI Principles. It was developed to help journalists with production research and transcription tasks and was trained on decades of Australian content from the ABC archive.How are the local news briefings produced?Read more The briefings start with the ABC journalism that you know and trust, gathered by our journalists across Australia to create radio news bulletins for their local communities.The workflow for the local news briefing process undertaken by ABC journalists. (ABC News)ABC Assist then helps the journalist reformat the verified ABC journalism that has already been broadcast, making minor style changes, reducing word count, and suggesting short headline options for a digital audience.The journalist then fact-checks and edits the reformatted version of the stories before sending them to be approved for publication by an editorial leader with local knowledge and a digital subeditor.How was it developed?Read more This pilot project was developed in a consultation with teams across ABC News. Since October 2025, regional Victorian newsrooms have worked with technical specialists to develop the workflow, assess the accuracy of the AI results and plan the audience-facing concept.The local briefings process has side-by-side verification to enable journalists to fact-check any changes. (ABC News)Local staff, including reporters, content producers, local editors and regional editors, participated in end-to-end internal production trials, with close attention paid to content quality.Feedback from the local teams was taken into account, including specific treatment for legally sensitive stories and side-by-side version comparison to ensure accurate fact-checking.Why do this pilot now?Read more Local news is disappearing in many parts of Australia as traditional media outlets have been cut back or shut down. It is estimated that since 2019 more than 200 local newspapers in regional Australia have significantly cut their services or closed, leaving some communities without any dedicated local news source.This pilot means a listener who missed the morning radio bulletin can read the same local stories on the ABC News website or app. It gives those stories a life beyond the airwaves, making sure important local news is available to a wider audience.If you have any feedback about this pilot, please contact us via this form.