Paris AI Forum 2026: NewsLabs joins publishers as media moves to industrial-scale AI

• NewsLabs will attend the WAN-IFRA Paris AI Forum on 15 and 16 September 2026, alongside media leaders, publishers, and technologists at the Les Echos-Le Parisien auditorium.
• The event comes as the industry shifts from cautious experimentation to large-scale deployment, with a focus on building AI into core editorial and business workflows for measurable ROI.
• Key themes include the rise of agentic AI, the shift from search to answer engines, and governance frameworks for copyright, deepfakes, and public trust.
• Hrvoje Odak from RTL will be joining NewsLabs on stage to share his thoughts and experiences.

AI adoption has moved fast. In just over two years it has grown into a $12 billion consumer market, a level that took earlier internet companies like Google and Amazon more than twice as long to reach. A recent Menlo Ventures survey estimates that 1.7 to 1.8 billion people now use AI tools, with hundreds of millions using them every day. For news publishers, that speed has forced a decision. The period of small, tentative trials is giving way to company-wide implementation. This is the context for the third annual Paris AI Forum, and NewsLabs will be there to take part and to learn.

How the forum evolved since 2024

WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News Publishers, launched the Paris AI Forum in 2024, and it has become a regular meeting point for media executives working through what AI means for journalism. Each edition has tracked the industry's current problems. The first event looked at AI's effect on content creation and the early signs of the 'disappearing link' in search, where fewer clicks reach publisher sites. That problem now sits at the centre of publisher strategy because it threatens both traffic and revenue. In 2025 the focus moved to the 'Agentic Year' and to large-scale, AI-driven bot scraping of publisher content, which cuts directly into media business models. Across all three years the forum has put publishers and technologists on the same stage to work on how technology can support good journalism rather than replace it.

From isolated tools to integrated strategy

The mood around AI in newsrooms has changed. What started as careful experiments with single tools has turned into a push to build AI across whole operations. Ezra Eeman, who leads WAN-IFRA's AI in Media initiative, put it this way: “AI is moving from experimentation to large-scale deployment as newsrooms shift from testing individual tools to incorporating AI into their editorial and business workflows.” Early adopters have already reported productivity gains and a clearer edge over competitors. The question is no longer whether to use AI but how to scale it responsibly across an organization. The 2026 forum is built around that next phase: responsible innovation, and the operational and business models for what some are calling the “Next Internet.” In plain terms, that means running AI at scale inside media companies to earn a return while protecting public value.

What to expect from the 2026 agenda

This year's program is practical. It aims to connect global technology developments with local editorial knowledge, with particular attention to the French-speaking media market. Sessions are aimed at editors-in-chief, content strategists, data journalists, and product managers, and at turning broad ideas into changes they can actually make.

The rise of agentic AI

One main theme is the shift from AI 'tools' to AI 'agents': systems that can reason across several steps and carry out tasks for a user. The sessions will look at how agents are already being used in newsroom workflows to speed up routine work and cut manual load while keeping editorial standards intact. That includes newer standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and better tool orchestration, both of which matter for building AI systems reliable enough to handle research, data analysis, content versioning, and distribution.

Redefining audience and distribution

The forum will also take on how audiences find content. As traditional search gives way to conversational 'answer engines' and chat features built into many platforms, publishers need new ways to reach readers and make money from their work. This picks up the SEO questions from the 2024 forum, but this time the focus is on what to do about it. Expect sessions on recommendation systems, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and building direct-traffic products and first-party data relationships that reduce publishers' exposure to third-party platforms.

Governance, trust, and the French-speaking focus

Governance and trust get equal billing with the technology. The agenda covers new regulation, copyright disputes, and the risk from synthetic media and deepfakes. These matter for protecting the accuracy of news and readers' trust in it. The forum's attention to the French-speaking media world is useful here: it gives publishers a place to work out how to apply general principles of AI ethics, data privacy, and bias reduction inside their own legal and cultural setting.

Why NewsLabs is attending

These questions sit close to what we do at NewsLabs. We work on AI that supports journalists and helps sustain the business of news. In our experience the best solutions come from technologists and editors working together, since each side understands something the other needs. The Paris AI Forum brings those people into one room. We are going to share what we have learned, but mostly to listen to the publishers, editors, and builders doing the work. If you will be there, we would like to meet. Come and find our team on 15 and 16 September.

We won’t be on stage alone. Joining us is Hrvoje Odak, Head of CRM and CX at RTL Hrvatska (RTL Croatia), one of the country's largest commercial broadcasters and one of NewsLabs earliest customers. RTL works on audience relationships and digital products every day in a competitive national market, and that hands-on view is the kind we most want in the room. We are glad to be sharing the session with him, and we’re excited for what Hrvoje has to share.

Looking to join?

Find out more about the event and secure your spot - we might see you there!

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The next few years will ask media leaders to make hard calls about where to invest, how to reorganize, and where the ethical lines are. Moving from experiments to AI at industrial scale carries real upside and real risk. Events like this are where that work gets done, out of the spotlight. The conversations at the Les Echos-Le Parisien auditorium will help decide whether the industry can use these tools to build something more efficient, more engaging, and more trustworthy for readers. It is worth being part of.

This article was drafted using AI, namely NewsLabs, on whose website you are reading these lines. It was verified and edited by a human editor.