Can GenAI Move from Individual Use to Collaborative Work? Experiences, Challenges, and Opportunities of Integrating GenAI into Collaborative Newsroom Routines

2025-09-13

AI Summary

This study investigates how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transitions from an individual productivity tool to an enabler of collaborative news production. Addressing the current reality wherein GenAI adoption in journalism remains largely confined to isolated, uncoordinated experiments rather than organizationally integrated workflows, the paper draws on in-depth interviews with 27 Chinese news professionals to systematically identify barriers and pathways for team-level GenAI integration. Findings reveal a paradox of high individual usage coexisting with systemic process gaps; key organizational impediments include hierarchical structures, cultural conservatism, and rigid editorial workflows. In response, the study proposes the first “institution–technology co-adaptation” framework tailored for newsrooms—emphasizing concurrent reform of institutional norms, collaborative routines, and technical embedding mechanisms. The framework advances theoretical understanding of collective GenAI adoption in high-intensity, knowledge-intensive collaborative work contexts and offers actionable guidance for news organizations navigating AI-driven transformation.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Human-AI Collaboration / Human-AI Teaming
• Natural Language Processing: Generation
• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Coordination and Collaboration

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• Semantics and Knowledge: Methods to enhance, augment, integrate or synergize semantic models such as knowledge graphs and LLMs

Abstract

Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping work, but adoption remains largely individual and experimental rather than integrated into collaborative routines. Whether GenAI can move from individual use to collaborative work is a critical question for future organizations. Journalism offers a compelling site to examine this shift: individual journalists have already been disrupted by GenAI tools; yet newswork is inherently collaborative relying on shared routines and coordinated workflows. We conducted 27 interviews with newsrooms managers, editors, and front-line journalists in China. We found that journalists frequently used GenAI to support daily tasks, but value alignment was safeguarded mainly through individual discretion. At the organizational level, GenAI use remained disconnected from team workflows, hindered by structural barriers and cultural reluctance to share practices. These findings underscore the gap between individual and collective adoption, pointing to the need for accounting for organizational structures, cultural norms, and workflow integration when designing GenAI for collaborative work.

Problem

• Examining GenAI transition from individual to collaborative work
• Identifying barriers to GenAI integration in newsroom workflows
• Addressing organizational and cultural challenges in collaborative GenAI adoption

Innovation

• Conducted 27 interviews with news professionals
• Examined organizational barriers to GenAI integration
• Proposed workflow design accounting for cultural norms