News discovery is increasingly moving through intermediaries, and AI is becoming another route. Ofcom’s latest research finds that 21% of UK adults encountered news through an AI app, summary or overview in the past month, adding another layer between the organizations producing news and the audiences consuming it. 

A new report from Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, brings two audience measures into this calculation: reach and trust. Drawing on responses from 5,397 UK adults, Ofcom measures AI as a route to news for the first time. It compares AI’s reach with other services and shows how users rate the news they encounter through each one. 

AI news use peaks among adults aged 25 to 34 

One in five UK adults (21%) encountered news through an AI app, summary or overview in the past month. ChatGPT reached 13% of adults for news, making it the most-used individual AI service. The 21% measure includes AI apps and AI features within search, and people may use both. 

Adults aged 25 to 34 lead in AI news usage at 37%, compared with 30% among 16 to 24-year-olds. Usage was 28% among 35 to 44-year-olds and 19% among adults aged 45 to 54. Interestingly, the strongest AI audience usage was not among the youngest adult group. 

Adults aged 25 to 34 also use more ways to access news than any other age group. They report an average of 17.7, compared with 12.1 across all adults and 6.5 among adults aged 75 and over.  

AI joins a wider distribution mix 

Online intermediaries, as a whole, reached 73% of UK adults with news in the past month. Ofcom includes search engines, social and video platforms, news aggregators, and AI tools in this category. Looking at those routes separately, social and video platforms reached 60% of adults, AI apps, summaries and overviews reached 21%, and news aggregators reached 17%. News publisher websites and apps reached 57%. The figures overlap because people can use more than one route to news. The shift is noteworthy because publishers may supply the journalism audiences encounter without controlling the environment in which they encounter it, or the relationship with the audience. 

Among adults aged 16 to 24, 87% use an online intermediary for news, while 63% use a publisher’s website or app. Across all adults, only 5% rely solely on intermediaries. Most people use them alongside other routes to news. 

Outside platforms can also extend a news brand’s reach. For example, BBC News reached 66% of 16- to 24-year-olds through its own services in the past month. That number rises to 73% when Ofcom includes encounters on selected social and video platforms. 

Users rate news differently across services 

Where audiences encounter news also matters. Ofcom found substantial differences in perceptions of trust and accuracy across distribution channels. Among people who used each service for news, AI services rated below traditional news platforms and news aggregators. The share was about 62% among newspaper app users, 59% among news aggregator users, 44% among AI app and service users, and 39% among social and video platform users.  

Ofcom also asked users about accuracy and impartiality. Among news aggregator users, 66% rated the news they saw as accurate and 61% as impartial. Among AI app and service users, the figures were 44% and 42%. Among social and video platform users, they were 40% and 36%. 

The findings point to a growing tension for publishers. AI is becoming another gateway to news, but reach and audience value are not interchangeable. Ofcom finds substantially lower trust in news encountered through AI than through traditional news platforms. For publishers, the findings raise a familiar but increasingly important question: as more news discovery happens through intermediaries, who controls the audience relationship—and how much of the value created by the journalism flows back to its source?