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Report

The world’s largest dataset on corporate AI adoption: 100,000 data points, 2,972 companies, 11 sectors, 6 regions.

Overview

Across the global economy, companies are embedding AI into their products, services and operations at a speed that is outpacing the governance frameworks designed to keep it in check. The result is a widening transparency gap – one that creates risk for businesses, workers, investors and society as a whole.

To address this challenge, we partnered with UNESCO to launch the AI Company Data Initiative (AICDI): the world’s largest dataset on corporate AI adoption.

Our findings reveal a consistent and concerning pattern: organisations are eager to adopt AI, but lack the mechanisms to manage its associated risks.

Nearly 90% of companies have not publicly committed to any named AI governance framework
Only 13% have a policy to ensure human oversight of AI systems.
Just 2.3% have a dedicated complaints mechanism for AI-related issues, meaning the majority of companies have no early warning system for workforce risks related to AI.

Overview
What's inside?
Who should download this resource?
Report snapshot
About this report

What's inside?

To download this free resource, simply click the 'Download' button under ‘Access the report’ and fill in your details to download.

Once downloaded, you will have access to:

Global findings across 5 themes: strategy, oversight, workforce, ethics and environment, data governance.
Sector-by-sector and regional trends.
Sentiment analysis of 15,000+ open-text corporate disclosures.
8 company case studies (Vodafone, SAP, Telefónica, TELUS, BASF, Banco Bradesco and more).
A ready-to-use engagement guide and proxy voting principles to strengthen stewardship on responsible AI.

Who should download this resource?

Organisations looking to:

Benchmark their AI governance maturity against nearly 3,000 peers across their sectors and regions.
Identify the specific governance gaps most likely to attract regulatory and investor scrutiny.
Discover how this global standard-aligned survey can help you to enable greater AI governance.

Investors looking to:

Gain comparable AI governance data broken down by sector, region and company size.
Identify risks before governance failures create financial impacts.
Understand and anticipate where regulatory headwinds are most likely to concentrate.

Report snapshot

0 %

Less than a third of companies have a dedicated team or resource for AI governance.

Stakeholders expect more than disclosure – they expect evidence of how governance works in practice.

0 %

did not evidence that they had policies in place to protect employees from potential negative impacts of AI.

Companies are not demonstrating how they are preparing employees for an AI-enabled future, leaving themselves open to talent drain and productivity losses.

0 %

of companies report conducting human rights impact assessments on AI. Just 5% state that they conduct ethical impact assessments.

AI governance is focused on compliance, with limited visibility of ethical impacts, creating potential risks to people and society.

As supporters of [the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s] AI Company Data Initiative (AICDI), we share its goals to promote transparency and responsible business practices in corporate AI adoption. Its detailed dataset (which covers almost 3,000 companies) and insights provide useful context to our own stewardship activities, encouraging responsible AI practices within our portfolio companies.

Eva CairnsHead of Responsible Investment, Scottish Widows

These findings suggest that the challenge of responsible AI is no longer awareness but ensuring principles translate into practice. Our AI Company Data Initiative provides a comparable, actionable dataset so that companies and investors can identify good practice and material risk.

Katie FowlerDirector of Responsible Business, Thomson Reuters Foundation

About this report

Published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, in partnership with UNESCO.
Grounded in UNESCO's Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, adopted by all 193 UNESCO member states.
Backed by an investor signatory group with $1.2 trillion assets under management.

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Photo: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya

The legal threats undermining press freedom in Kenya, and how to address them.

Overview

Despite constitutional protections, journalists and media organisations in Kenya face systematic legal attacks through the abuse of legal processes, regressive legislation, and escalating technological, financial and commercial threats that undermine press freedom and weaken industry sustainability.

To better understand and address this challenging environment, we partnered with ALT Advisory in association with Power Law Africa to conduct this research. Through extensive research on legislation and recent media freedom cases, consultations with journalists nationwide, and the insights and guidance of a panel of Kenyan media and legal experts, our report provides a comprehensive overview of the media freedom landscape in Kenya, alongside practical recommendations for driving change.

We found that 42% of respondents have faced legal threats in response to their work, including arrest, litigation, and shutting down online platforms. Our research identifies that these threats sit within six primary categories, from defamation lawsuits to unlawful surveillance and cybercrime.

Critically, 65% of media professionals highlighted legal protections as their top support need to ensure journalism sustainability, and over half expressed a lack of confidence in the legal system’s ability to protect journalists covering sensitive topics. Sustained multisectoral coordination and collective action will be pivotal to addressing these complex threats and weak protections, to defend press freedom in Kenya at a crucial time. The recommendations in our report set out clear, evidence-based steps that can be taken by actors across the media freedom ecosystem.

This report builds on the 2023 global “Weaponizing the Law: Attacks on Media Freedom” report to examine how legal provisions and processes are weaponised to intimidate, silence, and economically weaken media actors in Kenya.

Report snapshot
Key legal threats
Recommendations

Report snapshot

0 %

of media actors have faced legal threats in response to their work.

This includes litigation, arrest, and the shutdown of online platforms.

0 %

of respondents identified journalist safety as one of the biggest legal threats to journalism in Kenya.

A failure to enforce existing protections has fostered a culture of impunity, as evidenced by cases of threats, physical assaults, harassment, and even killings.

0 %

of respondents highlighted legal protections as their top support need.

Institutional weaknesses, such as inadequate oversight of surveillance powers, undermine the effectiveness of existing legal protections.

Key legal threats

Abuse of court processes

Weak law implementation

Regressive legislation

Technology-facilitated harms

Journalist safety and impunity

Media industry sustainability

I was threatened with legal action for posting content that highlighted the dirty and corrupt deeds [of] a politician who threatened me with severe unspecified consequences that included a threat to my life as a content creator.

Survey respondent

I once worked on a story about disinformation by the State, especially the national police, and received threatening calls and was cyber bullied by people and bots created by people who work for the government.

Survey respondent

[I] was investigating a spate of gang killings in Western Kenya when I was arrested and branded a spy for Uganda. Released 5 hours later.

Survey respondent

My station is a community-based media, and when you do stories that are not favourable to the local leadership, either political or government, then you become a victim. You will be denied funds and support, and to some extent, get threats of shutting down or mobilising the community to demonstrate against you.

Survey respondent

Core recommendations

While these challenges are not unique to Kenya, solutions require collaborative action across the country's media freedom ecosystem. Recommendations include the need to:

Strengthen implementation of access to information and community media laws
Confront abuse of court processes through legal protections and judicial reform
Mitigate the impact of repressive and disabling legislation through building evidence and driving public awareness
Address technology-facilitated harms
Advance the sustainability of journalism through stronger legal support mechanisms, education and robust policies

Download the report to read our recommendations in full

Download the full report