Thomson Reuters Shows How AI Is Generating Revenue
Nov 04, 2026Its latest results show how AI is becoming part of established subscription products while creating new opportunities to earn revenue from valuable content.
Thomson Reuters is finding two ways to make money from AI. It's adding new capabilities to products its professional customers already pay for, while its Reuters news business is earning revenue by licensing content to companies developing generative AI systems.
The company's third-quarter results, released November 3, show customers using its newer products more and accepting higher prices for some of them. Content licensing is also bringing in meaningful revenue, although those payments are less predictable.
Thomson Reuters has long sold information and software to legal, tax, accounting and corporate customers. Its products include Westlaw, the legal research platform, and CoCounsel, which helps professionals use AI in their work. The company also owns Reuters, whose reporting is licensed to news organizations and other businesses around the world.
AI Is Becoming Part of the Subscription Business
Products that include generative AI now account for 34% of Thomson Reuters' annualized contract value, up from 24% a year earlier. That measures the yearly value of contracts associated with those products, rather than revenue generated specifically by their AI features.
Recurring revenue accounted for 88% of Thomson Reuters' total revenue during the quarter. On a comparable basis, recurring revenue grew 8% from a year earlier, while the Legal Professionals business reported 9% growth, supported by Westlaw and CoCounsel Legal.
Active users of the next-generation CoCounsel Legal product increased more than 60% between August and September, according to Thomson Reuters. September was its first full month of general availability. The company reported the increase but didn't disclose how many people were using the product.
Executives also said customers have accepted higher prices for AI-enhanced products, including Westlaw Advantage and CoCounsel. For Thomson Reuters, that creates an opportunity to earn more from existing professional products as it adds capabilities customers are willing to pay for.
Pricing those capabilities brings its own challenges. For CoCounsel Legal, Thomson Reuters generally favors enterprise agreements that give customers predictable costs rather than charging separately each time they use AI. The company must then manage what it costs to deliver the service, particularly as customers use it for more demanding work.
Management said it's developing its own AI technology and selecting different models for different tasks to help control processing expenses. The Legal Professionals business reported a lower profit margin during the quarter, reflecting higher technology and other expenses, including costs associated with AI.
Reuters Finds Another Source of AI Revenue
During the third quarter, Reuters generated approximately $19 million from transactional licenses allowing its content to be used in generative AI systems. That helped lift Reuters' organic revenue growth to 12%. Without transactional AI licensing revenue in either comparison period, growth would have been 7%.
Reuters is finding additional commercial value in reporting it already produces as companies building AI systems seek access to reliable information. The licensing agreements are contributing to revenue, but the timing and amount of those payments can vary.
Thomson Reuters expects Reuters' fourth-quarter revenue growth to be roughly flat, partly because of the comparison with AI licensing revenue earned a year earlier. The results show how a substantial licensing payment can lift revenue in one quarter without necessarily establishing a dependable recurring stream.
Insider Take
Thomson Reuters is worth watching as AI changes the information business. It has valuable content, longstanding customer relationships and the resources to build its own technology. Now we're getting a clearer picture of how those advantages are translating into products customers use and revenue the company can measure.
What's interesting is that Thomson Reuters is approaching AI from two directions. Its professional customers are paying for products with new capabilities, while AI developers are paying Reuters for access to its reporting. The company is also working out what it costs to deliver those products as usage grows.
Few publishers or subscription businesses have Thomson Reuters' resources. But its experience is worth following, particularly as other companies work out where AI belongs in their products, what customers will pay for and how the economics hold up over time.
Related Member Resources
Thomson Reuters is finding new ways to earn revenue from AI, but it also has to manage what those products cost to deliver. These resources help subscription operators understand the wider changes in AI business models and examine how new revenue and expenses could affect their own businesses.
- AI Is Entering the Subscription Relationship | AI for Subscription Operators October 2026
This monthly briefing examines how AI is changing software pricing, content licensing, customer relationships and operating costs. It gives operators broader context for the business-model changes illustrated by Thomson Reuters, including what is already happening and what remains uncertain.
- Subscription Business Financial Model: Forecast Revenue, Costs, and Profitability
Adding new capabilities to a subscription product can change both its revenue potential and its operating costs. This model lets operators test pricing, revenue, delivery-cost and profitability assumptions under different scenarios before committing to a plan.
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