Thomson Reuters reaffirms forecasts, highlights ‘fiduciary-grade AI’ demand

By Kenneth Li and Aditya Soni

NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) – Thomson Reuters reported a double-digit first-quarter revenue rise on Tuesday, boosted by gains in its “Big 3” business segments of legal professionals, corporates and tax, and audit and accounting, lifting its shares 6.8% on Nasdaq.

The Toronto-based content and technology company also reaffirmed its full-year 2026 revenue forecast of a rise of between 7.5% and 8% as it said customers were choosing its rigorously developed artificial intelligence products, which Thomson Reuters CEO Steve Hasker called “fiduciary-grade AI”.

“Across law, tax, audit and compliance, professionals accountable for high‑stakes outcomes are choosing our AI products, built to the standards their work demands – grounded in authoritative content, designed and tested by our domain experts, and created to produce results that can be verified and audited under real‑world scrutiny,” Hasker said in a statement.

Shares in Thomson Reuters have been hit by fears this year over the challenges that AI newcomers, including Anthropic, pose to established companies. These concerns triggered a selloff in software, data and professional services stocks, with Thomson Reuters shares falling by nearly 30% so far this year, underperforming a rise of 5.2% in the S&P 500 index.

Hasker highlighted the role of Thomson Reuters in delivering AI to professionals such as lawyers, tax preparers or court officials in an interview following the results.

“The consequences of error and hallucination are too much to bear,” Hasker said, adding that to get something wrong would result in fines imposed by regulators, among other consequences.

“They result in loss of reputation, loss of license to practice, loss of clients and client relationships. And that’s where fiduciary-grade AI kicks in,” he said.

Hasker cited 2,700 experts on staff creating legal content and hundreds of accountants ready to answer questions and proprietary data as major reasons for clients to rely on Thomson Reuters services over those of so-called frontier AI models.

FIRST QUARTER REVENUE, EPS EXCEED FORECASTS

“Thomson Reuters has done enough to calm the immediate AI concerns,” PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said, adding: “The company appears well placed for the AI era, but the focus remains on execution.”

“If it can embed trusted, auditable AI deeper into daily workflows, it strengthens customer loyalty, protects pricing power and builds a more defensible long-term position,” he said.

Thomson Reuters Chief Financial Officer Michael Eastwood said in an interview that about 30% of the company’s underlying contract value, which breaks down a contract’s total value, relied on generative AI in the first quarter, which compared with 28% in the fourth quarter.

The company said in February that its AI-powered legal assistant CoCounsel has reached one million users and that it works with leading AI labs including Anthropic to pair their models with its proprietary data and system-level oversight.

Thomson Reuters said its first-quarter revenue rose 10% to $2.09 billion, surpassing estimates of $2.04 billion. It said earnings per share excluding items rose to $1.23. Wall Street had forecast earnings per share of $1.20.

Revenue at news division Reuters rose 7% as a result of higher agency revenue and a price increase from its business with the London Stock Exchange Group.

Thomson Reuters also said it completed a $605 million return of capital to shareholders, reducing outstanding common shares by about 6.5 million. It also repurchased 2.5 million of common shares for about $262 million.

Eastwood said the company had about $9 billion of capital to spend on deals through 2028.   

(Reporting by Kenneth Li in New York; Editing by Alexander Smith)