ProtoThema has now joined the list of international examples promoted by Google for the use of Artificial Intelligence in digital news media, through a detailed case study published by the U.S. technology giant.

Google presents ProtoThema as Greece’s leading news organization using Artificial Intelligence to improve its journalistic processes and enhance reader experience and engagement, adopting an innovative and technologically advanced approach to modern digital journalism.

Read the full case study

“Constant adaptation to changes in the industry”

According to Google, “ProtoThema, which began as a Sunday newspaper in 2005, is today Greece’s largest online news organization, attracting approximately 1.5 million unique visitors every day in a country of 10 million people. Its success has been built on continuously adapting to changes in the industry—from the transition to digital news to the dominance of video across social media.”

“Today, it works with the Google News Initiative and FT Strategies to pioneer the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence in online journalism.”

As Google notes “at the forefront of this effort is Cloudevo, a leading AI technology company in Northeastern Europe”. Cloudevo is an AI data-driven company based in Athens that helps businesses unlock growth through AI, analytics, and cloud architecture.

“ProtoThema has a strong technology-oriented culture,” says Aliya Itzkowitz, Senior Manager at FT Strategies. “It isn’t afraid to experiment with new technologies and adopts them faster than many traditional publishing organizations.”

According to Google’s detailed case study, “since 2024, the collaboration has resulted in the development of a range of innovative applications designed to adapt ProtoThema’s websites to the evolving challenges of digital news, addressing user fatigue caused by information overload while responding to growing expectations for a seamless digital experience.”

At the same time, the goal has been to reduce the time spent by the organization’s approximately 300 journalists on repetitive administrative tasks, allowing them to focus more on reporting and writing. To achieve this, ProtoThema integrated Gemini and the Gemini Enterprise Agent platform into its existing technological infrastructure.

Commenting on the collaboration, Camila Samilian, Google’s News Partnerships Manager for Southern Europe, said:

“It is truly impressive to see ProtoThema taking such an innovative and forward-looking approach, testing new technologies and redefining the news experience.”

Faster comment moderation and smarter search

Google highlights the automation of the comment moderation process as one of the partnership’s first major achievements.

Using a custom-built algorithm designed specifically for the Greek language, developed with the help of Gemini, the need for time-consuming manual moderation has been eliminated.

According to the case study, automation now enables the platform to process up to 320,000 comments per month, compared with 30,000 previously, while the time required for comments to be published has been reduced from several hours to just 90 seconds.

Google also notes that ProtoThema subsequently launched its English-language edition to strengthen its international presence.

Through an automated workflow, the website’s most popular articles are translated and integrated into the publishing platform, while final editing is carried out by journalists to ensure the accuracy of the content. This allows editorial staff to devote more time to reporting and writing.

Google further points out that the search function of the English-language edition, which had previously created difficulties for users, was significantly upgraded.

To address the issue, a semantic search tool was developed, enabling users to submit queries in natural language.

All responses are generated exclusively from ProtoThema’s journalistic content, preserving the reliability and credibility of the information provided.

According to Google, the new search functionality led to a 20% increase in search-generated traffic, making the search page one of the three most visited pages on the English-language website. The same technology has now been implemented on the Greek-language edition.

Google adds that the innovations did not stop there.

To increase reader engagement, related article recommendations were added at the end of every article. According to the case study, this feature increased both article page views and user engagement time by 10%, while overall visits rose by 20%.

At the same time, for readers who primarily consume news on mobile devices, ProtoThema introduced an AI Takeaways section at the top of every article, summarizing its key points.

According to Google, these concise summaries encourage readers to continue reading the full article and helped reduce the website’s bounce rate from 60% to 47%.