Thomson Reuters shares climbed after the company reported first-quarter revenue that exceeded expectations and maintained its full-year outlook. Growth was supported by increasing adoption of its AI-driven tools and steady performance across key business segments.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Doug Arthur, managing director at Huber Research Partners, who said the company’s AI-integrated data offerings are gaining traction with professional clients, helping support organic growth despite ongoing market concerns about competition.
Key Takeaways
- Thomson Reuters reported Q1 revenue of $2.09 billion, up 9.8 per cent year-over-year and ahead of estimates.
- AI-driven products are expanding rapidly, rising from about 15 per cent to 30 per cent of contract value in recent quarters.
- Legal and corporate segments showed solid organic growth, supported by demand from professional clients.
- Concerns remain about competition from general-purpose AI, particularly among small- and mid-sized firms.
- The company maintained its full-year guidance, with expectations growth could trend toward the higher end of its range.
Read the full transcript below:
ROGER: Shares of Thomson Reuters are up about four per cent after it reported a beat in revenue last night. The Toronto-based company also maintained guidance for the year. Its CEO says the company saw sustained demand for its AI products. Joining us now to talk about its latest earnings results and more is Douglas Arthur, managing director and researcher in media and information services at Huber Research Partners. Doug, thanks very much for joining us. A beat for Reuters in revenue, at least. It’s been a struggle for them the last little while, hasn’t it?
DOUGLAS: Well, it’s been more a struggle for the stock than it has been for the numbers. I mean, the stock is obviously way off its high and was trading like they were going to lower guidance for 2026 and miss earnings. And in fact, they beat earnings and maintained guidance, if not suggesting that guidance would come in at the higher end of their previous expectations. So I think it’s a push-pull between perception and reality.
ROGER: And the reality to you, when you see it, does it look like they have things solid and under control?
DOUGLAS: Well, if you look at their contract value, which sort of tracks customer activity, the AI-based solution set for Thomson has gone from 15 per cent of contract value to 30 per cent in the last, I don’t know, six or seven quarters. So the market is saying the Anthropics of the world are going to disintermediate the professional-grade data companies, and the numbers that Thomson are showing say the opposite.
ROGER: I guess, can they both be right, or can only one of them be right on that?
DOUGLAS: Well, I think that, you know, listen, a year ago, July of 2025, Thomson stock was soaring and peaked, I think, at a little over $218 a share. Then the AI focus shifted from a positive for Thomson to a concern, and Thomson was not alone. Virtually every big information service stock had incurred the same problem, as did a lot of the software names. So if you sit back and kind of look at it on a longer-term basis, in essence, we’ve had a major valuation correction in the sector. It’s gone from overheated to now undervalued, and the truth is somewhere in between.
ROGER: And is AI really — is everything resting on AI for a company like Thomson Reuters?
DOUGLAS: No. I mean, I think that’s the perception. I think this is a differentiation CEO Hasker was trying to make. They’re selling into the professional market, so they’re selling to the top law firms generally. They do a lot of mid-market and small business as well, but they’re selling to the top tax, accounting and law firms. They need professional-grade data, and they’re integrating their AI solutions with that data. Very few companies can bring the breadth of that offering that Thomson can. So it’s a combination of the software and the data behind it, and they’re kind of unmatched in that regard.
ROGER: But how protected is that data? Is there a chance it could get out somehow, with AI able to scrape everywhere? Could they lose that position?
DOUGLAS: Well, that’s a great question. That’s a central debate. What they would argue on the legal side is that Westlaw has data going back several hundred years of legal cases. So it’s very hard data to replicate in the digital world. You can scrape judgments and written summaries of a case, but you can’t scrape all the data and rulings and sub-rulings behind it. So I think that’s going to be a push-pull for these data companies — how much is replicable in the general-purpose world of AI, and how much is proprietary. But it’s the integrated solution that I think is going to keep their clients very sticky going forward. And if the numbers continue to show strong growth — they’re talking nine to 10 per cent organic, higher margins — the stock will find its own level.
ROGER: And what kind of potential headwinds are there for them? I mean, obviously AI, but what kind of impact could that have?
DOUGLAS: Well, the way I sort of framed it is if you say the general-purpose AI products don’t have the data rigour behind them, and don’t necessarily have the security apparatus behind them, what’s vulnerable? Small- and medium-sized law firms and accounting firms could be open to those sorts of general-purpose solutions. And if you take out Reuters News and print, I categorize it as about 19 per cent vulnerability of Thomson’s big three segments over time. I mean, worst-case scenario, but it’s still a scenario.
ROGER: Expand that out a little bit — the number and how you came up with it.
DOUGLAS: Well, I broke down all three segments in terms of what they’re offering and what end markets they serve — international, corporate, U.S., Latin America, small- to medium-sized firms versus large firms. So I segmented all three of their segments to see if general-purpose AI products from companies like Anthropic are very appealing at a lower cost to small firms that aren’t necessarily trying cases in front of the Supreme Court, for instance. That’s how I came up with that number.
ROGER: All right, we have to wrap it up there, Doug. But thank you very much for joining us.
DOUGLAS: My pleasure.
ROGER: Douglas Arthur, managing director and researcher in media and information services at Huber Research Partners.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the May 5, 2026 interview with Douglas Arthur are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
