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Reviewed and published by trentmaziarz, March 22, 2026. Discovered and drafted by our automated research pipeline.
Since 2018, Forbes has used an in-house AI tool called Bertie to help its writers work faster. Bertie suggests article topics, recommends headlines, surfaces relevant images, and can generate a rough draft of an article that a contributor then rewrites and polishes. It is aimed at Forbes' network of over 2,000 contributors, not the general public.
Details
Bertie was launched in summer 2018 and described by Forbes' Chief Digital Officer at the time as "a bionic suit for our writers." It was built using Google Cloud tools including AutoML Natural Language and Vision API. The system analyzes a contributor's past work to suggest relevant trending topics, applies sentiment analysis to recommend headline options, and links related content inline. In early 2019, Forbes began testing a draft-generation feature — the AI would write a rough version of an article that contributors could edit and publish. Forbes reported doubling its monthly visitors in the period following Bertie's rollout, though this cannot be attributed solely to the tool.
Products affected
Forbes.com CMSForbes contributor platform
Sources & Evidence
Company Disclosure
News Article
Other practices by Forbes
OtherForbes has taken steps to stop AI companies from using its articles to train their AI systems without permission. It has blocked AI web crawlers from its site, sent a legal cease-and-desist to Perplexity AI after it republished a Forbes exclusive using AI, and joined a group of 14 publishers in a federal copyright lawsuit against AI startup Cohere for allegedly using thousands of Forbes articles without authorization.OtherIn July 2025, Forbes created a new internal group called the AI & Strategic Platforms Group to lead its AI strategy and revenue development. CEO Sherry Phillips also announced that Forbes is developing an "AI Manifesto" — a written framework setting out the company's stance on how AI should be used, what ethical limits apply, and how risks will be managed. As of August 2025, the manifesto had not yet been published.Creative GenA study published in late 2025 found that roughly 15% of all articles published on Forbes Business Council in 2024 were likely written by AI, not humans. Forbes Councils is a paid membership platform where business executives publish their own content — it operates under different editorial oversight than Forbes' core journalism. The study's authors also successfully submitted and published a fully AI-generated article on Forbes Technology Council in July 2025.
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