David Carrel may be thousands of kilometres from his Seattle base, but the global CMO of Thomson Reuters feels right at home in Australia. “I actually did a semester of college here,” he laughs from a conference room in Melbourne, adding that this is his first time back in years. “It’s been a really good week, great customers, and great conversations.”
And that’s fitting because listening to customers is exactly how Thomson Reuters, a company steeped in a 170-year legacy of trusted journalism and professional tools, is forging its future. Under Carrel’s stewardship, the global brand is undergoing a notable transformation from a reliable information provider to a content-driven technology powerhouse.
“We didn’t change our name or walk away from our history,” Carrel says. “But we had to modernise. We’d already changed a lot internally, systems, products, and even culture, but the market didn’t always see that. We needed to retell our story.”
From legacy to leadership
That retelling began in 2024 with the company’s first brand refresh in 16 years. The process was grounded in global customer insights, including feedback from legal and tax professionals in Australia, across more than 300 conversations. The result was a sharpened brand promise: “To clarify the complex,” a nod to both the information overload professionals face and the increasingly sophisticated tools needed to navigate it.
“Trust has always been at the core of our brand,” Carrel says. “It’s not just a buzzword for us, we’re literally built on the Reuters Trust Principles, established in 1941. But our customers told us they wanted more. They wanted innovation, tech-forward thinking, tools that help them work smarter.”
And it worked. Unaided brand awareness rose by 40% in the year following the refresh. Those who had seen the campaign were significantly more likely to associate Thomson Reuters with innovation (up 3 percentage points) and forward-thinking leadership (up 9 points). Even more compelling? “Our 28,000 employees loved it,” Carrel shares. “They felt seen. They said, ‘This reflects who we are now.’ That internal resonance matters just as much as the external impact.”
AU Infographic – Future of Professionals 2024
AI with a human touch
At the heart of that evolution is artificial intelligence, and not just the hype, but decades of applied experience. “We’ve been working with AI since before it was trendy,” Carrel says. “Machine learning, semantic search, smart automation, we’ve had that embedded in our tools for years. Generative AI just accelerated the journey.”
That acceleration is most evident in CoCounsel, Thomson Reuters’ flagship AI assistant for legal professionals, which entered its second generation this year and launched locally in Q1. Designed to streamline legal workflows, from research to document review, it combines cutting-edge AI with proprietary content no other provider can match, according to Carrel.
“What sets us apart is that we own both sides of the equation,” he explains. “We’ve got the world’s best content, decades of legal, tax, regulatory, and financial data, and we’ve got 4,500 technologists building world-class software. That’s a combination no one else can offer.”
Local firms are already seeing the benefits. At Henry William Lawyers, Partner John Nash says the tool is reshaping daily operations. “We’re saving countless hours on what used to be painstaking junior legal work,” Nash says. “Westlaw Precision and CoCounsel together mean we can solve client problems faster, and it’s becoming a drawcard for new hires who want to work with the best AI tech in market.”
Australia’s AI appetite
Carrel’s visit to Australia wasn’t just for optics, it was a strategic opportunity to embed the voice of the region deeper into global planning. “Asia Pacific is huge and diverse, and Australia is a key market for us,” he says. “When we designed the brand refresh, Australia’s voice was in the room.”
That feedback loop continues through initiatives like the AI Skills Challenge, a hands-on workshop series that gives local professionals the chance to test and shape new tools. “We’ve spoken to nearly 200 lawyers across Asia and Australia about how they’re adopting AI,” Carrel says. “That feedback directly informs how we go to market and how we design the experience.”
Those conversations are backed by solid data. According to the Future of Professionals 2024 report, 78% of Australian professionals believe AI will have a transformational impact on their industry. Perhaps more tellingly, 87% believe AI will create more jobs, not fewer, a sign that sentiment is shifting from fear to opportunity.
“People want to spend less time on admin and more time on strategy, on creativity, on work that matters,” Carrel says. “And AI is the assistant that gets them there.”
A culture of experimentation
The adoption of AI isn’t limited to product development, it’s reshaping the company culture itself. Every Thomson Reuters employee now has an AI adoption goal, and internal champions are driving experimentation across departments.
“For marketers, generative AI is a natural fit, we’re creators,” Carrel says. “We’ve done some really exciting things, from campaign copy to cinematic video content. It’s fun, yes, but it’s also powerful. It lets us do more, faster.”
Even more interesting, Carrel says, is the correlation between AI use and job satisfaction. “We don’t have hard data on it yet, but anecdotally, the more our team uses AI, the more satisfied they are with their work. It removes the repetitive tasks and gives them more time to innovate.”
So, what’s next?
Asked to define his five-year vision for the brand, Carrel doesn’t hesitate. “To be the number one content-driven technology company in the world. Trusted. Innovative. Tech-forward. And for customers to know exactly how we can help them, not just today, but tomorrow.”
That future is already being built. Thomson Reuters is investing over $200 million annually into AI R&D, has launched a second AI-focused venture fund worth $150 million, and has acquired more than $1.6 billion in capabilities in the past two years alone.
“It’s not just talk. It’s investment. It’s strategy. And it’s execution,” Carrel says. “We’re not chasing trends, we’re setting the standard.”