Applied AI by The Information Staff

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Applied AI

By The Information Staff

Applied AI focuses on deep storytelling and reporting around the application of AI in business and beyond. From how companies drive innovation, support their customers, and foster collaboration with their teams, to how CEOs are applying AI to optimize their organizations.

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Recent Editions

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images.

Applied AI: Microsoft Offers Training Funds for Copilot AI Customers

By Aaron Holmes · Dec 29, 2025 11:29am PST

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and his deputies have warned that plenty of employees at large enterprises that pay for Microsoft 365 Copilot haven’t been using the AI features very much, as we reported recently.The most obvious way to change their ways is to make the software, an artificial intelligence add-on to Office apps like Word and Excel,... Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and his deputies have warned that plenty of employees at large...

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff via Getty, art by Clark Miller

Why Our Story on Salesforce’s Declining Trust in LLMs Hit a Nerve

By Amir Efrati · Dec 23, 2025 11:04am PST · 4 comments

On Friday, Aaron and Kevin’s article about Salesforce calling out the ingrained limitations of large language models struck a major nerve, as have our other in-depth articles about Salesforce AI challenges this year.Business people saw the piece as further evidence that marketing of generative AI got ahead of what the technology could actually... On Friday, Aaron and Kevin’s article about Salesforce calling out the ingrained limitations of...

Juliana Yamada/LA Times via Getty Images.

Can UCLA Replace Teaching Assistants with AI?

By Aaron Holmes · Dec 18, 2025 10:30am PST

Universities grappling with slowing enrollment and imperiled federal funding are looking for new ways to cut costs. How much will artificial intelligence help? The management school at the University of California, Los Angeles has been developing AI applications for its 500 faculty and staff members, including tools that might automate the... Universities grappling with slowing enrollment and imperiled federal funding are looking for new...

Getty Images

Corporate Chatbots Gone Wild

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Dec 16, 2025 10:46am PST

Getty Images

Corporate Chatbots Gone Wild

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Dec 16, 2025 10:46am PST

Businesses such as IBM and Salesforce have long used chatbots to greet their website visitors and offer them assistance with getting more information about their products. In recent years, generative AI has livened up these chatbots so they are no longer confined to a small set of canned responses. But some technology providers are having... Businesses such as IBM and Salesforce have long used chatbots to greet their website visitors and...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Job Market Is Worsening. AI Is ‘Part of the Story,’ Fed Chair Says

By Amir Efrati and Laura Mandaro · Dec 11, 2025 10:49am PST · 1 comment

Is AI hurting American jobs? A bit, according to Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, whose comments Wednesday gave the AI fearmongers a good amount of material to work with.In a press conference, Powell said AI was “part of the story” behind the worsening unemployment that prompted the Fed to lower interest rates for the second time in two... Is AI hurting American jobs? A bit, according to Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, whose...

Dario Amodei. Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Agree to Develop Agent Standards Together

By Aaron Holmes · Dec 9, 2025 6:30am PST · 2 comments

For AI agents to work properly in automating white-collar tasks, the companies developing the agents and the companies running the enterprise apps those agents use will need to agree on technical standards for how these technologies connect to each other.Some leading companies are preparing to do just that. As soon as this week, Anthropic,... For AI agents to work properly in automating white-collar tasks, the companies developing the...

Photo by Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Microsoft Wants to Sell Software Subscriptions—to AI Agents; AWS’ AI Fallback Plan

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Dec 4, 2025 10:44am PST · 1 comment

When AI software sellers pitch their vision of the future, it can start to feel paradoxical.On one hand, sellers say AI can meaningfully automate large swaths of white collar work, which should in theory help companies save money because they won’t need to pay as many humans. On the other hand, if companies cut jobs while embracing automation,... When AI software sellers pitch their vision of the future, it can start to feel paradoxical.On...

AWS CEO Matt Garman. Photo by Noah Berger/Getty Images

In a Reversal, AWS Makes it Easier For AI Customers to Use Rival Clouds

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Dec 2, 2025 10:33am PST

AWS CEO Matt Garman. Photo by Noah Berger/Getty Images

In a Reversal, AWS Makes it Easier For AI Customers to Use Rival Clouds

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Dec 2, 2025 10:33am PST

Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud are arch-rivals in the cloud computing market, so it was surprising to hear them announce Monday that they’re working to make it easier for their joint customers to move data and develop applications that run on both clouds. Tech companies are constantly issuing announcements about working together, but... Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud are arch-rivals in the cloud computing market, so it was...

Dev Rishi, general manager of AI at Rubrik. Photo Credit: Felicis

Rubrik Tests ‘Undo Button’ for Malfunctioning AI Agents

By Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 25, 2025 12:01pm PST · 1 comment

Many chief information officers at large companies are hesitant to put critical parts of their business operations in the hands of AI agents. That’s because when agents go off the rails, the damage can be potentially catastrophic, as one customer of AI coding startup Replit learned this summer after its service deleted the contents of one of his... Many chief information officers at large companies are hesitant to put critical parts of their...

Businesses Still Dream of Using AI to Replace Enterprise Apps

Businesses Still Dream of Using AI to Replace Enterprise Apps

By Kevin McLaughlin and Aaron Holmes · Nov 20, 2025 10:45am PST · 1 comment

We’ve been hearing for years about the theoretical threat AI poses to enterprise software apps like Salesforce, ServiceNow and Workday. While a disaster scenario for these firms hasn’t happened because AI generally isn’t reliable enough to duplicate what they do, some customers are still trying to use the latest AI models to replace those apps... We’ve been hearing for years about the theoretical threat AI poses to enterprise software apps...

Screenshot via Microsoft

Microsoft Wants to Bring Order to Agent Chaos

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 18, 2025 10:30am PST

As CIOs and IT execs labor to sort through a deluge of identical AI agent products sold by seemingly every enterprise software firm, they’re now being pitched on how to control and direct all these agents from one app. Enter “agent orchestration. As CIOs and IT execs labor to sort through a deluge of identical AI agent products sold by...

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, speaks during the 2025 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. Photo by Getty Images

The Real Winners of the Enterprise Software Market’s AI Agent Free-For-All

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 13, 2025 10:30am PST

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, speaks during the 2025 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. Photo by Getty Images

The Real Winners of the Enterprise Software Market’s AI Agent Free-For-All

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 13, 2025 10:30am PST

Something curious has happened in software: Nearly every established seller of enterprise tools started marketing the same general-purpose AI agents that aim to handle everything from drafting emails to customers to resolving IT service tickets. Even old-guard database providers like Snowflake are now in the AI applications game, going head... Something curious has happened in software: Nearly every established seller of enterprise tools...

He Xiaopeng, cofounder and chairman Xpeng, speaks during AI Day. Photo by Getty Images

The Tesla of China Follows Musk in AI Hardware—with More Pragmatism

By Juro Osawa · Nov 11, 2025 10:26am PST · 1 comment

A billionaire CEO of an electric car maker took the stage last week with a humanoid robot prototype and shared ambitious plans to also develop robotaxis and flying cars. It wasn’t Elon Musk, though. A billionaire CEO of an electric car maker took the stage last week with a humanoid robot...

Trase Systems President Baskar Sridharan. Photo courtesy of Trase Systems

Agents Learn to Haggle Prices with Software Vendors

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 6, 2025 10:42am PST

While artificial intelligence agents continue to generate mixed results, depending on how much assistance customers get from their AI vendors, some of them have gained a new skill: negotiating software contracts.Over the past year, data management startup Cribl has been using an AI agent from procurement software startup Zip that reads Cribl’s... While artificial intelligence agents continue to generate mixed results, depending on how much...

Sridar Ramaswamy. Photo by Getty Images

When Good AI Isn’t Good Enough; Snowflake’s AI Agents Arrive

By Aaron Holmes and Amir Efrati · Nov 4, 2025 10:30am PST

Talking to business leaders about AI these days can often feel paradoxical. On one hand, AI is becoming a steady part of company software budgets, especially productivity tools like chatbots and AI coding software that individual employees use. On the other hand, there’s a persistent frustration that AI isn’t living up to the hype when it... Talking to business leaders about AI these days can often feel paradoxical. On one hand, AI...

Amy Hood. Photo by Getty Images

How Microsoft Escaped the AI Margin Squeeze; An FDE Boom

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Oct 30, 2025 10:33am PDT

Amy Hood. Photo by Getty Images

How Microsoft Escaped the AI Margin Squeeze; An FDE Boom

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Oct 30, 2025 10:33am PDT

Microsoft shared some good and bad news with investors during its quarterly earnings call Wednesday: More customers have been using Microsoft’s suite of AI copilots, but many of them aren’t paying for it. Microsoft said more people are using Copilot Chat, which provides ChatGPT-like features to Office 365 subscribers for free (more advanced... Microsoft shared some good and bad news with investors during its quarterly earnings call...

Photo by Shutterstock

Microsoft’s AI Bundle Gets In Trouble

By Aaron Holmes and Kevin McLaughlin · Oct 28, 2025 10:30am PDT

Microsoft last year got more aggressive about getting people to pay up for artificial intelligence features in its Office productivity suite, such as those that draft emails or summarize documents. It began including AI features by default and raising the baseline price of Office for individual consumers by 30%. The maneuver paid off, as... Microsoft last year got more aggressive about getting people to pay up for artificial...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Getty Images

Airbnb CEO Throws Subtle Shade at OpenAI; Khosla’s Enterprise AI Fix

By Kevin McLaughlin · Oct 23, 2025 11:12am PDT

Welcome back! At its developer conference earlier this month, OpenAI showed a forthcoming feature that lets ChatGPT users access services from Expedia, Uber and Spotify directly in the chatbot. Some consumer apps might view such a feature as a threat because it bypasses their sites, preventing them from showcasing other products.For his... Welcome back! At its developer conference earlier this month, OpenAI showed a forthcoming...

Andrej Karpathy. Getty Images

A Reality Check on Agents

By Aaron Holmes · Oct 21, 2025 10:30am PDT · 2 comments

Around the start of this year, executives at artificial intelligence providers like OpenAI and Salesforce said 2025 would be “the year of agents,” making it seem like fully autonomous AI would soon take over human jobs. Since then, Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP and many others pitched roughly seven types of agent to automate white collar tasks in... Around the start of this year, executives at artificial intelligence providers like OpenAI and...

Dell Founder, Chairman and CEO Michael Dell. Photo via Getty Images

What We Learned From Salesforce’s Dreamforce; Using OpenAI and Anthropic For Different Tasks

By Kevin McLaughlin and Jing Yang · Oct 16, 2025 11:06am PDT

Dell Founder, Chairman and CEO Michael Dell. Photo via Getty Images

What We Learned From Salesforce’s Dreamforce; Using OpenAI and Anthropic For Different Tasks

By Kevin McLaughlin and Jing Yang · Oct 16, 2025 11:06am PDT

Welcome back!Salesforce is shifting its artificial intelligence strategy to boost flagging growth as even CEO Marc Benioff this week acknowledged a gap between the technology’s capabilities and corporate customers’ willingness to buy it, Erin and I reported Wednesday. At its annual Dreamforce event for customers in San Francisco, we were... Welcome back!Salesforce is shifting its artificial intelligence strategy to boost flagging growth...