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

Chandrasekaran screenshot via YouTube.

The AI Startup Using a Private Equity Growth Playbook

By Jon Victor · May 13, 2025 10:00am PDT

As the cost of running artificial intelligence models falls, the land grab in customer support automation has reached a new level of intensity. Nearly every major enterprise software vendor now offers a product for automating customer support, according to our analysis, which also breaks down how the race to automate knowledge work has bred new... As the cost of running artificial intelligence models falls, the land grab in customer support...

Illustration via Getty

Why Voice AI Is Hard to Listen To

By Jon Victor · May 8, 2025 10:00am PDT

Artificial intelligence has gotten great at automating customer support emails and text chats. But automating customer support phone calls is far more challenging because AI that can understand and generate human-sounding speech is still too costly, slow and unreliable, said Jesse Zhang, CEO of Decagon, a developer of AI for customer support.... Artificial intelligence has gotten great at automating customer support emails and text chats....

Glenn D. Fogel, chief executive officer of Booking Holdings Inc., at the Semafor World Economy Summit during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, April 25, 2025. The International Monetary Fund sharply lowered its forecasts for world growth for this year and next, warning the outlook could deteriorate further as US President Donald Trump’s tariffs spark a global trade war. Image via Getty.

Booking Holdings’ CEO Is Hedging His AI Bets

By Jon Victor · May 6, 2025 10:23am PDT

We’ve written a lot about the possibility that consumers could soon use ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots for tasks like booking travel or ordering food, depriving app developers of ad revenue and eroding their relationship with customers.But Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, which generates more than $20 billion in revenue... We’ve written a lot about the possibility that consumers could soon use ChatGPT and other...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during an event highlighting Microsoft Copilot agents, the company’s AI tool, on April 4, 2025 in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft's Move to Make People Pay for AI Starts to Pay Off

By Aaron Holmes and Jon Victor · May 1, 2025 10:00am PDT

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during an event highlighting Microsoft Copilot agents, the company’s AI tool, on April 4, 2025 in Redmond, Washington.

Microsoft's Move to Make People Pay for AI Starts to Pay Off

By Aaron Holmes and Jon Victor · May 1, 2025 10:00am PDT

Earlier this year, Microsoft stopped trying to convince consumers to pay extra for artificial intelligence features in its popular Office 365 software, instead opting to add the AI features by default while increasing the lowest price of the software by 30%. That strategy is showing early signs of wringing a few extra bucks out of individual... Earlier this year, Microsoft stopped trying to convince consumers to pay extra for artificial...

Illustration via Getty

A 220,000-Person Company’s Tactics for Keeping AI Costs Down

By Jon Victor · Apr 29, 2025 10:00am PDT

Businesses looking to expand their internal use of artificial intelligence from a select few testers to a large number of workers are hypersensitive to increased costs. Over the last couple of years, that has meant many of their AI projects have never made it out of the pilot phase.Veolia, a 220,000-person provider of water treatment, waste... Businesses looking to expand their internal use of artificial intelligence from a select few...

Fritz Lanman, CEO of Classpass. Photo via Getty.

How ClassPass Got Its Support Bot on Par With Humans

By Jon Victor · Apr 24, 2025 10:00am PDT

When it comes to using artificial intelligence for customer support, businesses are learning that the technology isn’t something you set and forget. Instead, they need to keep an eye on how the AI is performing and make improvements even after it goes live.ClassPass, which operates a subscription platform for fitness classes, learned that lesson... When it comes to using artificial intelligence for customer support, businesses are learning that...

Art by Clark Miller

How Customers Get Around AI’s Poor Math Skills

By Jon Victor · Apr 22, 2025 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

Healthcare providers and artificial intelligence vendors have touted AI’s potential to automatically interpret medical test results. But the technology still faces a major limitation: It struggles to do basic math. For example, Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot often can’t answer correctly whether a certain number falls within a given range.That’s a... Healthcare providers and artificial intelligence vendors have touted AI’s potential to...

Art by Clark Miller

The 30 Most and Least Common Uses of AI

By Jon Victor · Apr 17, 2025 10:00am PDT

Art by Clark Miller

The 30 Most and Least Common Uses of AI

By Jon Victor · Apr 17, 2025 10:00am PDT

Executives’ growing willingness to say publicly that they are forgoing hiring in favor of artificial intelligence might be a sign of the times. Businesses are facing more uncertainty than they have in years, with tariff-related disruptions and a broader stock market pullback since the start of this year.As my colleague Aaron Holmes reported... Executives’ growing willingness to say publicly that they are forgoing hiring in favor of...

Photo by Getty

At LinkedIn, the Line Between Engineer and Designer Is Blurring

By Jon Victor · Apr 15, 2025 10:05am PDT

In an era of vibe coding and artificial intelligence that can build a professional-looking webpage based on a simple prompt, the lines separating software engineers, designers and product managers are getting blurry.At LinkedIn, for example, company leaders are encouraging engineers to use AI to speed up design work and designers to use AI to... In an era of vibe coding and artificial intelligence that can build a professional-looking...

Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google speaks onstage during Google Cloud Next “25: AI Exclusive at the Sphere” on April 08, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Image via Getty.

How Companies Are Approaching AI’s Cost-Benefit Analysis

By Erin Woo and Jon Victor · Apr 10, 2025 10:00am PDT

Google Cloud pulled out all the stops at its annual developer conference in Las Vegas this week to demonstrate that customers are getting good results from artificial intelligence services, speeding up production and offering new services to customers. But as tariffs roil markets and dampen the economic outlook, how much businesses spend on AI... Google Cloud pulled out all the stops at its annual developer conference in Las Vegas this week...

Photo via Getty/Shane Burke

Rivals Unite Behind New Software for Agents, Threatening App Makers

By Jon Victor · Apr 8, 2025 10:00am PDT

Before we get to AI agents, we wanted to make sure you saw our story from last night on how the effects of the new U.S. tariffs are already rippling across tech—even prompting some companies to pause new enterprise software deals. We’ll be watching closely for any more disruptions as companies continue to make sense of what the changes in... Before we get to AI agents, we wanted to make sure you saw our story from last night on how the...

Photo via Shutterstock

Why Customers Let Workday Train AI on Their Data

By Jon Victor · Apr 3, 2025 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

Photo via Shutterstock

Why Customers Let Workday Train AI on Their Data

By Jon Victor · Apr 3, 2025 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

Workday, a human resources software provider, is the latest example of a large public company using information from customers to improve its artificial intelligence.To develop AI that lets customers generate and analyze legal contracts, Workday has been using its customers’ own contracts as part of the training data, Chief Technology Officer... Workday, a human resources software provider, is the latest example of a large public company...

Art by Mike Sullivan

ChatGPT’s New Image Tool Is Big for Businesses

By Jon Victor · Apr 1, 2025 10:11am PDT

OpenAI’s latest image update to ChatGPT isn’t just a boon for Studio Ghibli fans. It’s also a gift to businesses of all sizes looking to generate visuals—from marketing photography, advertisements and more—on the cheap.Take Sola Wood Flowers, a Utah-based e-commerce company that sells replica flowers mostly used in weddings. The business... OpenAI’s latest image update to ChatGPT isn’t just a boon for Studio Ghibli fans. It’s also a...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Why Some AI Buyers Might Need to Hire More Engineers, Not Fewer

By Jon Victor · Mar 27, 2025 10:00am PDT

Many companies shelling out cash for artificial intelligence may be counting on the technology to reduce the number of software engineers they need. That’s not the case at Vanta, which sells compliance software to enterprises.As the $2.5 billion–valuation startup uses more AI to aid its 300-person sales organization, it’s hiring more engineers... Many companies shelling out cash for artificial intelligence may be counting on the technology to...

Art by Mike Sullivan

How AI Is Changing Hollywood’s United Talent Agency

By Jon Victor · Mar 25, 2025 10:41am PDT

United Talent Agency, whose agents represent Hollywood stars like Will Ferrell and Cynthia Erivo, has struggled to give its staff real-time information on film and TV viewership or ratings because such data come from numerous sources. Agents have long wanted such data at their fingertips so they could share it with clients, said Joe... United Talent Agency, whose agents represent Hollywood stars like Will Ferrell and Cynthia Erivo,...

Photo via Getty

Why Walmart Isn’t Sleeping on Agents

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 20, 2025 10:00am PDT

Photo via Getty

Why Walmart Isn’t Sleeping on Agents

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Mar 20, 2025 10:00am PDT

Retailers have mixed feelings about web-browsing agents that can control a person’s browser to complete tasks for them.Some firms like DoorDash are concerned that an explosion of agents could overrun their sites with bots, lowering the value of their ads and creating distance between themselves and customers in the process. (That was the subject... Retailers have mixed feelings about web-browsing agents that can control a person’s browser to...

How ChatGPT Convinced Moderna to Merge its IT and HR Departments

How ChatGPT Convinced Moderna to Merge its IT and HR Departments

By Jon Victor · Mar 18, 2025 10:00am PDT

One of the most underappreciated applications of artificial intelligence in the corporate world involves its role in writing performance reviews.Take Moderna, the pharmaceutical giant. Late last year, Brice Challamel, its vice president of AI products and platforms, noticed a trend: ChatGPT usage by the pharmaceutical firm’s employees spiked... One of the most underappreciated applications of artificial intelligence in the corporate world...

Art by Mike Sullivan

CIOs Face a Glut of AI Sellers

By Jon Victor · Mar 13, 2025 10:41am PDT

Convincing professionals, software engineers and other application developers to open their wallets for new artificial intelligence that speeds up their work seems easier than ever. But selling AI to large enterprises is a different ballgame. That was painfully clear this week at the first annual HumanX conference in Las Vegas, which... Convincing professionals, software engineers and other application developers to open their...

Photo by Shutterstock

$120 Billion Fintech Firm Trains Chatbot—on Customer Data

By Anita Ramaswamy, Jon Victor and Aaron Holmes · Mar 11, 2025 10:21am PDT

Seemingly every week, a large company in an old, regulated industry is taking the cover off an artificial intelligence application that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago.The latest example is Fiserv, a 41-year-old provider of software for thousands of financial firms to process payments, manage operations and provide banking... Seemingly every week, a large company in an old, regulated industry is taking the cover off an...

Spenser Skates, CEO of Amplitude. Photo via AP

How a 700-Person Software Firm Taps ChatGPT, Gemini and More—on the Cheap

By Jon Victor · Mar 6, 2025 10:00am PST

Spenser Skates, CEO of Amplitude. Photo via AP

How a 700-Person Software Firm Taps ChatGPT, Gemini and More—on the Cheap

By Jon Victor · Mar 6, 2025 10:00am PST

Last week, Spenser Skates, CEO of analytics firm Amplitude, met with executives from eBay, a major customer. EBay has periodically run into issues with Amplitude’s product, which helps companies understand the performance of their ads and how consumers use their websites, and has sent hundreds of support requests to Amplitude—too many for Skates... Last week, Spenser Skates, CEO of analytics firm Amplitude, met with executives from eBay, a...