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

Chatbots Get Cheaper; Anthropic Reigns Supreme in Coding

Chatbots Get Cheaper; Anthropic Reigns Supreme in Coding

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 19, 2025 10:26am PDT

When DeepSeek released its high-performing open-source artificial intelligence earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicted that the price of AI models and applications would soon come under pressure. And he said that trend would prevent any one company from gaining a permanent advantage over others in selling AI to... When DeepSeek released its high-performing open-source artificial intelligence earlier this year,...

Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering. Photo via Getty.

Developers Eye Apple’s Models for ‘Invisible’ AI Features

By Aaron Holmes and Aaron Tilley · Jun 17, 2025 10:57am PDT

Apple is by no means a front-runner in the race to develop world-changing artificial intelligence, and its annual Worldwide Developers Conference last week did little to convince anyone that its Siri assistant would catch up to ChatGPT anytime soon.Still, Apple managed to stir up excitement among mobile app developers who want AI in their apps.... Apple is by no means a front-runner in the race to develop world-changing artificial...

Salesforce Challenges the Principle That Customers Control Their Data

Salesforce Challenges the Principle That Customers Control Their Data

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jun 12, 2025 10:40am PDT · 1 comment

Photo via Adobe Stock

CEOs Try Cloning Themselves With AI

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 10, 2025 10:38am PDT · 2 comments

Photo via Adobe Stock

CEOs Try Cloning Themselves With AI

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 10, 2025 10:38am PDT · 2 comments

Artificial intelligence may not be advanced enough to run a company yet. But CEOs of some firms are testing ways that AI can sub in for them.They're trying chatbots and video avatars to answer employee questions, schmooze with customers and talk during earnings calls. Artificial intelligence may not be advanced enough to run a company yet. But CEOs of some firms...

Photo via Getty

Lowe’s Puts OpenAI-Powered Voice Assistant on the Store Floor

By Jon Victor · Jun 5, 2025 10:53am PDT

It’s not always easy for customers of Lowe’s Home Improvement to locate employees when they need to ask for help inside its cavernous facilities. But the retailer is at least giving its employees access to artificial intelligence so they can be a lot more helpful in answering questions when customers do track them down.Over the last year, the... It’s not always easy for customers of Lowe’s Home Improvement to locate employees when they need...

Rory McIlroy at the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla in March. Photo by Getty.

How Anthropic Helps the PGA Tour Give Golf Fans Data on Every Shot

By Jon Victor · Jun 3, 2025 10:00am PDT

At any given moment during a typical professional golf tournament, 14 balls are in motion, and players hit upwards of 30,000 shots over the four-day event. It’s been next to impossible for the PGA Tour, which runs these tournaments, and sports broadcasters to provide commentary or information on every shot—even though the Tour thinks there’s... At any given moment during a typical professional golf tournament, 14 balls are in motion, and...

Image via Getty

The Downsides of Vibe Coding

By Jon Victor · May 29, 2025 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

Some businesses are waking up to the downsides of automated coding products. While most customers cite huge gains in developer productivity from tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or Anthropic’s Claude, the code they generate sometimes doesn’t work as expected—or worse, it can make a business vulnerable to hacking or a data leak.The risks can be... Some businesses are waking up to the downsides of automated coding products. While most customers...

Image via Getty

Where Autonomous Coding Tools Excel

By Jon Victor · May 27, 2025 10:02am PDT

Image via Getty

Where Autonomous Coding Tools Excel

By Jon Victor · May 27, 2025 10:02am PDT

New AI-powered programming tools like OpenAI’s Codex or Google’s Jules might not be able to code an entire app from scratch just yet. But when it comes to working with large amounts of previously written code, those products could soon be saving developers a ton of time.For example, Codex excels at finding bugs in a large code base and... New AI-powered programming tools like OpenAI’s Codex or Google’s Jules might not be able to code...

Satya Nadella on stage at Microsoft Build 2025. Photo via Getty

Can AI Really Replace Human Developers?

By Aaron Holmes · May 22, 2025 10:00am PDT · 1 comment

I’m in Seattle this week for Microsoft’s annual Build conference, where the software behemoth has announced a slate of new artificial intelligence–infused products meant to get developers to build and purchase AI agents from Microsoft’s Azure cloud.Specifically, Microsoft is leaning into the idea of advanced AI chatbots that are capable of... I’m in Seattle this week for Microsoft’s annual Build conference, where the software behemoth has...

Photo via Shutterstock

Why Databricks Is Paying for an AI Sales Coach

By Jon Victor · May 20, 2025 10:16am PDT

Microsoft, Salesforce and numerous startups have talked up the idea of an artificial intelligence–powered coach that gives feedback to salespeople about their pitches to customers. Databricks is one of the few companies to actually use such a product at scale. Earlier this year, the data-analysis software provider gave 1,000 employees in... Microsoft, Salesforce and numerous startups have talked up the idea of an artificial intelligence...

Photo by Getty

Businesses’ Impatience with AI Models Spurred Cohere’s App Push

By Jon Victor · May 15, 2025 11:44am PDT

These have been difficult years for roughly a dozen of the major startups trying to sell artificial intelligence models to app developers or corporate customers. OpenAI and other AI firms that sell ready-to-use products for knowledge workers have sucked the oxygen out of the room for startups like Cohere, whose revenue has severely lagged... These have been difficult years for roughly a dozen of the major startups trying to sell...

Chandrasekaran screenshot via YouTube.

The AI Startup Using a Private Equity Growth Playbook

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

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

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

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

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

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...