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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Meta Plans New Push for Business Chatbots

By Kalley Huang · Mar 4, 2025 10:00am PST

Art by Mike Sullivan

Meta Plans New Push for Business Chatbots

By Kalley Huang · Mar 4, 2025 10:00am PST

Meta Platforms is preparing a new push to woo businesses to set up and run artificial intelligence chatbots on Messenger and WhatsApp, according to a current employee.As a newcomer in a crowded market, Meta has pitched its business chatbots as tools to provide customer support, plus information and recommendations that will lead to sales, the... Meta Platforms is preparing a new push to woo businesses to set up and run artificial...

Art by Mike Sullivan via Midjourney

Software Startups Under Threat; Experian Finally Takes the Chatbot Plunge

By Rocket Drew, Jon Victor and Catherine Perloff · Feb 27, 2025 10:00am PST

Enterprise software companies that raised money at lofty valuations during the pandemic startup boom are facing many obstacles as they look to jump-start growth. One is the threat from generative artificial intelligence.In our Enterprise Software Startup Takeover List, we’ve identified 92 promising candidates for acquisitions in the coming year.... Enterprise software companies that raised money at lofty valuations during the pandemic startup...

Photo by Shutterstock

Ozempic Maker Says AI Is Finally Reliable Enough to Produce Sensitive Documents

By Aaron Holmes and Jon Victor · Feb 25, 2025 10:00am PST

Multinational companies in regulated industries like pharmaceuticals and insurance have been somewhat reluctant to adopt generative artificial intelligence to handle legally sensitive documents due to the risk of AI-generated mistakes.That seems to be changing. Take Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker behind Ozempic. The company for years has... Multinational companies in regulated industries like pharmaceuticals and insurance have been...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Photo via Getty

Airbnb, HSBC Offer an AI Reality Check

By Jon Victor and Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 20, 2025 10:00am PST

It’s now common to hear CEOs talk about how they’re using artificial intelligence to cut costs. But here and there some are poking holes in their peers’ rosy statements. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, for instance, said on the company’s earnings call that AI-powered coding assistants haven’t led to a “fundamental step change in productivity yet.”... It’s now common to hear CEOs talk about how they’re using artificial intelligence to cut costs....

Sam Altman at a press conference in Tokyo earlier this month. Photo via Getty

What OpenAI’s Sales Automation Software Can Do—and What It Can’t

By Jon Victor · Feb 18, 2025 10:00am PST · 2 comments

Sam Altman at a press conference in Tokyo earlier this month. Photo via Getty

What OpenAI’s Sales Automation Software Can Do—and What It Can’t

By Jon Victor · Feb 18, 2025 10:00am PST · 2 comments

A clip recently surfaced on Reddit showing OpenAI executives demonstrating a new ChatGPT feature in Japan. The video showed how ChatGPT’s “deep research” mode, part of a $200-a-month Pro subscription, could automatically sort through sales leads and determine which ones are worth contacting. It determines that by searching the web for data like... A clip recently surfaced on Reddit showing OpenAI executives demonstrating a new ChatGPT feature...

art via Midjourney by Mike Sullivan

Agents Hit Trust Roadblock With Logistics Execs; Anthropic Targets OpenAI Customers

By Theo Wayt, Jon Victor and Aaron Holmes · Feb 13, 2025 10:49am PST

Artificial intelligence agents designed to make decisions for their customers are all the rage. But as companies developing agents make their pitches, they’re going to have to figure out how to quell customers’ trust issues and skepticism. I could see this dynamic at Manifest, an e-commerce and logistics conference I attended in Las Vegas... Artificial intelligence agents designed to make decisions for their customers are all the rage....

Ready, Madrigal screenshots via Youtube.

What’s Working at Pinterest

By Jon Victor · Feb 11, 2025 10:00am PST

Two artificial intelligence trends have converged at Pinterest: the growing usefulness of AI in improving advertising, and how falling costs of such technology can benefit large application developers more than other types of companies.Pinterest is a bit of a rarity in AI. For years, the online scrapbooking company has trained its own AI models... Two artificial intelligence trends have converged at Pinterest: the growing usefulness of AI in...

Photo by Shutterstock

DeepSeek Will Pressure Microsoft, Salesforce to Drop AI Prices, Software Executives Say

By Aaron Holmes · Feb 6, 2025 10:00am PST

The falling cost of artificial intelligence—underscored by the arrival of DeepSeek—is likely to pressure software firms to stop charging customers for ChatGPT-like features such as summarizing documents and automatically drafting emails, which are fast becoming a commodity, executives from security firm Palo Alto Networks and file storage firm... The falling cost of artificial intelligence—underscored by the arrival of DeepSeek—is likely to...

Outside DeepSeek's office in Beijing. Photo via Getty.

Eyeing Higher Margins, AWS and Other Cloud Providers Embrace DeepSeek

By Jon Victor · Feb 4, 2025 10:25am PST

Outside DeepSeek's office in Beijing. Photo via Getty.

Eyeing Higher Margins, AWS and Other Cloud Providers Embrace DeepSeek

By Jon Victor · Feb 4, 2025 10:25am PST

The DeepSeek reasoning artificial intelligence, R1, isn’t just a gift to businesses eager to cut their AI costs. American cloud providers looking to boost their server rental businesses moved quickly last week to make R1 available to their customers.So far, however, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google aren’t charging cloud customers to use... The DeepSeek reasoning artificial intelligence, R1, isn’t just a gift to businesses eager to cut...