BuzzFeed, the U.S.-based media company known best for its quizzes and listicles, is reinventing itself for the AI era. At least, that’s the pitch. The company once housed a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism division, but is now turning its focus to artificial intelligence.
At the SXSW conference in Austin, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti introduced the company’s next media foray: a spin-off called Branch Office. This new company will explore artificial intelligence in consumer-facing apps designed for creativity and connection.
Peretti explained that Branch Office is an extension of experiments BuzzFeed has run for years using AI technology. His presentation began with slideshow glitches before moving to app demos that were met with silence or polite tittering from the audience. He stated that the company has been working on this secretly for over a year, learning from the BuzzFeed platform about new kinds of AI formats. He described using AI as a way of connecting people and building community around culture, taste, and shared interests.
Bill Shouldis, a director of product at BuzzFeed and the founder of Branch Office, presented two of the company’s new apps: BF Island and Conjure.
The first product, BF Island, is a group chat platform offering features for changing and editing photos using AI. While the AI tools themselves are not groundbreaking, the key feature is an in-app library of online trends and memes created by an editorial team. This library is meant to inspire users to create AI photos referencing fleeting trends. The app is targeted at a “very online” audience familiar with niche internet culture.
Another app, Conjure, is similar to BeReal, the once-a-day temporary photo app. However, Conjure appears to guide users to take daily photos of things besides themselves. In a demo, a photo prompt asked, “What lies between the trees and the moon?” leading to a photo of the night sky. The demo showed spooky images and a whispered question, “What will you conjure?” The audience reaction was muted, with a lone cough heard in the silence followed by uncomfortable laughter. Shouldis noted that AI is involved in Conjure, too, describing the app as having an “AI spirit for a CEO.”
Peretti also introduced Quiz Party, a social app that lets users take BuzzFeed quizzes with friends and share their results.
BuzzFeed’s underwhelming presentation comes only days after the media company shared that it has “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a business. The company is engaging in strategic conversations to fix its liquidity challenges. BuzzFeed had a net loss of $57.3 million last year and said it would focus this year on its Studio IP and new AI apps.
Even the tech-forward audience at SXSW was not convinced. During the Q&A session, one person pointed out that BeReal had struggled with user retention after the novelty wore off, and asked how Conjure would combat the same problem. Shouldis responded that the app would evolve, with different types of features, and referenced the potential to integrate video, audio, and prototyping tools to build community.
The premise behind the new apps is that AI can lead to faster software development, allowing companies to iterate quickly and keep people engaged. Peretti noted that, in a way, software is the new content.
However, before you can iterate, you have to attract users. With its new apps, BuzzFeed seems to have thought more about what AI can do than what people want to do with AI, which is not a recipe for success.