BuzzFeed, an American-based media company best known for its quizzes, listicles, and, for a time, Pulitzer Prize Winner The journalism division is reinventing itself for the AI era. At least, that’s the pitch.
At the SXSW conference in Austin, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti introduced The company’s next Media Four: A spinoff called Branch Office, which will explore artificial intelligence in consumer-facing apps designed for creativity and connection.
The new company is an extension of the experiments that BuzzFeed has run for years using AI technology, Peretti explained, in a halting presentation that began with slideshow glitches, met with silence or polite titrating before moving on to an app demo.
“We’ve been working on this in secret for over a year, and we’ve learned a lot from the BuzzFeed platform about what’s coming with new types of AI formats,” Peretti said. “Using AI is a way to connect people, build communities around these pillars of culture, and taste and community.”
Bill Shoulds, director of product at BuzzFeed and founder of Branch Office, introduced the company’s two new apps: BF Island and Conjure.
The first product, BF Islandis a group chat platform that offers features to change and edit photos using AI. This isn’t exactly groundbreaking tech in itself, but that’s not the point.
The key feature here is not the AI toolset but the in-app library of online trends and memes, created by the editorial team, that can inspire users to create AI images referencing blink-and-you’ll-remember trends like the CEO of McDonald’s. Taste testing the burgers or “Frame mogging“Drama.”
The second app, Conjure, is similar to BeReal – a once-a-day temporary photo app – except that it appears to guide users to take daily photos of things other than themselves. (As a reminder, BeReal wasn’t sticking around, eventually switching to Voodoo after losing traction.) The demo, for example, had the photo prompt “What’s between the trees and the moon?”, which prompted users to draw a picture of the night sky. A series of spooky images flashed across the screen, followed by a whisper, “What magic will you do?”
We didn’t get it, and obviously the audience didn’t either. After the demo, a lone cough could be heard amidst the silence, followed by uncomfortable laughter.
Shoulds then noted that AI is also included in Conjure, as the app has an “AI spirit for the CEO.” (Again, what?)
Peretti also introduced Quiz Party, a social app that lets you take BuzzFeed quizzes with friends and share your results.
BuzzFeed’s bold presentation came just days after the media company said it had “substantial doubts.” About its ability to continue as a going concern and engaged in strategic discussions focused on addressing its liquidity challenges. The company, which posted a net loss of $57.3 million last year, said it will focus this year on its studio IP and new AI apps like these.
But even the tech-forward audience at SXSW wasn’t convinced.
As one person pointed out during the question-and-answer session after the presentation, Beryl struggled to keep people coming back after the novelty wore off. What would an app like Conjur do to combat a similar retention problem?
Shoulds said the app will evolve “and different things will happen in it and not exactly what it is today.” He cited the ability to integrate video, audio, and prototyping with Claude Code to build community.
The premise behind the new apps isn’t unreasonable: AI can lead to faster software development, making it possible for companies to iterate more quickly and keep people engaged.
“In a way, software is the new material,” Peretti noted.
Of course, before you can iterate, you have to attract customers. With its new apps, BuzzFeed seems to have thought more about what AI can do than what people want to do with AI, which isn’t a recipe for success.