BuzzFeed launches AI apps through Branch Office spinoff to combat $57.3M loss

BuzzFeed Bets on AI Apps to Solve Financial Woes

BuzzFeed is attempting to reinvent itself through artificial intelligence as the media company faces serious financial challenges. At SXSW in Austin, Texas, CEO and co-founder Jonah Peretti introduced Branch Office, an independent spinoff company that has been secretly developing AI apps for over a year 1

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. The announcement comes just days after BuzzFeed disclosed "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a business, with the company reporting a net loss of $57.3 million last year 1

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. The struggling media company plans to focus this year on its Studio IP and these new AI apps as part of strategic conversations aimed at addressing liquidity challenges.

Branch Office Introduces Three AI-Powered Consumer Apps

The new creative studio operates independently with its own founders and mandate, built to rethink how people connect on the internet in the age of AI 2

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. Bill Shouldis, a director of product at BuzzFeed and founder of Branch Office, presented three apps during the presentation: BF Island, Conjure, and Quiz Party. BF Island functions as a group chat platform with AI-powered photo editing features, but its distinguishing element is an in-app library of online trends and memes curated by an editorial team 1

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. The platform targets "very online" audiences who follow blink-and-you-miss-it trends. Conjure takes a different approach, sending users a daily photography prompt wrapped in mysterious lore, aiming to pull people out of their feeds and back into the real world 3

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. Quiz Party brings the classic BuzzFeed quiz format into a shared space where friends can compare results in real time 2

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Creative Software Development Inspired by Nintendo Philosophy

Branch Office runs more like a creative studio than a traditional tech startup, with Nintendo serving as its guiding influence 2

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. The gaming giant's principle of "lateral thinking with withered technology" shapes the spinoff's approach to taking maximum creativity out of what already exists 4

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. "In a way, software is the new content," Peretti noted during the presentation 1

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. The premise centers on AI enabling faster software development, making it possible for companies to iterate quickly and maintain user interaction. Branch Office grew out of years of BuzzFeed AI experiments, from games where users raised a "nepo baby" to chatbots simulating difficult customer service encounters 4

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. Through hundreds of projects, the team learned what AI could accomplish when building totally new social experiences rather than replicating existing content production models.

SXSW Presentation Met with Skepticism and Silence

The presentation at SXSW began with technical difficulties, including slideshow glitches, before moving on to app demos that were met with silence or polite, uncomfortable laughter from the tech-forward audience 1

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. After the Conjure demo, which featured spooky images and a whispered "What will you conjure?", a lone cough could be heard among the silence. Shouldis mentioned that Conjure has an "AI spirit for a CEO," a statement that only added to the confusion 1

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. During the Q&A session, attendees raised concerns about user retention, pointing out that BeReal had struggled to keep people engaged after the novelty wore off. Shouldis responded that the apps would evolve with different features, including video, audio, and prototyping with Claude Code to foster community 1

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Future of the Internet Through Community and Culture

Peretti positioned Branch Office as a solution to what he describes as an accelerating era of "infinite fake news, slop, personalization bubbles, and cuts at the organizations that actually care about content" 4

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. The bet behind these digital experiences is straightforward: as AI makes content infinite, cheap, and easy to produce, the real value online will shift toward community, culture, and taste 2

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. While most social media companies use AI to keep people isolated in algorithmic feeds, BuzzFeed's approach focuses on creativity and engagement to bring people closer together. However, critics note that BuzzFeed appears to have prioritized what AI can do over what people actually want to do with AI, which may not be a recipe for revenue generation 1

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. The company must first attract users before it can iterate and improve these experimental apps, and the lukewarm reception at SXSW suggests significant challenges ahead for the struggling media company's latest pivot.