BuzzFeed, a U.S.-based media company famed for its quizzes, listicles, and previously a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism division, is reimagining itself for the AI era. This reinvention was pitched at the SXSW conference in Austin, where BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti introduced a new venture: Branch Office, a spin-off focusing on AI in consumer apps aimed at creativity and connection.
The launch is an extension of BuzzFeed’s long-running AI technology experiments. Despite glitches at the presentation, Peretti emphasized learning from the BuzzFeed platform about emerging AI formats, noting that AI is vital for connecting people and building communities based on culture and taste.
Bill Shouldis, BuzzFeed’s Director of Product and Branch Office founder, introduced two new apps: BF Island and Conjure. BF Island is a group chat platform with AI features for editing photos, alongside a library of trends and memes compiled by an editorial team to inspire digital creations referencing fleeting trends like the McDonald’s CEO taste-testing a burger.
The second app, Conjure, reminiscent of BeReal, encourages users to photograph prompts not centered on themselves. The demo showcased a prompt about the night sky, ending with the question, “What will you conjure?”
After the somewhat confusing demos, Peretti also highlighted Quiz Party, a social app for sharing quiz results with friends.
BuzzFeed’s presentation came days after announcing doubts about its financial viability and plans to address liquidity challenges by focusing on Studio IP and the new AI apps. Despite these efforts, the tech-savvy SXSW audience remained skeptical, questioning potential user retention issues similar to those experienced by BeReal. Shouldis suggested evolving the app with features like video, audio, and prototyping with Claude Code.
While the ideas behind these apps are grounded in the belief that AI accelerates software development and iteration, BuzzFeed appears to have focused more on AI capabilities than on user desires, risking a lack of success.