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BuzzFeed looks at AI to get out of financial troubles
18 Mar 2026

BuzzFeed, the US media giant famous for its quizzes and listicles, is reinventing itself for the artificial intelligence (AI) era.

At the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti unveiled Branch Office, a new company that will focus on exploring AI through consumer-facing apps.

The move comes as part of BuzzFeed's efforts to overcome its financial difficulties.

Branch Office builds on BuzzFeed's AI experiments
New venture

Peretti described Branch Office as an extension of BuzzFeed's long-standing experiments with AI technology.

He said, "We've been working on this secretly for over a year, and we've learned a lot from the BuzzFeed platform about what is coming with new kinds of AI formats."

The CEO emphasized that using AI is a way to connect people and build communities around culture and taste.

New apps include BF Island and Conjure
App launch

Bill Shouldis, a product director at BuzzFeed and the founder of Branch Office, showcased two new apps: BF Island and Conjure.

BF Island is a group chat app with AI-powered photo editing features.

The unique aspect of this app is an in-app library of online trends and memes created by an editorial team to inspire users to create AI photos referencing these trends.

Quiz Party app for social quizzes
Innovative concept

Conjure, the second app, is like BeReal but encourages users to take daily photos of things other than themselves.

The demo for this app prompted users with "What lies between the trees and the moon?" leading them to capture a picture of the night sky.

Peretti also introduced Quiz Party, a social app that allows friends to take BuzzFeed quizzes together and share their results.

BuzzFeed's financial challenges and the role of AI
Financial outlook

BuzzFeed recently admitted that it has "substantial doubt" about its ability to continue as a business.

The company, which posted a net loss of $57.3 million last year, is focused on its Studio IP and new AI apps like these in an attempt to overcome its liquidity challenges.

Despite the underwhelming response from the SXSW audience, Peretti remains optimistic about the potential of AI in software development and user engagement.