Applied AI by The Information Staff

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Applied AI

By The Information Staff

Applied AI focuses on deep storytelling and reporting around the application of AI in business and beyond. From how companies drive innovation, support their customers, and foster collaboration with their teams, to how CEOs are applying AI to optimize their organizations.

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Recent Editions

Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images

AT&T is Using Open Source Models to Curb Anthropic Bills

By Aaron Holmes · Aug 20, 2026 11:55am PDT

Anthropic and OpenAI had better hope more companies don’t follow the example of AT&T.The telecommunications firm plans to keep its employees’ spending on Anthropic and OpenAI models flat in the coming years by using more open-source models such as Nvidia’s Nemotron, according to Mark Austin, an AT&T vice president. Anthropic and OpenAI had better hope more companies don’t follow the example of AT&T.The...

Andi Gutmans, vice president and general manager, Google Data Cloud. Photo courtesy of Google

Google Says Its AI Can Do the Work of Forward Deployed Engineers

By Kevin McLaughlin · Aug 18, 2026 2:19pm PDT · 1 comment

Following the playbook Palantir pioneered, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Amazon are investing billions of dollars to hire so-called forward deployed engineers to get newfangled AI to work in enterprises. Then there’s Google, which says AI can automate some of what these FDEs do. While Google Cloud recently said it plans to hire... Following the playbook Palantir pioneered, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Amazon are investing...

Getty Images

Anthropic Models Can Be Cheaper to Use Than Chinese Ones, Study Finds

By Laura Bratton · Aug 13, 2026 12:03pm PDT

A recent analysis is challenging the idea that Chinese-made AI is cheaper than offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic. AlphaSense, a software firm that sells AI-powered search and market-research tools, released a study that found proprietary models from OpenAI and Anthropic are actually cheaper for performing some tasks, compared to... A recent analysis is challenging the idea that Chinese-made AI is cheaper than offerings from...

Samuel Berry, chief information officer at the Agriculture Department. YouTube.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Taps C3 AI to Trim Salesforce Footprint

By Laura Bratton · Aug 11, 2026 11:11am PDT · 2 comments

Samuel Berry, chief information officer at the Agriculture Department. YouTube.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Taps C3 AI to Trim Salesforce Footprint

By Laura Bratton · Aug 11, 2026 11:11am PDT · 2 comments

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which spends about $3 billion a year on IT, uses Salesforce for “pretty much everything” including case management and maintaining its public facing portals and websites, according to chief information officer Sam Berry. But over the last year, the sprawling agency reduced its use of Salesforce for some tasks... The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which spends about $3 billion a year on IT, uses Salesforce...

Art by Clark Miller

Figma, Canva Showing Growing Pains of AI Pivot

By Laura Bratton · Aug 6, 2026 3:05pm PDT

Welcome back!Software companies have been at pains to flaunt the success of their AI products, as they seek to dispel investor fears that AI apps are threatening their existence. Two reports this week show that developing popular AI products is only half the challenge. Canva, the design software company popular among students and business... Welcome back!Software companies have been at pains to flaunt the success of their AI products, as...

Art via Getty Images

How Firms Like Coinbase Are Building Coding Agents to Complement Anthropic's Claude Code

By Laura Bratton · Aug 4, 2026 10:03am PDT

Coinbase and some other tech-savvy firms such as Shopify and Ramp have built their own AI coding agents for internal use, giving their employees an alternative to pricey options from firms like Anthropic and OpenAI.Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, built an AI coding agent called Forge, which launched to all of its engineers in April of... Coinbase and some other tech-savvy firms such as Shopify and Ramp have built their own AI coding...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella via Getty

New Microsoft Copilot Security Flaws Show How AI Can Leak Customer Secrets

By Aaron Holmes · Jul 30, 2026 11:57am PDT

Cybersecurity is top of mind for many businesses following the remarkable hack of Hugging Face earlier this month. And rightly so. The problem they now face is that many of the AI firms selling tools to find and patch vulnerabilities are themselves vulnerable to security problems.The latest is Microsoft’s Copilot AI features for Office 365,... Cybersecurity is top of mind for many businesses following the remarkable hack of Hugging Face...

Art by Mike Sullivan/Getty Images

Cursor Customers Fight Price Hikes in Contract Talks

By Laura Bratton · Jul 28, 2026 12:38pm PDT · 2 comments

Art by Mike Sullivan/Getty Images

Cursor Customers Fight Price Hikes in Contract Talks

By Laura Bratton · Jul 28, 2026 12:38pm PDT · 2 comments

Cursor, the pioneering AI coding app, is growing pretty well ahead of SpaceX’s planned $60 billion purchase. But the company, which provides access to different AI models for coding work, last year shifted to charging more customers based on usage rather than flat rate subscriptions, and the move is now causing some heated contract renewal... Cursor, the pioneering AI coding app, is growing pretty well ahead of SpaceX’s planned $60...

Art via Getty Images

Why OpenAI’s Hugging Face AI Hack Spooked Employees

By Aaron Holmes, Rocket Drew and Amir Efrati · Jul 23, 2026 9:31am PDT · 2 comments

After OpenAI revealed on Tuesday that its AI broke out of the company’s systems, accessed the web and hacked model repository Hugging Face during a cybersecurity test, it was easy to view the disclosure as a kind of “we’re so good it’s scary” marketing flex.Some commentators made that observation because OpenAI was specifically testing the AI’s... After OpenAI revealed on Tuesday that its AI broke out of the company’s systems, accessed the web...

Art by Clark Miller.

Anthropic Isn’t the Best at Powering Customer Service, New Data Show

By Laura Bratton · Jul 21, 2026 11:45am PDT · 3 comments

Anthropic’s models may be unparalleled at coding, but they’re less capable of powering AI voice and chat applications for customer service than other AI providers. That’s according to data from NiCE, a customer service software provider whose clients include Toyota, Allianz, Nestle and Frontier Airlines.Anthropic’s models have a relatively long... Anthropic’s models may be unparalleled at coding, but they’re less capable of powering AI voice...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Nobody is Immune From the Nvidia GPU Crunch

By Catherine Perloff · Jul 16, 2026 1:28pm PDT

Earlier this week, I wrote about startups moving some of their workloads from Amazon Web Services and other traditional cloud providers to young challengers such as Nebius. That’s in part because startups are having trouble getting the Nvidia chips they need on AWS, sometimes because those chips are only available in too expensive packages.... Earlier this week, I wrote about startups moving some of their workloads from Amazon Web Services...

Images via Getty; art by Mike Sullivan

Are AI Providers Really a Threat to Their Customers?

By Aaron Holmes and Rocket Drew · Jul 14, 2026 2:02pm PDT · 1 comment

Images via Getty; art by Mike Sullivan

Are AI Providers Really a Threat to Their Customers?

By Aaron Holmes and Rocket Drew · Jul 14, 2026 2:02pm PDT · 1 comment

Should businesses worry about whether leading AI providers are using their corporate data to develop competing products? The AI providers’ rivals, including the CEOs of Microsoft, Salesforce and Palantir, seem to think soThe real threat is far more subtle, having more to do with the high-level usage data AI providers can collect and a loophole... Should businesses worry about whether leading AI providers are using their corporate data to...

Image via Shutterstock

Traditional SaaS Loses in Corporate Budget Shift

By Laura Bratton and Aaron Holmes · Jul 9, 2026 10:39am PDT

As businesses spend more on AI from Anthropic and other new providers, traditional enterprise apps and IT services providers are sometimes fighting for a smaller piece of the pie.In one example, French biopharmaceutical giant Sanofi told me it’s using its own in-house AI agent developed with Claude Code and software from an AI startup,... As businesses spend more on AI from Anthropic and other new providers, traditional enterprise...

HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan. Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images

Facing a Revolt, HubSpot Reverses Decision to Use Customer Data For AI Feature

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 7, 2026 1:08pm PDT · 1 comment

HubSpot last week triggered a firestorm among customers after announcing a plan to use some of the data they store with HubSpot’s customer relationship management app to power a forthcoming AI-powered feature.While HubSpot reversed course four days later, the episode shows how sensitive customers are to software firms using their data in the AI... HubSpot last week triggered a firestorm among customers after announcing a plan to use some of...

Palantir CEO Alex Karp. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images.

Palantir CEO Says Some U.S. Government Customers Switched to Open Source AI

By Laura Bratton and Phoebe Liu · Jul 2, 2026 12:31pm PDT

Like other software leaders these days, Palantir CEO Alex Karp is on a mission to convince businesses they need a trusted intermediary between their wallets and Anthropic or OpenAI, rather than dealing directly with the two AI firms.I spoke to Karp shortly after his fiery appearance on CNBC, where he appeared to accuse OpenAI and Anthropic of... Like other software leaders these days, Palantir CEO Alex Karp is on a mission to convince...

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Anthropic Preps Claude Agent in Microsoft Teams

By Laura Bratton, Aaron Holmes and Amir Efrati · Jun 30, 2026 11:22am PDT

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Anthropic Preps Claude Agent in Microsoft Teams

By Laura Bratton, Aaron Holmes and Amir Efrati · Jun 30, 2026 11:22am PDT

Salesforce and Microsoft may be worried about threats posed by AI upstarts like Anthropic to their core enterprise apps, but they’re taking a conciliatory approach.Even though the two incumbents sell proprietary AI agents that can be used inside their Slack and Teams messaging apps, for instance, they’ve decided the apps ought to be a “platform”... Salesforce and Microsoft may be worried about threats posed by AI upstarts like Anthropic to...

Getty Images

Anthropic Customers Find Errant Charges, Auditing Startup Says

By Laura Bratton · Jun 25, 2026 12:31pm PDT

Some customers may be paying more for Anthropic and OpenAI products than they should be due to billing inaccuracies, according to data from Vaudit, which sells an AI bill-auditing tool.Between March and June, Vaudit audited bills sent to 60 companies totaling $34 million, mostly for usage of Anthropic’s Claude Code, and found about $1.7 million... Some customers may be paying more for Anthropic and OpenAI products than they should be due to...

Vipul Ved Prakash. Photo by Big Event Media/Getty Images

Open Source Growth Boosts Together AI, Hugging Face

By Julia Hornstein, Laura Bratton and Kevin McLaughlin · Jun 23, 2026 11:09am PDT

Anthropic and OpenAI are booming, but so are providers of open-source AI models and other cheaper alternatives, thanks to businesses using open-source to control their costs, we reported in detail this morning. But there’s more.Together AI, the neocloud which rents out Nvidia cloud servers and access to open source models, raised its annual ... Anthropic and OpenAI are booming, but so are providers of open-source AI models and other cheaper...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai (left) and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (right). Getty Images.

Google and Microsoft Team Up to Beat Back Anthropic and OpenAI

By Amir Efrati, Aaron Holmes and Catherine Perloff · Jun 18, 2026 10:30am PDT

When a group of tech companies announce an agreement to support an AI backend-software protocol, we don’t blame corporate IT executives for not paying attention. It sounds quite boring.But one such announcement on Wednesday from Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Snowflake, ServiceNow and others is worth paying attention to. It demonstrates one way... When a group of tech companies announce an agreement to support an AI backend-software protocol,...

Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images

AT&T Throttles Some Employees’ AI Usage as ‘Tokenminimizing’ Arrives

By Laura Bratton and Aaron Holmes · Jun 16, 2026 12:13pm PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images

AT&T Throttles Some Employees’ AI Usage as ‘Tokenminimizing’ Arrives

By Laura Bratton and Aaron Holmes · Jun 16, 2026 12:13pm PDT · 1 comment

As AI spending has eaten into corporate budgets, generating concern over rising costs at Fortune 500 firms from Uber to ServiceNow and Snowflake, some companies are beginning to throttle employees’ usage. The latest is AT&T, which has begun limiting some employees’ access to Microsoft’s Github Copilot, according to a person at the... As AI spending has eaten into corporate budgets, generating concern over rising costs at Fortune...