Latest news with #Writer
Mint
19 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
The advertising industry parties in Cannes, with AI as its new plus-one
Tech companies like Spotify annually host parties for clients and business partners at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, where attendees are known for letting loose after dark. After several years of small experiments with AI and big anxieties over its impact, advertising executives got with the program at this week's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the ad industry's annual five-day gathering on the French Riviera. Almost every company that took over a swanky beach club, hosted guests in a villa or bought its staff $5,000 festival passes told an enthusiastic story about artificial intelligence. Raging against the machine was firmly out. Any remaining rank-and-file worries about job losses were mostly voiced far from official events. 'We've moved beyond the promise and the fear to the practical application," said Don McGuire, chief marketing officer at chip maker Qualcomm, adding that the company is saving 2,400 hours a month by using an AI agent-building tool called Writer. 'People are talking about using it in different contexts. It's no longer, 'Well, it could do this, or could do that.' " Two years ago, at the first Cannes Lions since the debut of ChatGPT announced AI's new potential, ad agency Monks co-founder Wesley ter Haar set up in a small apartment. Cassandra-like, he told visitors that AI was about to upend ad creation and employment. Executives at other companies in Cannes that year described their trials with the technology but emphasized that only humans can develop the emotional insights that steer ad campaigns. This time the idea of AI-driven industry transformation was mainstream, even if leaders still expressed confidence about humans' continued role. 'Obviously the world of business, and the world at large, is being profoundly disrupted as we speak, and the impact on jobs is already being felt," said Marisa Thalberg, the chief customer and marketing officer at Catalyst Brands, the company formed by the merger of Brooks Brothers-owner SPARC Group and JCPenney. 'My optimism comes from knowing how much creativity is—and will remain—so fundamentally and uniquely human, even if the ways we harness and express it continue to change." Instagram and Facebook owner Meta Platforms used the festival to unveil a host of new AI-based products designed to help advertisers make ads as quickly and simply as possible, feasibly without the need for an agency. Executives at the company repeatedly said the tools weren't designed to replace agencies, however—just to speed up their work and help smaller businesses that can't afford agencies. Marketers in Cannes even put concerns such as President Trump's trade war and tightening consumer budgets on the back burner in favor of talking about AI. 'I didn't have one single conversation about tariffs," said Yannick Bolloré, the chairman and chief executive officer of French advertising holding company Havas. The guest list-only 'cafe" run by Havas on the grounds of the Mondrian Hotel used AI to turn guests into 3-D characters in a movie using only a photo. The company last year said it would invest 400 million euros, or more than $429 million at the time, in AI development over the course of four years, a commitment similar to those made by rival holding companies. Now Bolloré is asking that his staff refer to AI agents as 'teammates." 'Those agents will be fully part of the Havas family," Bolloré said. 'In terms of employees we will find a lot of efficiencies, but our bet is that we will manage more revenue with the same amount of people." But reality isn't always close at hand during Cannes, a 13,000-person conference where $1,355 magnums of Dom Pérignon are regularly ordered to business tables at lunch, and executives' public displays of affection for AI began to wear thin with some. Lower-ranking attendees darkly joked at post-programming parties that they'd be replaced by their artificial counterparts before the next festival. And research published Monday raised some red flags for agencies, most of which have been racing to build up their AI arsenal. Agency trade association the 4As and consulting firm Forrester found that although 75% of agencies are using the technology—up from 61% last year—75% of those using it are also funding it directly without passing on the costs to clients, up from 41% in 2024. 'That is deeply concerning," said Jay Pattisall, principal analyst at Forrester, who wrote in the report that 'agencies are backsliding into antiquated commercial models that led to the commoditization and lack of transparency associated with marketing services." The strongest pushback to the AI overload at Cannes came from the celebrities and social-media content creators who now flood Cannes along with traditional ad players and tech companies. Actors Josh Duhamel, Reese Witherspoon, JB Smoove and others touted their own creative companies but also made a case for the employment of Hollywood talent in the ad industry. Advertising benefits from emotional connections that actors, directors and scriptwriters know how to provide, Smoove said. 'We're talking about mastering the moment," Smoove said. 'You meet somebody that you haven't seen in years and they tell you a funny joke? AI can't do that."
CNBC
10-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
22. Writer
Founders: May Habib (CEO), Waseem AlshikhLaunched: 2020Headquarters: San FranciscoFunding: $326 millionValuation: $1.98 billionKey Technologies: Artificial intelligence, deep neural networks/deep learning, generative AI, machine learningIndustry: Enterprise technologyPrevious appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 0 As businesses race to integrate generative AI, Writer has carved out a niche by claiming to have brand-safe, compliant technology that can be tailored for enterprise use. More than 300 major organizations including Accenture, L'Oréal, Mars, Prudential, Salesforce, Vanguard Group, and Uber have adopted its technology, with what the company says is an average nine times return on investment. Writer offers a generative AI platform that allows companies to build and train AI apps and agents using their own internal data and the startup's large language models (LLMs). They can input documents, style guides, and other organizational knowledge to teach customized AI systems to have "on-brand" outputs within regulatory bounds. Unlike mass market versions of AI tools like OpenAI's public ChatGPT, Writer's systems are designed to integrate with existing workflows via APIs and low-code solutions. "Companies are struggling to adopt generative AI at scale," Writer co-founder and CEO May Habib told CNBC in an interview last October. "What we do we call a full-stack approach to generative AI. It's the large language models plus the critical tools companies need to customize those models for their data for their workflows." Last year, Writer launched an LLM called Palmyra X4 meant to compete with enterprise offerings from fellow Disruptors OpenAI and Anthropic, and other market leaders. The average training cost for its new AI model was $700,000, compared with estimates of $4.6 million for a similarly sized OpenAI model, a cost reduction in attributed to using synthetic data created by AI. Writer's theory is that models that rely on large data sets are hitting their max potential, so synthetic data is necessary to push the AI field forward. The company trained a separate LLM that takes factual data and converts it to data that is structured to train its Palmyra model. "There's some confusion in the industry about the definition of 'synthetic' data," Writer's co-founder and CTO Waseem Alshikh told CNBC at the time it launched its latest enterprise model in October. "To be clear, we don't train our models on fake or hallucination data, and we don't use a model to generate random data. ... We take real, factual data and convert it to synthetic data that is specifically structured in a clearer and cleaner way for model training," Alshikh said. The company also released two Palmyra models meant specifically for healthcare and finance companies last year. It also announced Palmyra Vision, a multi-modal LLM focused on analyzing images, extracting handwritten text and classifying objects. As with all generative AI companies, questions still surround the use cases and return on investment on a widespread scale throughout the economy. While it has been successful in landing big-name clients, it remains to be seen whether those implementations will lead to lasting business growth at a fraction of the cost.
Business Wire
05-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Writer Named a Gartner® Cool Vendor for AI Agent Development
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Writer, the leader in enterprise generative AI, today announced that it has been named a Cool Vendor in the inaugural 2025 Gartner® Cool Vendors™report for AI Agent Development. Over the last 5 years, Writer has pioneered the enterprise AI category with the world's only enterprise-focused AI research lab and now leads the industry with an end-to-end approach to agentic AI. Today, Writer's platform enables IT and business teams from hundreds of leading enterprises to collaboratively build and scale AI agents that streamline workflows across departments. According to Gartner, 'by 2029, over 60% of enterprises will adopt AI agent development platforms to automate complex workflows previously requiring human coordination.' The report states, 'Demand for AI agent development is increasing as organizations seek hyperefficiency. Software engineering leaders will find the vendors in this report valuable for addressing the growing demand from business and technology stakeholders to develop agents that will help them deliver business value faster.' Based on Writer's understanding, Cool Vendors were selected for their ability to provide both the foundational tools to harness the potential of AI agents, as well as innovative value-add functionality. Writer's primary takeaway from the report is that enterprises must invest in vendors that can offer scalability, interoperability, and stability, in addition to performance and security, to maximize long term value. 'Being named a Gartner Cool Vendor in AI Agent Development is an important recognition of Writer's platform,' said May Habib, CEO and Co-Founder of Writer. 'In a noisy market full of overpromises, Writer delivers what enterprises actually need: agentic systems that are accurate, governed, and built to scale. Our platform gives IT and business teams one place to build, activate, and supervise AI agents — grounded in business context, powered by our enterprise-grade LLMs, and built for real ROI.' Writer has recently released new product and tech innovations, including: Palmyra X5: Writer's latest foundation model, topping benchmarks for speed, cost efficiency, and large context performance. AI HQ: Writer's centralized hub to build, activate, and supervise AI agents across the enterprise. Includes a library of 100+ ready-to-use AI agents across industries including finance, healthcare, retail, and technology. Together, Palmyra X5 and AI HQ give enterprises unmatched power to deploy real-world AI agents that support use cases like market intelligence, financial reporting, legal analysis, medical record synthesis, and customer experience optimization. Hundreds of leading enterprises – including Intuit, Kenvue, Marriott, Qualcomm, Uber, Vanguard, and more – use Writer to reinvent business processes with AI at the center. Readers can access a complimentary copy of the report here. Disclaimer Gartner, Cool Vendors for AI Agent Development, Adrian Leow, Jim Scheibmeir, Nitish Tyagi, Manjunath Bhat, 27 May 2025 GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About Writer Writer is where the world's leading enterprises orchestrate AI-powered work. With Writer's end-to-end platform, teams can build, activate, and supervise AI agents that are grounded in their company's data and fueled by Writer's enterprise-grade LLMs. From faster product launches to deeper financial research to better clinical trials, companies are quickly transforming their most important business processes for the AI era in partnership with Writer. Founded in 2020, Writer delivers unmatched ROI for hundreds of customers like Accenture, Intuit, Marriott, Uber, and Vanguard and is backed by investors including Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, ICONIQ Growth, Insight Partners, Balderton, B Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Adobe Ventures, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures, and others. Learn more at
Fast Company
05-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
These five strategies can help you generate faster returns on your AI investments
While top business leaders are increasingly investing in AI and other advanced technologies, many are not seeing anticipated returns. In fact, a survey published in May 2025 by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI over the last few years. This is not surprising among those who have seen their share of tech implementations. Organizations have long struggled to add and integrate the most advantageous new platforms without losing time, momentum, and often market share. Among adoptions that do come in on time and on budget, relatively few yield the intended big-picture results. Integration lapses This reflects the tendency of leaders to separate their IT and people needs into separate categories when tech adoptions require them to focus on both simultaneously. Even the most forward-thinking executives who invest in robust change management often completely delegate this responsibility, detaching themselves from their people's implementation experiences. These lapses are becoming increasingly hazardous as individuals across generations internalize adverse views of AI and even act on them in alarming ways. For example, a March 2025 study by generative AI platform Writer found that 31% of employees—including 41% of Gen Z workers—admit to 'sabotaging' their company's AI strategy by refusing to adopt AI. As a result, roughly two-thirds of executives say adoption efforts have led to tension and division within their organization, with 42% suggesting it's 'tearing their company apart.' New perspective To fully harness the power of today's most innovative tools, leaders must adjust the lens through which they view technology and recognize the outsized influence their people will have before, during, and after implementation processes. This shift in thinking will make it possible for them to fully embrace proven, though underutilized, people-first tech adoption strategies that help drive meaningful returns. These strategies include: 1. Meet your people where they are While top leaders spend extensive time and energy contemplating the wisdom of changes before driving them forward, their people are granted little such runway. Intellectually and emotionally, they're playing catch up, and thus require patience on the part of leaders as well as highly tailored communication and direction that creates and enhances alignment. 2. Emphasize the 'why' To help team members believe, comprehend, and appreciate the rationale behind AI and other tech implementations, leaders should deliver a compelling, authentic, consistent narrative. Done well, such effort will help employees understand the all-important 'why,' a key first step toward internalizing, accepting, and fully utilizing new technologies. 3. Consider systemic impact While some technologies lead to groundbreaking efficiencies, many create new, unforeseen challenges, especially at the people level. Organizations should be proactive about identifying such risks, addressing potential and emerging issues through a variety of tools, from workstream design to communications and training. 4. Foster change agility The AI technology of even six months ago is very different from today, and will be different again in another six months, necessitating that leaders prepare their organizations for future and ongoing tech adoptions. This will require companies to shed legacy cultures of change resistance in favor of change agility—efforts that are especially important in historically change-adverse industries, like healthcare. 5. Stay focused on leading With countless competing priorities, it's tempting for top leaders to delegate their organizations' tech implementation efforts. Yet the gravity of today's AI evolution requires their active participation and leadership across all stages of the adoption work, from shaping the narrative to outlining critical success factors, to communicating the importance of the change. Keeping ahead Fundamentally, today's AI era is as rooted in people issues as it is in technology issues, necessitating human capital-oriented approaches. Leaders that internalize this reality can best harness the power of novel technologies as a means of driving transformational, profitable, and sustainable improvements, staying ahead of the competition and generating returns on AI investments.
Axios
05-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
AI+ Summit: Tipping points galore
AI is hitting multiple tipping points in its impact on the tech industry, communication, government and human culture — and speakers at Axios' AI+ Summit in New York Wednesday mapped the transformative moment. 1. The software business is the first to feel AI's full force, and we're just beginning to see what happens when companies start using AI tools to accelerate advances in AI itself. "We're using agents to build agents," May Habib, CEO of Writer, told Axios' Ina Fried. "We've been saying for a long time that software is eating the world — now AI is eating the software," said Danny Allan, CTO of AI-security firm Snyk. 2. Chatbots are changing how people interact with one another. Boston Consulting Group managing director Vladimir Lukic said he's now using AI to game out conversations with CEOs in advance of meetings. When he tells them that he's asked a chatbot what questions the CEO is likely to ask him, the CEO will invariably want to know the prediction — and that ends up being what they talk about. 3. Government isn't likely to moderate AI's risks. With the Trump administration and GOP-controlled Congress largely pulling back from AI regulation, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sounded an alarm over a provision in the House-approved Trump spending bill that would bar states from passing new AI rules for a decade. "We have to stop this," she said, "but I'm right now not holding my breath" that Washington will reverse course. 4. Culture makers fear AI will undermine the urge to create. AI builders used mountains of "publicly available" data assembled from the collected creative works of humankind in order to train their models.
