Business Insider Layoffs & AI Impact: What's Happening?

Man, so Business Insider is totally cutting about 21% of their team. Like, a memo went around Thursday saying this is happening.

It sounds like they're having a tough time 'cause people aren't hitting their site as much anymore. And you know how everyone's using those AI things like ChatGPT to get news summaries? Yeah, that's apparently really hurting their web traffic.

The CEO, Barbara Peng, basically told everyone that even though they're making more money per visit now, like double what they did two years ago, a big chunk of their business still depends on how many people click on their stuff. So, she said they gotta shrink down the company size so they can handle it when traffic dips big time and they can't control it. Kinda makes sense, right?

They're actually jumping on the AI train themselves. A lot of their employees are already using this special ChatGPT thing for businesses, and they've got some other AI tools too to help things run smoother and make the site better for readers. She also said they're gonna focus more on the stories people really care about and are getting out of most of their shopping recommendation stuff.

But hey, there's something new too! They're kicking off this events thing called BI Live. Apparently, people are already interested, and they're gonna keep building up that team. It's not just them though; the Washington Post and the Associated Press also laid off some folks earlier this year to save money and update how they do things. Wild times in the news world, tbh.