Yahoo is expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities with two new consumer-facing tools, leveraging technology the company first showcased earlier this year as it competes for user attention in an increasingly crowded AI landscape.
CEO Jim Lanzone unveiled the initiatives Wednesday at Axios' AI+ NY Summit, positioning them as the opening salvo in what Yahoo calls "Scout as a service." The strategy centers on repurposing the company's answer engine technology across its existing properties to deepen user engagement without forcing audiences to abandon familiar Yahoo destinations.
The first product targets sports enthusiasts. Yahoo Sports released "Ask Kevin O'Connor," a tool that generates answers to questions about the NBA Draft by drawing from O'Connor's written analysis, his broadcast show, and comprehensive player and team statistics. O'Connor, who joined Yahoo as an NBA senior analyst in 2024 after covering the league since 2013, provides the underlying voice and perspective for the AI-generated responses. The feature launched as a limited-time experience designed to operate through draft season, with Yahoo planning to keep it live for several days after the draft concludes before removing it by month's end.
The second offering serves finance-focused users. Yahoo Finance introduced "Ask Yahoo Scout," which answers questions about stocks, markets, and individual companies by mining the site's own news coverage and data alongside trusted external sources. Unlike the Kevin O'Connor feature, this tool is built as a permanent fixture rather than a seasonal experiment.
Lanzone told the audience that Yahoo's approach differs from general-purpose AI assistants because the underlying models are trained specifically on Yahoo's own reporting and editorial expertise. "We're not just building a technology to give great answers," he said. "It's trained on our information, and so it was always part of the vision for it that we would bring it to all of our other properties and help make them better as well."
Yahoo first introduced Scout as a standalone product in January, followed by MyScout, a personalized homepage feature, in March. The company claims 250 million monthly U.S. users and noted that logged-in users account for 75 percent of its impressions.
The strategy mirrors moves by other major publishers adapting to the rise of ChatGPT and similar tools. Time magazine trained an AI agent on its 102-year archive last year, allowing readers to ask questions and generate summaries. The Financial Times developed "Ask FT," a chatbot trained on its reporting. Forbes released Adelaide, a generative AI search tool, in 2023.
When asked about the costs of running these AI systems, Lanzone sidestepped direct discussion but noted that being a privately held company provides flexibility. Apollo Global Management acquired Yahoo in 2021. Lanzone suggested the company may eventually pursue a public listing but is focused on internal objectives first. "I don't think it's too far off," he said.
Author James Rodriguez: "Yahoo is betting its legacy brand and user base can compete in AI where Google and Microsoft are already dominant, but tying the technology to Kevin O'Connor and financial expertise feels like the smarter play than asking fans to abandon their habitual stops online."
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