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How Britannica adapted to changing times, made most out of AI boom

Britannica's encyclopedia was replaced by Wikipedia. But with the AI boom, it has now made a comeback.

Britannica Encyclopedia. (Image credit: jarmoluk/Pixabay)

Before the era of Wikipedia, Britannica was a household name, especially amongst students, and its books, commonly known as encyclopedias, were the go-to source for learning about something new for over 250 years. As the internet got more popular, the physical copies of encyclopedias were replaced by web-first Wikipedia.

According to a report by The New York Times, the company is all set to go public next year and is seeking a valuation of $1 billion. Just when it seemed that encyclopedias and their parent company, Britannica, had been forgotten, the company made a successful comeback thanks to the AI boom. Now, Britannica is a profitable enterprise, generating $100 million in revenue with a profit margin of 45 per cent. Here’s how it did it.

Britannica’s success is a result of its adaptability

Britannica still sells the physical copies of its encyclopedia. The 32-volume 2010 edition was the last edition to get a physical copy, which has now become a collector’s item, where many pay $1,400 for the same, which was last printed in 2012.

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Currently, the company also has two digital platforms — Britannica and Merriam-Webster, which offer online dictionaries and educational software to schools, while the majority of its profit comes from artificial intelligence agent software, which helps chatbots like ChatGPT to train their model on world knowledge. Although these platforms are not as popular as Wikipedia, the website gets over 7 billion page views per year and is operational in over 150 countries.

Besides, Britannica also uses AI to create, translate, and fact-check the content on its platforms. Although the platform can be accessed for free of cost, there is a subscription to unlock premium and ad-free content. The company also has other AI solutions like English tutoring software and other virtual learning tools that are popular amongst schools worldwide.

Not just that, Britannica also has a suite of software, such as an AI chatbot, which draws information from the encyclopedia and is said to be less susceptible to issues like hallucinations when compared to generalized AI chatbots. By adopting the latest technologies and advancements, Britannica carved a space in the world of AI, and considering its products, it is now one of the few profitable AI companies in the world.