Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook service, continues to experiment with AI to improve audiobook discoverability and provide customized recommendations. Recent tests include AI-powered tags that analyze customer feedback to make customized suggestions based on individual preferences, and topic pages that recommend tags to help you find highly relevant subjects.
A company spokesperson told TechCrunch that the experiment is only available to 50% of U.S. users with iOS and Android devices.
Image credit: Audible
Through the app's new “Tags” carousel, Audible's AI analyzes customer reviews and provides brief descriptions of why other listeners enjoyed a particular audiobook. For example, at the top of a title you might find tags like “heartwarming romance” or “relatable story.” This helps you quickly get to the gist without having to read through numerous reviews. Amazon is leveraging similar generative AI technology for its e-commerce platform, including a tool that summarizes typical product reviews and provides short snippets at the top of the page.
In addition to tags, the platform is also experimenting with AI-driven topic pages, which can help you discover related audiobooks you might not have found otherwise.
Audible uses AI for a variety of features, including its AI-powered search service “Maven,” AI-curated audiobook collections, and AI-generated review summaries.
More recently, Audible began hiring hand-picked narrators to train an AI voice for recording audiobooks. The platform is now following in the footsteps of competitors such as Apple, which introduced AI-powered audio narration to select Apple Books last year.