- Spotify is upgrading podcasts with two AI-powered features
- One is a new search function that allows you to ask questions about episodes
- There’s also the new Personal Podcasts tool, which generates a short audio briefing based on your prompts
Spotify has used its Investor Day event to announce some new features for podcast listeners — and they’re quite big.
The first of the new podcast features enables you to ask Spotify about the episode you’re currently listening to or watching, and it will give you answers in real-time. For example, you could get more information about something mentioned in the episode that you may want to know more about, or ask to find more podcasts that cover the same topic.
From the demonstration images, it shows the user tapping on the AI DJ search bar in the Spotify home page to launch the podcast episode, and then from there the user proceeds with questions. You can also ask generic questions such as ‘play the latest episode from Dissect’.
Rolling out to Premium mobile subscribers in the US, Sweden, and Ireland first, this new tool is part of Spotify’s larger plan to expand its podcast interface. The company said: “This new capability makes the experience more dynamic, helping fans learn more and connect deeply with the topics, perspectives, and creators they care about.”
Now the controversial part…
Additionally, Spotify wants you to start generating your own personal podcast episodes using AI, which builds on the platform’s recent expansion of Prompted Playlists into podcasts.
Rolling out to Premium subscribers in the US first, Personal Podcasts is another new tool that can be found among the roster of other playlist-making buttons when you tap the Create button in Spotify.
Previously, you could create your own podcasts using platforms such as OpenClaw and Claude Code which you could then save to your Spotify library, so this new tool offers a more on-demand option directly within the platform.
As you’d expect by its name, Personal Podcasts allow you to generate short audio episodes which Spotify says are “tailored to your interests and listening habits”, and it works on a prompt basis.
You can ask it to create a daily briefing to include local weather, any live music happening in your area, and daily news headlines across different topics which you can schedule to update every day or weekly.
But Spotify doesn’t draw the line there — Personal Podcasts can also generate episodes that dive deeper into topics, connecting you with related podcast episodes for you to explore your curiosity further.
As well as text prompts, you can add more context to your requests by attaching PDFs and website links, and the information should be pulled into the episode.
There’s a slight catch however. Just like Spotify’s monthly audiobook listening hours allowance, the same applies to Personal Podcasts ,which come with a fixed allocation of credits to generate podcasts included with their subscription each month. If you find that you can’t get enough of them, there’s an option to purchase additional credits.
The interesting thing about Spotify’s new podcast upgrades is that nowhere in the company’s announcement doesn’t explicitly state how these features are powered, though it’s quite clear that AI is the mastermind behind these generative tools.
We think the streamer is onto something with tools to let you dive further into the shows you love the most and pull information from them, and allowing you to ask for more insights on topics that presenters maybe don’t go into detail with.
It’s kind of amusing that Spotify recently added features in support of the anti-AI brigade by not only rolling out ‘Verified by Spotify’ badges for music artists to certify that they’re real, it then did the same thing for podcasts only a few days ago — and now it’s offering AI-generated podcasts right from its own menus.
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
