Amazon’s Audible experiments with AI to improve discovery and recommendations

Amazon’s audiobook service Audible could soon be getting the AI treatment as the company continues trialing new technology to offer recommendations and improve discovery.

According to TechCrunch, the service has been testing the introduction of AI-powered tags which will analyze customer feedback to offer tailored suggestions according to that user’s preferences.

While the testing remains ongoing, a company spokesperson told the publisher that “the experiments are only available to 50% of U.S. users with iOS and Android devices.”

The analysis will include customer reviews and will share why other listeners enjoyed that book in its recommendation. Amazon, the company that acquired Audible in 2008, already uses a similar form of generative AI technology in its e-commerce platform.

The audiobook service is also said to be experimenting with AI-driven topic pages to help people find new books that they might not otherwise have come across.

It was on August 7 when the company announced it would be running a beta test of Maven, an AI-powered search feature that “responds to natural language used in everyday, conversational speech to find matches from our catalog…”

When describing their approach to the use of emerging technology, the company said in a press release that they’re “continuously innovating.”

Before the test began, the Chief Product and Analytics Officer Andy Tsao explained more about Maven.

“With Maven, we’re introducing an AI-powered search feature to help listeners uncover hidden gems across our vast catalog, even for their most specific requests.

“And this is just the beginning—we’re going to continuously improve this feature to ensure our users always have the best possible book recommendations at their fingertips.”

Once the tool has been perfected, the idea is that customers will be able to say ‘I’m looking for an uplifting fiction novel with a female protagonist’ or ‘show me fantasy audiobooks that I can complete on an 8-hour road trip’ and Maven will provide tailored recommendations.

Featured Image: Via Audible’s Press Release about Maven and AI

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