1. There has been a lot of skepticism around AI-generated content, yet your recent research found that willingness to listen to an AI-narrated audiobook more than doubled after people actually experienced it. What does that tell us about how consumers are really forming opinions about AI?
People have formed opinions about AI based on what they’ve been exposed to and what they imagine AI voices sound like. The respondents experienced the samples created using Spoken Multi-Cast™, which analyzes each passage and each character to invoke pacing, inflection and design custom voices around how an author has written the character. That’s a much different listening experience than what most listeners would have been exposed to to date.
2. Your research suggests that quality and immersion mattered more to listeners than whether the content was AI-generated. Are consumers becoming less concerned about the technology behind an experience and more focused on the experience itself?
That’s certainly what the study suggests. Until this survey, consumers’ opinions of AI narration had been conceptual. Perhaps in prior surveys respondents had real experiences with “virtual voice” narration, which before Spoken has been very flat, but it’s likely that most had little to no actual experience listening to digital narration. This survey was the first of its kind to test real samples that utilized a much more sophisticated system designed for the natural delivery of multi-character scenes. What we found was a clear signal that quality, immersion, and multiple voices matter, no matter how the narration is produced. Listeners are open to whatever improves their experience.
3. For marketers, this raises an interesting question: if consumers are willing to embrace AI when it genuinely improves an experience, how should brands think differently about using AI in content, storytelling and customer engagement?
Every marketing effort has to center around its target customer, and AI sentiment may differ significantly between different markets. In the case of audiobooks, and specifically character-driven fiction, there is no pretense that the audio is trying to fake being real humans. These are fictional characters, after all, and so it makes sense (at least to us) that the target market of audiobook listeners is open to AI multi-cast narration. The expectation is a realistic and dramatic conveyance of scene, and multi-cast AI narration is superior in meeting that expectation over traditional single-narrator narration.
4. AI-generated content has often been criticized for feeling generic or impersonal. What does the response to multi-cast narration tell us about the importance of personality, emotion and authenticity when brands use AI to communicate with audiences?
In our estimation, this all depends on the brand and its target customer. If, like the audiobook market, the brand is clearly within the rubric of storytelling, and they are not trying to fake being human, multi-cast narration will likely succeed. It’s about authenticity, and genuinely connecting with customers.
5. As AI makes it possible to create far more content at a much lower cost, how can marketers avoid simply producing more content and instead use AI to create experiences that audiences actually value?
Focus on authenticity and genuinely bringing your story to customers. If AI helps you do that, and it’s not used to fake being human, customers will respond. In our industry, it’s important to earn the trust of authors and publishers who value the end product and who want as much creative control as possible, even when it means creating audiobooks in a single click. Brands should work with a vendor who keeps ethics at the forefront and enables creators to make it unique. No two Spoken-created audiobooks are alike. That’s because each story is different, and we equip our authors and audiobook producers with the tools to make them unique.
6. AI is beginning to change not only how content is produced but also the roles of the people producing it. How do you see the roles of writers, narrators, editors, marketers and other creative professionals evolving as AI becomes part of the production process?
At Spoken we think about this question more than any other. What does the future look like to help storytellers bring vivid audio productions of their work to the market? For us, it’s about workflow, and the roles that each party plays in the future is what we’re designing. For example, we’ve opened up Spoken for those with an ear for audio to help authors and generate revenue through our Certified Spoken Producer program. This has attracted sound engineers, voice actors, authors and author assistants, and it’s opened up new revenue streams for people who can master the platform and help bring authors’ works to life in immersive audio.
7. Your research found that many listeners could not reliably distinguish between the AI and human narration. Does this suggest that the old debate of “human versus AI” is becoming less relevant—and that the real question should be what combination produces the best result?
Yes. We’ve now arrived at the point where vivid, natural delivery of multi-character scenes is now possible, and indistinguishable from a full cast of narrators. A full cast has never been financially feasible except for publishers of select titles, so this opens up tremendous opportunities to meet the consumer audience where it is today. It is also worth noting that there’s a real human benefit and a human element behind this technology. The fact that listeners couldn’t tell the samples were generated using AI speaks to the advancements we’ve made. Another interesting angle is that many of the respondents suspected the human-voiced samples were AI. In the end, it’s the story that matters.
8. Looking beyond audiobooks, what do you think marketers should learn from this shift in consumer behavior as AI-generated voices, video, imagery and other forms of content become increasingly common?
It’s a new era for every industry. “Black and white just became color” is a line we’re using to describe this moment, this transformation for audiobook publishing. We believe that the customers in every industry will be yearning for authenticity, and what we know now is that AI can help support that. The stories that a brand tells must be compelling, genuine, and their impact real. If this is true, then how those stories are generated becomes less important. It’s never been less expensive and less time-intensive to produce those stories, but it’s always been the message that matters most.
About Phil Marshall, Founder and CEO, Spoken
Phil Marshall is a technologist, entrepreneur, and storyteller who thrives at the intersection of imagination and execution. He is the founder and CEO of Spoken, The AI Audiobook Company™ empowering authors to create immersive single, dual, and multi-voice audiobooks using digital narration.
Before founding Spoken, Phil trained as a physician, earning his MD from Indiana University School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health from Oregon Health & Science University. He later pivoted from surgery to technology entrepreneurship, co-founding Conversa Health, a pioneering conversational AI platform that became one of the most trusted names in digital health before being acquired in 2021.
Phil is also a hard science fiction author. His debut novel, Taming the Perilous Skies, explores the consequences of his original Theory of Persistence, a speculative physics framework linking quantum mechanics, gravity, and time.
Whether building AI systems, exploring physics through fiction, or amplifying the voices of independent authors, Phil is driven by the belief that the most fantastic world is the one we dare to imagine and create together. He divides his time between Sauvie Island and Oceanside, Oregon.
