Audible Dives Into AI

Audible, the audiobook company owned by Amazon, announced that it is testing an AI-powered search feature to assist users in narrowing down their audiobook search. Select U.S. customers can interact with “Maven,” Audible’s new personal recommendation expert that surfaces title suggestions based on users’ specific requests. A user can use natural language to enter queries, and Maven will respond by providing tailored recommendations pulled from Audible’s catalog of nearly one million titles. For instance, “I’m looking for an uplifting fiction novel with a female protagonist.” Maven is available on iOS and Android devices. Around half of Audible’s U.S. customers across all membership plans will have access to the feature, which is currently limited to a “subset” of the audiobook library, the company wrote in its blog post.