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Audio AI is changing the way we create and consume content. It’s already an industry worth $4 billion, and it’s predicted to triple in value by the end of the decade.
But what does the current state of audio AI actually look like, and how is this young industry changing?
We’re breaking down what kinds of audio AI tools already exist, how marketers and businesses can start using them today, and some exciting indicators about where the industry is headed.
Ready to hear some robots talk? Let’s get started.
The Current Landscape of Audio AI
Audio AI makes sounds and speech with artificial intelligence.
The products in this industry include tools for transforming text into speech, creating voice replicas for dubbing, and powering voice assistants that can imitate human tone and cadence. Tools like ElevenLabs and Resemble AI already have the ability to produce high-quality, realistic audio content.
Here are three ways that people are already using this groundbreaking technology.
Audio AI for Creators
Audio AI is transforming content creation, especially when it comes to content types like audiobooks and podcasts. Creators now have the option to use synthetic voices, which can replicate human intonation and emotion, eliminating the need for traditional recording setups. This could help them save on production costs and time.
Just look at this video — a combination of audio and video AI — created by Foundation’s CEO Ross Simmonds. What could’ve taken him hours (to sit down, script, record, and edit), he was able to make in minutes.
Weekend experiment:
Create a video of me with just AI.
Here’s the result.
Sure. It needs work. But it’s pretty close…
HOW?
1) AI reconstructed my voice using old podcast recordings.
2) AI used my old blog post as a script.
3) AI used a screen grab from an old video of… pic.twitter.com/xmuRUotrjV— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) July 4, 2023
For marketers and other businesspeople, it’s worth considering how this could make more types of audio content possible. This is especially true for small businesses with limited resources — maybe now you can make a podcast that would have been too expensive or time-consuming before.
This use case is not without controversy. Critics raise ethical concerns around consent and compensation and argue that it could undermine the profession of voice acting. The risk of deep fake audio and potential misuse also looms large, highlighting the need for regulatory frameworks to manage these emerging technologies responsibly.
One response to the risks of this technology is voice licensing. Some voice actors are responding to the threat to their profession by licensing their voices to be used as voice AI clones in services like ElevenLabs’ voice library. Then, they’ll get a licensing fee every time someone uses their voice.
But in the US, a voice itself is not considered copyrightable, just specific voice recordings. Just as using a “soundalike” singer is a legal way to mimic a person’s voice, the same may apply to deepfake audio. That puts voice cloning and licensing in a legal gray area, especially since the relevant case law is from 1988. Only further cases and the passage of laws like the No AI Fraud Act will be able to clarify this.
Audio AI for Translation and Dubbing
Audio AI is also changing the translation and dubbing industry. This technology can create text-to-voice and voice-to-voice interpretation, striving to closely mimic the original speaker’s tone and emotion for a more authentic listening experience.
This viral social media post showcases AI dubbing’s ability to break language barriers even in music:
Bro i’m actually in tears at Lil Yachtys verse☠️ pic.twitter.com/ZX6rqD0McE
— ₭ma🧣 (@KmaFr_) February 20, 2024
This dub from English to Mandarin Chinese had 1.7 million views at the time of posting. Most of the people commenting on the post don’t even speak the language — they’re just amazed at the technology.
But despite its potential, there are still risks associated with AI translation and dubbing. For example, it opens the door for a loss of nuance in translation, as well as cultural misinterpretation. It also brings up an ethical consideration concerning replicating a person’s voice without their consent.
There’s also the risk that people intentionally manipulate it to incorrectly dub over someone’s actual words. Here’s an example of someone creating a fake video of Morgan Freeman speaking, with fairly convincing results:
BREAKING: The Federal Election Commission is looking into possibly regulating AI-generated deepfake political ads before the 2024 election.
For those who don’t know, a deep fake is usually an AI-created audio clip/video that appears to show an individual saying something or… pic.twitter.com/7lmlNht4QP
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) August 11, 2023
Ensuring accuracy and respecting others’ rights to choose how their voice is used are critical as this technology advances. If used effectively, it could open up a world of possibilities, allowing us to enjoy content that used to be inaccessible and even talk to others more easily than before.
Audio AI for Voice Assistants
Voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are already powered by audio AI, using natural language processing to understand and respond to user commands. These assistants represent a significant application of audio AI, both recognizing and using speech to interact with users.
Voice assistants are already popular, with 62% of adult Americans reporting that they use one.
With AI improving, it’s likely that they’ll only get more accurate — and consequently more popular — in the future. As that number rises, it’ll become more important for businesses to optimize their articles and other online content for voice searches.
But there are some concerns with them, too. Google has already been the target of a lawsuit alleging that they illegally recorded and distributed the conversations of people who activated their voice assistant by accident.
The Future of Audio AI
Those three applications for audio AI are just the beginning.
Don’t get me wrong, text-to-speech, dubbing, and voice assistants are powerful applications. But there’s even more out there that audio AI could do in the future.
Here are three key areas where we’re predicting growth:
AI Growth in Customer Service
The integration of voice AI into customer service has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses interact with their clients. Companies are already using AI chatbots for customer service, so this would be a natural extension of that existing use case
For example, audio AI could effectively be able to create an audio version of this interaction with H&M’s customer service chat:
With AI-powered call centers, companies will be able to handle a large volume of inquiries with better efficiency, reducing wait times and streamlining the customer experience.
In terms of features, we predict audio AI will be able to do more than just automate responses. In the future, audio AI will likely be able to analyze customer sentiment and tailor interactions to individual needs. This could improve the overall quality of service at scales that would be prohibitively expensive for many businesses today.
As a part of this, AI voice analysis can provide real-time feedback to customer service professionals — pointing out customer frustration or confusion that might not be overtly expressed will allow for a more nuanced and empathetic approach. AI tools like Salesforce’s Einstein can already identify common trends in customer data, so in the future, audio AI may be able to do the same with customer call recordings.
Voice AI could also become the customer’s main point of contact with a company. Right now, companies use voice recognition software with pre-recorded responses to handle customers’ most common problems. With AI, these could integrate more naturally into a conversation with the customer.
However, this technological leap forward comes with challenges. Early problems with implementing AI in customer service, such as chatbots failing to understand or appropriately respond to complex customer queries, have highlighted the limitations of current AI technologies.
In fact, one customer service AI chatbot cost an airline money for making promises about their refund policy that weren’t true.
This is a technology that companies have to be careful with. But while we might be a long way off from totally AI-powered customer service, we can already see companies making moves in this direction.
AI Growth in Business Communications
Audio AI is set to transform the professional landscape, not only by automating routine tasks, such as day-to-day internal communications and paperwork, but also by redefining the nature of work and collaboration within organizations.
For example, audio AI could automate early hiring interviews for a more efficient screening process. This will enable recruiters to focus on candidates who meet specific criteria based on their responses and help streamline the hiring process. It would also reduce the potential for human biases to incorrectly discount potential candidates.
Audio AI could also help with internal communications, translating messages into various languages in real-time and ensuring that global teams remain on the same page through technology like what ElevenLabs has already developed. This could make communicating and collaborating much easier in increasingly diverse and dispersed work environments.
By bringing people together who speak different languages, audio AI will make it easier for companies to hire excellent people regardless of where they live or what language they speak. That’ll lead to more linguistic and geographic diversity, and internal communications will become simple even between employees who don’t know a word of each other’s native languages.
However, the integration of audio AI into the workplace is not without risks. Concerns include the potential for misinterpretation during automated interviews, where nuances of speech or non-verbal cues might be overlooked. Reliance on AI for internal communications and customer interactions could also result in losing the personal touch that fosters genuine connections between people.
AI Growth in Entertainment
Entertainment is another area that audio AI will likely change dramatically in the future. With it, people will be able to create new music and podcasts faster and more easily than ever before.
Audio driven AI is going to have a ton of use cases.
Here’s a few (and I know some people will hate these because they’re taking the *human* element out of so many things) that I think will change everything:
– Audiobooks created with synthetic voices
– Podcasts running with…— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) November 30, 2023
AI-powered tools could also help podcast creators automate numerous aspects of production like in the example below, reducing production times and costs.
🗣️ Podcaster use case for ChatGPT.
Have AI convert and merge audio files.
Add intros/outros to an episode. pic.twitter.com/u8DSqHUq5h— Troy Tessalone | Automation Ace ⚡️ (@AutomationAce_) October 27, 2023
One of the most intriguing and controversial applications of audio AI is its ability to produce music in the style of existing or past artists. Projects like OpenAI’s Jukebox, which generates music in various styles from scratch, illustrate both the potential and current limitations of AI in creative processes.
While the results are impressive for such early-stage technology, they lack the emotional depth and complexity of music created by human artists. While this might be a game-changer in the future, it isn’t replacing human artists yet.
In the future, AI could help artists by letting them explore new genres, styles, or concepts without investing days of work. It could serve as a “proof of concept” for an artist on the fence about an idea.
It could also help podcasters by automating voiceovers and generating background sound effects and music, once those capabilities are developed.
Regulations are lagging behind applications in this, although Universal Music Group succeeded in taking down an AI-generated song imitating a collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd.
Ethical and legal concerns also arise when AI is used to mimic the voices or styles of existing and past artists. The debate over posthumous releases and the authenticity of AI-created works underscores the need for clear guidelines and ethical standards in the use of AI in entertainment.
Audio AI’s applications with entertainment will cause technology and creativity to meet. As AI technology matures and becomes more nuanced in its understanding and replication of human creativity, it will continue to overcome current limitations, opening both new horizons for artists and new risks to overcome.
How to Prepare for New and Future Audio AI Uses
Here are four major steps you can take to set yourself up for success with audio AI.
1. Ethical Considerations and Policy Development
Companies need to adopt clear, ethical policies for using audio AI, prioritizing transparency with users.
If you’re using an AI voice based on someone’s voice other than your own, make sure you have their permission first. If the AI is communicating with a customer, make sure the customer knows it isn’t a live person.
You should also create security measures to prevent unauthorized access and use of any voice data you have. That means creating strict access controls on who can use the data and following encryption best practices.
Your policies will also need to address the potential for misbehaviour, ensuring you have a process to handle any AI that says something that isn’t within your company policies, such as in the previous airline example.
2. Investment in Audio AI Literacy
To invest in audio AI literacy, companies can prioritize education and training programs for their teams on the workings, potential, and limitations of audio AI technologies.
To do this, create or invest in workshops, seminars, and online courses to enhance understanding among employees at all levels, from technical staff to decision-makers.
At Foundation, we do this by giving employees multiple avenues for professional development, such as covering the cost for employees to take classes. Other companies may do this with mentorship or peer education initiatives.
That education can help demystify AI, creating an environment where everyone can make informed and strategic decisions about how to ethically and effectively use it.
3. Experimentation and Collaboration
If you’ve followed the first two points, then you’ve already created guidelines for how people should use AI and education on how they can use it. Now, you should foster an environment where they feel free to innovate. This way, they will use it to its maximum potential.
In contrast to startups—where the stimulus to innovate comes from the entrepreneurial environment—a large corporation needs to design its environments and structures to inspire people.
— Walter T. Rambwi (@hr_taurai) October 18, 2021
Partnerships between engineers and people in other departments can be fruitful here, helping people see how audio AI can help solve existing problems.
You can even make this a project of your HR department, encouraging an overall culture of collaboration and creating interdepartmental days where people can share what they’ve learned about AI together.
4. Adapting Business Models
As the capability of audio AI evolves, so too should your business model. You can embrace audio AI in several ways, such as:
- Using its content creation and entertainment capabilities to experiment with new forms of content marketing
- Leveraging it for more efficient communication within a global workforce
- Using it in customer service for efficiency and scalability
To start doing this as the technology matures, set up a system of pilot projects to test audio AI applications. You should pay attention to areas where there’s the greatest potential value for your company specifically — such as analyzing customer data to personalize interactions.
This approach will help you remain competitive and relevant in a technological landscape that’s constantly changing and embracing AI.
Stay on the Cutting Edge of Advancements in Tech and AI
Audio AI is already here, and it’s only getting more advanced. It’s changing the way we create, dub, and search for content. In the future, its applications will only become more varied, helping companies improve their customer service, internal communications, and entertainment products.
That’s why we break down how the most advanced marketing organizations in tech are innovating and staying ahead of the curve.
Interested? You can access our full library of case studies and breakdowns right here.
