Amazon has acquired audio content discovery engine Snackable AI to improve its podcast features, according to reports. The New York Post was the first to report the deal, which took place quietly last December. The financial terms were not disclosed.
Snackable AI was founded in 2018 and specializes in using AI to add structure and metadata to audio and video, making it easy to consume content quickly. The technology provides an “at-a-glance” view to enable quick access. Mari Joller, founder and CEO of Snackable AI, is now an AI and machine learning product leader at Amazon Music, where she leads a team of engineers and computational linguists to build AI-powered products for Amazon Music Podcasts’ customers.
Amazon added podcasts to its Music platform in 2020 and has since been adding new features, such as synched transcripts. Last November, the company made most of the top podcasts on its service available without ads for Prime members.
The Amazon Music app also has a new “Podcast Previews” feature, which allows customers to listen to short clips as a way to discover new podcasts they may like. Amazon has been building out its podcast offering, and the acquisition of Snackable AI will help improve the platform’s podcast features.
The acquisition of Snackable AI is part of Amazon’s broader effort to incorporate AI-powered features into its products. During its latest quarterly earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that the company is building a more “generalized and capable” large language model (LLM) to power Alexa. Other tech companies, including Microsoft and Google, have also been investing in AI-powered features following the launch and subsequent popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The move by Amazon to acquire Snackable AI comes as the podcast market continues to grow. A recent report by eMarketer predicts that US podcast ad spending will surpass $1 billion in 2022, a significant increase from the estimated $782 million spent in 2021.
With the addition of Snackable AI’s technology, Amazon is well-positioned to capitalize on this growth and expand its reach in the podcast market.
