2023 was the year of AI advancements. For 2024, AI is definitely still “in.” AI has morphed into a powerful tool that is changing how podcasters get the job done. This blog post explores some of the pros and cons of AI while showing how podcasting AI can work for you! 

Let’s Talk Pros & Cons First

AI is a powerful tool, but it can sometimes be complicated. We asked podcasters what they think about AI and why they use or don’t use AI. There are plenty of pros and cons to podcasting AI. So, let’s talk about them – straight from the podcaster’s mouth!

Pros

We spoke to over 240 podcasters. The most common pros podcasters highlighted were that AI saves time, helps jumpstart the creative process, and lightens the workload. 

  1. Saves time – 26% of podcasters said that AI helps save time. AI frees up podcasters’ time and enables them to focus on the areas of podcasting they love the most! 
  2. Jumpstart – Another major pro to podcasting AI is its ability to help jumpstart the creative process. 21% of podcasters said they enjoy using AI because it helps with idea generation. An additional 7% said AI podcasting tools help improve their content, too. 
  3. Lightens the load – Podcasters everywhere use AI to help automate and streamline their existing workflow. They treat AI like a podcast assistant! Some podcasters even cited that using AI has cut their workload by 50%. 

Cons

The main drawbacks of podcasting AI are it can be difficult to use, inaccurate, robotic, and lacks regulation. 

  1. Difficult to use – Like anything, AI can have a steep learning curve that makes products difficult to use. 11% of podcasters said they dislike AI because of this learning curve. The most common AI pain point is promoting difficulty. Over one-quarter of those who dislike AI cited prompting difficulty as the top reason they dislike using AI.
  2. Inaccurate & Robotic – 22% of respondents said AI is incorrect, with some finding gaps in AI responses or output. An additional 10% said AI output is robotic and feels inauthentic. However, it is important to note that while podcasting AI is not perfect, it is not unusable altogether. Podcasters will likely need to make a few edits to clean it up or include more human-like nuances.
  3. Lack of Regulation – Another AI-con is the need for more regulation, like the ability to cite information. 9% of podcasters raised originality and copyright concerns. Podcasters need more transparency on information sourcing and how to protect their creative nature when using AI.

As with anything, there are some upsides and downsides to podcasting AI. However, podcasters are finding the good far outweighs the bad. 

The other major plus is that AI is still so young! Companies are listening to and learning from their customers to improve podcasting AI. Massive strides are being made to combat the cons of podcasting AI daily. 

Let’s examine how companies adapt their AI and design to match podcasters’ needs better. 

Less AI-y and more podcasting-y

AI is a learning machine, and there are ways to teach it. Companies are increasingly taking enormous strides to fine-tune AI’s output, making it better for podcasters. 

Take Headliner, for example. Headliner’s AI has been trained to learn from stuff podcasters have done in the past. 

“Generative AI excels at creating content based on existing patterns, so the more familiar it is with the output you want, the closer it can replicate it. Lucky for podcasters, our RSS feeds are filled with examples of past work. So, Headliner AI can parse a feed in the same way that a podcatcher does, which allows it to learn from your past work to create content in the same style. You can think of it like Headliner automating the job of giving examples & feedback to an AI; we do it all for you!”

Maximilian Piras, Senior Product Designer at Headliner

This means that Headliner can use AI to find your brand colors, tone of voice, and writing style, all from your RSS feed. All you need to do is search for your podcast! It’s a straightforward tool, and it really does work. 

Easy-to-use tools

At this point, integrating AI into your podcasting stack can be as easy as clicking a few buttons. Integrating AI can even be an automated process!

Many companies are learning how to bring AI to the forefront of their UX/UI – making it easier than ever to use their AI. Check out this list of awesome, easy-to-use AI tools for podcasters. 

Credit where credit is due

Unfortunately, since AI is so new, so is AI Law. Despite more rules and advice popping up, we still don’t always know how to use AI properly. 

We asked the AI pro, aka ChatGPT, how podcasters can give credit where credit is due when using podcasting AI tools.

To credit AI in your content, you can mention its contribution in your podcast’s introduction or credits, provide details in the show notes, use the AI’s specific name or brand, describe its role in content creation, and consider including a link to the AI tool’s source. Additionally, discussing the AI’s function within the content and adding a transparency statement can help your audience understand and appreciate its role. Being transparent and acknowledging AI’s involvement ensures ethical and proper attribution in your podcast.

ChatGPT

Using AI fairly and safely can be easy!

Podcasting AI made more podcasting.

Incorporating AI into your podcast stack isn’t a futuristic concept anymore. Podcasting AI is “hear” and it is a practical, easy-to-use solution for podcasting.

AI helps streamline your work, is podcaster-friendly, and is learning from you to help improve! 

Tips for using podcasting AI: 

“Hear” are some tips on how you can start quickly incorporating podcasting AI into your workflow: 

  • Transcribe – Arguably, one of the easiest ways to use podcasting AI is to transcribe. There are plenty of options out there for podcast transcription. The good news is that thanks to AI, companies can provide cost-effective solutions. This helps more podcasters transcribe, which in turn makes their content more accessible and easier to find on the web. 
  • Clip – Using an AI podcast clip generator helps quickly create compelling content for social media! Tools like Make and Eddy by Headliner function as AI podcast clip generators. Aka, they help you find those golden nuggets of your podcast so you can quickly, or even automatically, clip your content.
  • Editing – Editing and polishing your podcast can take some serious time! (Speaking from experience here!) By using editing AI, you can automatically remove those pesky filler words like “uh” or “umm” and save a ton of time*. Note: * a ton of time – more than a little bit of but not totally quantifiable. 
  • Create – Podcasting AI can help create additional assets such as blog posts or newsletter/email copy. Creating multiple forms of content, especially long-form content, helps boost your podcasting SEO while creating various touchpoints for your listeners. 

Headliner’s AI 

What’s even more awesome? AI can learn from you to transcribe, clip, edit, and create better.

With Headliner, our AI stores your manual changes to create a customer speaker and spelling library. This speeds up the podcast transcription process with every edit. You can even give us feedback on our ai podcast clip generator, too. So, if you don’t like one or like one, let us know so we can improve with each upload. 

Also, as we said earlier, Headliner’s AI can even be trained off your podcast. To do this, just select your podcast. Eddy will automatically look at your RSS feed and learn your podcast’s colors, tone of voice, and style of writing to create content you want to use! 

TL;DR

So, yes, podcasting AI is definitely “hear” to stay and is “in for 2024” – as Gen Z would say. AI tools for podcasters are helping to better market their podcast while saving time. 

Check out Eddy to learn more about podcasting AI and how Headliner can help you transcribe, edit, clip, and create marketing assets for your podcast.