“The enduring power of audio is to bring people together and change hearts and minds,” Witz said. “It’s an innately personal medium. And yet, with innovations across generative AI and immersive venues like Sphere down the street, we’re at a poignant moment in audio’s history and also its future.” 

Witz, who has been with CTA member SiriusXM for almost two decades, praised the intimacy of audio, adding that the way the brain processes sound can impact everything from our breathing to our mood. Plus, with devices like earbuds, audio goes where other forms of media can’t. “People take baths with me sometimes,” Flowers said of her listeners.   

That ubiquity is made possible by the rapid pace of technological innovation over the last few decades, from vinyl and cassettes to CDs and mp3s, all the way to today’s streaming platforms on connected devices in our homes and cars.   

Technology has also made it easier for people to create and distribute content — allowing anyone to share their perspective and stories. “I didn’t come from a broadcasting background; I was some random girl from Indiana,” Flowers said. “The beauty of podcasting, which is still so beautiful, is that anyone can do it. All I needed was an RSS feed.”  

The RSS feed remains the same, but what Flowers said has changed is the technology on the business side that determines ad placement or what a stream or a download is, citing Apple’s 2023 shift in how it measured downloads.    

“It’s exciting because the more accurate we’re getting, it’s better for creators, it’s better for listeners because we really know who our audience is, and it’s better for advertisers, who know what’s getting delivered and who their ads are reaching.”  

As with many industries, AI is also impacting audio — although notably, not content creation, said Flowers, who doesn’t use voice cloning for her ads or content because she believes people crave a human touch and feel. Instead, she often employs AI for IT and security applications, as well as aggregating and analyzing audience feedback to see what is resonating and enhance the two-way relationship with her listeners.   

“We see it as facilitating the experience, not providing the experience,” Witz agreed. “For us, we’re looking at ways to continue to leverage AI to support the business. How do we use it to solve for this discovery problem and find ways for our listeners to dig into the content they really love? That could be attracting new customers into the service by using other marketing channels and finding other opportunities to connect customers with the right content. And even for our listener base, the breadth of content we have on the platform is so extensive that we can use AI to better serve up recommendations for other things you might like based on what you’re listening to, or tailor your experience to the time of day. There are lots of opportunities to be more efficient or provide a more personalized experience using AI, but ... while we see an increase in technology and AI, we are doubling down on humans creating content. That’s foundational to the connection that audio provides.”