Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how media, marketing, and retail companies operate, but inside those businesses the technology is being deployed less as a replacement for people and more as a tool to make them faster, more efficient, and more data-driven.
That was the consistent message from executives speaking at a recent SXSW panel moderated by Will Pearson, iHeartPodcasts President, who outlined how AI is being used today — and where its limits are becoming clear.
“We want to make sure that the people that we’re hearing from and the people that we’re watching are real people,” Pearson said. “There’s this very real balance, this delicate balance that companies are trying to strike right now.”
In podcasting, the focus has been less on replacing creators and more on improving the systems around them. Libsyn CEO Brendan Monaghan said the company is concentrating on workflow automation, audience insights, and monetization tools.
“Ultimately, the conversations we have are centered around things like workflow automation and audience insights, monetization optimization,” Monaghan said.
Beyond podcast and into the advertisers that support the audio industry, the pattern is consistent. AI is proving most effective in areas of utility — pricing, logistics, targeting, and workflow — where speed and scale matter most. But marketers said those strengths do not translate as easily into areas that rely on personality, trust, and human connection.
At Whole Foods Market, AI is already embedded across day-to-day operations, from catching checkout and scan errors before they cause millions in losses for the company, to helping train employees through mobile-based assistants. On the marketing side, those systems are accelerating campaign planning and measurement.
“I can plan much faster,” said Gladwell Mwangi, Paid Media Enablement Lead at Whole Foods Market, pointing to AI-driven tools that streamline audience targeting, reporting, and attribution.
A similar dynamic is playing out at GoodRx, where AI is being used to process “billions of price points” and enable faster, more dynamic pricing decisions, said Richard Case, VP of Growth Marketing at GoodRx. In marketing, he said AI has also increased the “velocity” of creative production, particularly for video and static ads.
Where The Hype Falls Short
Even as companies expand their use of AI, executives cautioned that some of its most widely touted capabilities remain overstated. Rather than replacing human input, AI is being layered into existing processes.
Monaghan said that tension is especially pronounced in podcasting, where the industry is still “wrestling” with how far to push automation. “We want to create AI-augmented creators, not AI-generated creators,” he said.
That distinction is becoming more important as companies experiment with AI-generated ads and content — and begin to see the trade-offs not just in quality, but in performance. While AI can reduce production costs and increase output, panelists said it is not yet matching the effectiveness of more human-driven formats. In podcasting, that is particularly evident in advertising, where host-read ads continue to command a premium because of their authenticity and the trust audiences place in creators.
“The excitement is around the opportunity to interact with the brands and creating authentic messaging,” Monaghan said, adding that both creators and advertisers value that direct relationship.
That dynamic is beginning to shape advertiser strategy in a more fundamental way. Rather than chasing scale through increasingly automated, AI-generated inventory, some brands are moving in the opposite direction — concentrating spend with fewer partners to build deeper connections with audiences.
Mwangi said some advertisers are “choosing to have long term partnerships… and only work with a select number of brands,” reflecting a shift toward more curated, high-trust environments. The implication is that as AI increases the supply of content and ad inventory, the value of trusted voices may become even more scarce — and more valuable.
The shift has direct implications for the broader podcast market. As AI lowers the barrier to entry and increases content volume, the middle tier of creators could face increasing pressure, caught between scaled, lower-cost content on one end — and premium, personality-driven shows on the other. In that environment, trust and connection become not just editorial advantages, but economic ones.
Replacing human voices with AI-generated ones risks weakening that connection according to Monaghan — and the business model built on it. “Consumers are quicker to hit that skip button and engage less,” he said.
That behavior is already emerging, according to Mwangi, who believes increasing volumes of AI-generated content are contributing to audience fatigue. “I’m finding myself skipping a lot of ads now,” she said. “That skip just means they don’t have my attention.”
Pearson said iHeartPodcasts has leaned into that dynamic with its “guaranteed human” positioning. “We see it in survey and study after study — they actually really care that they’re listening to real humans,” he said.
That expectation sets a higher bar for AI-generated content, particularly in formats built on personality and perspective. While automation may work in more transactional categories — “news or weather or sports scores,” as Monaghan put it — it struggles in areas where audiences are looking for insight, storytelling, and connection. “When you start to get into the world of creative advice, insights, perspective, the bar gets a lot higher,” he said.
Listen to a replay of the SXSW panel on Oxford Road’s “Media Roundtable” podcast HERE.
