Spotify joins in with other companies "leveraging AI across the platform" following the rounds of staff layoffs this year, CNN reported.
Spotify marked 2023 with layoffs: 590 positions in January, 200 in June, and another 1,500 in early December. The company cut off over 23% of the 9,800 employees it had last year.
The music platform has been reported to increase its investments into AI to boost profits in the podcasting and audiobook sections, a move many in Wall Street approved.
As proof, parent company Spotify Technologies reported increased shares by up to 30% over the past six months with a 135% boost from its year-to-year profits.
Spotify Jumps into the AI Market Hype
Last month, Spotify signed a deal with Google Cloud to use its Vertex AI Search to optimize the platform recommendations of audiobooks and podcasts.
According to Google Cloud, Vertex AI Search will be able to use real-time user behavior, content similarity, and related contents to recommend other results to users when searching.
This is in addition to the "AI DJ" its debuted in February and the addition of OpenAI's "Whisper" voice translator last September.
"Whisper" is programmed to translate podcasts into the listener's preferred language with the original speaker's voice to create "a more authentic listening experience."
The AI can currently generate AI-powered voice translations in Spanish, French, and German for select podcast episodes.
Staff Reactions to Spotify Layoffs
A former employee on Spotify took it to LinkedIn to express their concerns about the growing AI industry and what it means for the human staff, becoming the "unfortunate reality in today's world."
The ex-Spotify staff said it was "scary" to have their means of financial safety "stripped away" and need to build again from scratch.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek reasoned that the layoffs are brought by minimizing rising costs amid slow business growth.
Ek said the company is now reevaluating its expenses and workforce size to "ensure we are right-sized for the challenges ahead."
