Podcasting and Generative AI: a Storytelling Match Made in Heaven?

In today’s modern landscape, there’s no escaping the term ‘artificial intelligence.’

It has taken the world by storm and many industries fear disruption. There’s no blaming anyone for that. Even in the world of podcasting, there are fears from podcast editors, engineers, and other behind-the-scenes professionals of AI replacement.

While AI is indeed transforming podcast production in the present, there should be greater discernment over how positive or negative these transformations are. Should a podcast editor truly fear being replaced completely? Should a podcast engineer fear being made obsolete?

The answer to those questions is a hard no.

Podcast editing, like many other professional areas of expertise, will continue to require a distinct human touch. Even when there are sophisticated AI tools ready to make the process easier and more streamlined, it all ends there.

Podcasting Is Storytelling

Artificial intelligence can play a lot of roles. What it can’t do as well as humans so far is tell a story. Interestingly enough, that’s also what separates the most successful podcasts and those that continue to struggle: the storytelling capacity.

Any podcast worth listening to will take you on a ride; no, a journey. That’s what every story is, really: a journey towards something or someplace that you desperately want to have or be in, whether you knew it from the start or not.

Generative AI: The Storytelling Catalyst?

Since the rise of ChatGPT, writers have made use of it to help them with their work. Not everyone agrees with this method, particularly those who have yet to be won over by the tool’s creative capacity. Similarly, there are podcasters who may have thought to use it, or similar generative AI tools, to help them with their storytelling.

The question now is, how can generative AI help podcasters when it comes to telling compelling stories?

The answer to that can be both simple and deceptively complex, depending on how you’ve learned to use AI tools. On the simple side of things, the best way to make use of generative AI is to give it better inputs. However, not everyone is knowledgeable enough to get this right.

For podcasters looking to use the likes of ChatGPT for their episode scripts, there’s still a lot of planning to be done. Surprise, surprise! It’s not just a matter of inputting your queries into a super smart artificial intelligence after all. Specifically, podcasters still need to do the following:

Have a General Plan for Your Show

No matter how many prompts you enter into your artificial intelligence tool of choice, it won’t churn out a podcast script of worth if you don’t have an overarching plan in place. Not only that, but you still need to have specific ideas for episode scripts and the narratives that you intend to build around them.

Generative AI can help you refine those ideas for sure, but it will not churn out anything worth eventually consuming by your audience if you don’t have solid concepts on your own.

Plan Out Specific Prompts to Give the Artificial Intelligence

On the topic of refinement, the best output from generative AI comes from the best prompts you can give it. As intelligent as present artificial intelligence can be, it is still nothing without a guiding human hand.

Once you have come up with a plan, it is still up to you to enter the specific prompts needed to help the generative AI tool do its job. For example, with the right prompt, it can help you refine an episode outline so that its general narrative can become even more compelling.

The world of podcasting is evolving and will continue to do so as more time passes. The same can be said of artificial intelligence, whether it is generative AI or other types. The key element needed for a proper fusion between them remains the human element, to which neither nature nor technology has an answer for yet. 

If you found this article to be both interesting and insightful to read, then it’s in your best interest to book your first call with the good men and women over at Podcast Engineers! With their help, you’ll have access to equally engaging topics and lessons. So, take advantage of your free discovery call and stay a step ahead of the competition!