On Spotify’s SpotifAI Podcasts

On May 22, 2026, TechCrunch published an article by Ivan Mehta titled Spotify’s AI bet: more of everything, less of what you want. I preface my thoughts by noting that I have never used Spotify—or is it now SpotifAI?—and nothing I have read or heard about it, including Mr. Mehta’s article, has made me think that I am missing out. While Mr. Mehta’s article did not inspire me to sign up for a Spotify subscription plan and start running Google Play Services on my phone so I can use the app, it did challenge my assumptions about the true nature of Spotify. Spotify was a music app at one time. Then it added podcasts. Then audiobooks. Now the company is piling AI features into its app at a pace that can feel overwhelming. The latest wave, announced at its investor day, skews heavily toward using AI to generate content rather than using AI to help users find content they actually want. I had previously been aware that Spotify had an AI music problem. But I was not previously aware that…