“AI represents a momentous opportunity to expand the availability of audiobooks with the vision of offering customers every book in every language, alongside our continued investments in premium original content,” said Audible CEO Bob Carrigan. “We’ll be able to bring more stories to life—helping creators reach new audiences while ensuring listeners worldwide can access extraordinary books that might otherwise never reach their ears.”
The company states that it is planning to bring “new audiobooks to life through our own fully integrated, end-to-end AI production technology” and, later in 2025, is rolling out a service of “AI translation in beta, allowing select publishers to bring their audiobooks to international audiences in their local languages. Publishers can opt for human review from professional linguists to ensure translation accuracy and cultural nuance, and will be able to review the translations themselves in our text editor.”
This choice from Audible is not the first time AI and the publishing industry have met. In November 2024, it was announced that HarperCollins had reached an agreement with an undisclosed AI company to allow the use of a limited selection of nonfiction backlist titles for training AI models to improve their quality and performance.
Not only publishers, writers too are starting to integrate artificial intelligence in their works. “I’ve recently started the practice of using AI to make very minor edits,” claims KC Crowne, a US author, who used artificial intelligence in her latest book, published in January. Readers detected that when in the novel they came across the paragraph: “Thought for 13 seconds. Certainly! Here’s an enhanced version of your passage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori. Changes are highlighted in bold for clarity.”
Readers were not happy to discover that she had used generative AI. KC Crowne addressed the issue in a statement, saying “that I understand your frustrations. To think that an author that you have enjoyed reading has AI generated books is understandably a cause for concern. I can assure everyone that all my books are written by me. I’ve been writing my books before Al came about.” The author explained that she is “still learning about how to best use Al to make my reader’s experience better but I can assure you that keeping my original voice strong is of utmost importance. I hope you can understand that.” Her vision of artificial intelligence in the publishing industry is to use it to edit her books. While AI might have helped improve her novel, it looks like the presence of a human editor is still necessary—it will always be important to have someone to double-check that the prompt is not printed in the final version.
The Society of Authors, the UK trade union for all types of writers, illustrators and literary translators, released in 2024 a survey on the use of generative AI in the publishing industry—it revealed that a third of translators and a quarter of illustrators were losing work to AI. However, it also stressed that 22% of the respondents had used generative AI in their work. While the “livelihoods” of some workers might be “at risk”, the survey is not as catastrophic or pessimistic as it might appear: it highlights that “generative AI has the potential to be useful to some creators.” The Society of Authors seeks “that consent is sought from copyright holders before their work is used to develop systems, that credit and compensation are given, and that the outputs of generative AI systems are labelled as such,” asking for some protections, but recognizing the potentiality of these new tools.
Read the full issue: Stuck in the Future
THE TAKE by DeepSeek
A tool not a takeover
The publishing industry is at a crossroads as artificial intelligence promises both exciting opportunities and genuine concerns. Audible’s plan to use Al for audiobook production and translation could revolutionize accessibility, potentially offering “every book in every language.”
Yet this ambition raises important questions: Will Al enhance human creativity or replace it? Recent cases show both possibilities. When author KC Crowne accidentally, left an Al prompt in her published novel, readers reacted negatively—proof that audiences still value human authenticity. Meanwhile, HarperCollins’ deal to license backlist titles for Al training shows publishers are eager to embrace the technology’s potential. The Society of Authors’ 2024 survey reveals this tension: while some professionals are losing work to Al, others are successfully using it as a creative aid. Their call for transparency and fair compensation points the way forward.
What’s often overlooked is Al’s potential to democratize publishing. Independent authors and small presses could benefit from AI tools that make professional-level editing, translation, and narration more affordable. This could lead to a more diverse literary landscape where voices that were previously marginalized due to cost barriers finally get heard. The key is balance. Al can handle repetitive tasks, but human creativity remains irreplaceable. As the industry evolves, we must ensure technology serves art—not the other way around. The future of publishing shouldn’t be human versus machine, but human with machine.
