What Did I Miss?
Did you miss me?
I’ve been on maternity leave for an amazing year (thanks Canada!). I had a busy year changing diapers and making bottles, and somewhere between the sleep deprivation and meal prepping, the podcast world kept moving without me.
Since starting back, it’s clear that a lot has changed. I was only beginning to have conversations about video before I left – now I’m scrolling through podcasts next to my favourite reality TV shows on Netflix. ChatGPT was just something some curious folks were playing around with – now more than a third of all new podcasts created are likely AI-generated. Before I left, I firmly listened to documentary-style podcasts in my spare time – now I most look forward to Fridays when my new favourite conversational-style show drops new episodes. (What can I say, it’s been a year of big changes for everyone.)
So, now felt like the right time to ask some of the smartest people I know in podcasting for their reflections on the last year. If you’ve been deep in the podcast trenches, this has probably all felt gradual. But seen all at once, there’s been a lot going on. Here’s what you might have missed.
Podcasts might be the answer to solve new marketing challenges caused by AI.
B2B marketing isn’t quite the same as when you left. 73% of B2B buyers are now using AI to research products and services. Meanwhile, 58.5% of Google searches end without a click. The result for brands is less organic search traffic, so leads and sales need to come from somewhere else. Add to this a growing mistrust around content authenticity (thank you, LLMs), and marketers are in quite the pickle getting prospects to engage with — or even find — their stuff.
In response, brands need to be visible and well represented where AI is looking, get in front of audiences without relying on Google, and build trust with their content. Podcasting can help with all three.
We’re seeing this first hand – our own branded video content is being cited in Google searches and LLM responses, even episodes with modest view counts. My personal podcast guest appearances are showing up in AI search results.
The human aspect of podcasting is becoming more and more valuable. When buyers can’t tell what’s written or presented by a person and what’s made by AI, connecting with real voices and faces builds trust in a way traditional blog content increasingly can’t.
– Harry Morton, Lower Street
Podcasts aren’t just audio files anymore. They’re multiplatform shows.
The creator economy conversation used to happen around podcasting. Now it happens because of podcasting. This shift is rooted in how many podcasters have stopped seeing themselves as audio-only creators and started building full media businesses around their content. In fact, Sounds Profitable’s research shows 71% of podcast creators are now producing video alongside their audio. Podcasting isn’t a lane in the creator economy anymore. It’s the spine of it.
– Molly DeMellier, Sounds Profitable
… but that doesn’t mean video has to replace audio.
Creators are starting to realize — slowly but surely — that they don’t have to follow every single hype cycle, including the latest insistence that everyone must pivot to video. While video makes sense for many creators, it doesn’t make sense for all. And over the past year, even as enthusiasm around video continues to grow, more creators (and hopefully more companies, too) are recognizing that audio has value on its own.
– Arielle Nissenblatt, Earbuds Collective and Audily
Smart TVs have quietly become one of the biggest podcast platforms.
One of the biggest stories that hasn’t received enough attention is the rise of the Smart TV as one of the most popular podcast consumption devices. In Canada it’s tied for being the 3rd most used device for podcasts among monthly podcast consumers (according to the Canadian Podcast Listener 2025), and it’s 2nd most used by weekly podcast consumers in the US (according to the Cumulus Media / Signal Hill Insights Download on Podcasts). Shortly we’ll be releasing our brand new Pulse Report: Podcasts in the Living Room, UK, in partnership with Flight Story, showing the suprising new prominence of Smart TVs for podcasts in that region, too.
While we’ve heard a lot of discussion of Netflix and Tubi licensing video podcasts, at this point the trend seems to be primarily driven by YouTube. So, that more people watching podcasts on Smart TVs makes sense, given how YouTube has become one of the most popular television apps. It’s even easier to understand when we recognize the fact that the Smart TV has become perhaps the cheapest and most accessible internet content consumption device, and is used by the vast majority of Canadian, US and UK households. Essentially, the dream the industry once had for smart speakers has been taken over by the TV.
– Paul Riismandel, Signal Hill Insights
It’s not enough to just swap episodes anymore. Smart cross-promos require editorialization.
When it comes to promo swaps (which I still believe in!) I used to think I had to plan either host-read or digital file swap. Lately I’ve been shooting for both if I can. A digital audio sampling, maybe even a short trailer, introduced by the host. The listener gets to hear what the show sounds like but gets an endorsement from the host of the show they are listening to. Also, I’ve struck the word “feed swap” from my vocabulary. Roman Mars calls them features because exchanging episodes like that needs to be editorialized. It can’t just be a straight up file swap.
– Lauren Passell, TINK Media
And collaboration is our best answer for breaking through ever-increasing content noise.
The collaborative nature of our industry must continue to grow as a hedge against algorithms, distribution challenges, and the increasing contentification of the internet. Partnerships, collaborations, and audience sharing will become even more powerful engines for growth, discovery, and recommendation. We’re all navigating the same core challenges around growth, and the more we work together to address them, the more both our audiences and our industry will benefit.
– Carly Baker, Hubspot Media
The future looks good for better podcast data.
The past year marked a real turning point for podcast data. The industry has moved from talking about the download’s shortcomings to actually building what comes next. And the next growth period in podcasting will be driven by better data. Audience verification through services like the Bumper Score enables more investment as advertisers can trust they are reaching real audiences.
– Jonas Woost, Bumper
Not all changes this year have been good. But the industry has still taken some meaningful steps forward.
AI-produced slop pushing out decent, human-produced shows. Over 15,000 shows from Inception Point AI, as one example: but they’re not alone. And, a headlong rush into video by the 1%, but the 99% don’t appear to be taking part, as far as I can see. Great for Oprah Winfrey, though.
But, on the positive side, the Golden Globes giving some good prominence for podcasting is good; and the increased diversification away from interruptive advertising and into a wider range of things (personal support, events, subscriptions etc) are all good.
– James Cridland, Podnews
A year away gives you a useful kind of perspective. The changes that might have felt gradual to all of you hit all at once for me. Honestly, some of them feel scary – are we moving away from the industry I first fell in love with? But even the big, scary changes present interesting opportunities to learn and grow. When I start to get overwhelmed with the AI and video of it all, I just focus on audience behaviour. What do people actually want to consume? What interests them, excites them, entertains them? After I close my laptop and sign out of LinkedIn, what do I want to spend my time with? That’s what motivates me to look towards the future of the industry with excitement rather than anxiety.
What do you think were the biggest stories of the last year?
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