- Steven Bartlett is using AI to produce his “100 CEOs” podcast, cloning his voice to make a host.
- His FlightStory Studio is trying to replicate its success with Bartlett to build out other pods.
- The AI-made podcast had gotten mixed reviews, with some preferring Bartlett’s traditional format.
His podcast production company, FlightStory Studio, has been experimenting with AI tools like Runway to make podcasts and recently used them to launch “100 CEOs with Steven Bartlett.” The animated show gives prominent CEOs like Richard Branson and Elon Musk the narrative, documentary-style treatment.
Bartlett wrote the script, and then FlightStory Studio used AI for the rest. That included cloning his voice to make an AI host, creating the storyboard, and turning it into an animated video. In addition to Runway, FlightStory Studio used tech from AI firms ElevenLabs and Wondercraft. The show, which is available on platforms like YouTube and Apple Podcasts, is identified in the notes as AI-made.
“Once we saw the capability of Runway and others, we thought there was no reason we shouldn’t disrupt ourselves,” said Georgie Holt, who cofounded FlightStory Studio with Bartlett and fellow Acast alum Christiana Brenton. “Steven is still very involved in the scripting and the writing.”
Holt and Brenton discussed FlightStory Studio’s strategy and growth plans .
“He still passionately believes, as we do, in the human ability to tell stories,” Holt said. “Everything else was done by AI. The next challenge is, how do you grow distribution? How do you market that podcast?”
The AI podcast has mixed reviews
“100 CEOs” has a long way to go to match the heights of “DOAC,” where Bartlett gets millions of views for his long-running interviews with big names like Michelle Obama and Jimmy Fallon. The “100 CEOs” show is up front that it’s made with AI, and many commenters on YouTube praised the show’s storytelling and animation.
Not everyone is ready for AI-cloned voices, however. Some criticized the voice for not sounding human enough and said they preferred Bartlett’s interview format.
“I’m a huge fan, but this just feels like an AI podcast with zero soul,” one commenter said.
To FlightStory Studio, the results are encouraging enough to keep testing other AI-made formats, starting with ones that are suited to animation. It took a long time to get the show off the ground, but at the rate AI keeps improving, FlightStory Studio executives expect the show to get better and more human-sounding over time. They said they plan to test AI host-read ads later this year and compare their performance to human-read ads.
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