Spotify’s new feature, DJ, is yet another example of how A.I. is growing in sophistication and reach.
“DJ” has been available since February of this year, which was when the recent A.I. frenzy really started to pick up.
In early August, Spotify announced that DJ has been expanded to over 50 markets, making this A.I. DJ much more ubiquitous across the world.
What exactly is this feature, and how does it work? Also, what lessons can business owners gain from it?
The Current State of Spotify’s AI DJ
It is worth mentioning that DJ is still in “beta” mode, meaning that everyone using DJ is pretty much acting as a pro bono product tester for Spotify.
This is pretty common in the field of A.I., which is in a sort of adolescent phase where it is not quite full-grown but finding its footing.
Examples include Google Bard and ChatGPT, which are widely available to the public but are still basically in development to a more widely applicable version that can be offered en masse to businesses, organizations, and individuals at higher rates.
DJ Works Like an Upgraded Product Recommendation Platform
Just about every Spotify user is aware of the existence of the recommendation algorithm that continually plays songs for you after you listen to a song.
Here is how it works, for the uninitiated: You’ll be listening to a Miles Davis song of your choice. When it ends, you will suddenly be listening to a Thelonius Monk song that has musical similarities to the Miles Davis track.
Spotify’s AI DJ is like the next evolution of product recommendation algorithms. The underlying function is the same—i.e., offer users songs that they may not have heard before to keep them engaged with the platform.
For Spotify users, if you search “DJ” on your Spotify search.
It appears in search as a playlist. Click it and you will hear a human-ish voice that will play songs for you based on “vibes”, your listening history, and the like.
What makes this such an upgrade is that the recommendation process feels much more personalized, largely due to the A.I. “personality” that talks you through the recommendation process.
A little DJ icon will pop up in the streaming bar, and you can touch it whenever the song is not to your liking, and DJ will offer more recommendations.
What Can Business Owners Learn from Spotify’s AI DJ?
There are a few lessons here, even if you do not even have a Spotify subscription.
The first is that keeping up with A.I. can help you bring major upgrades to existing platforms. For instance, if you are already leveraging an A.I. product recommendation platform, your A.I. partner may be able to help upgrade that platform.
Another is about the importance of personalizing the product recommendation process as much as possible.
However, something that Spotify’s DJ could benefit from is more interaction. It is remarkably one-way, as you press the DJ icon to go to another pick, and DJ sort of determines what is going to be played without your input. It would be nice for users to be able to direct the conversation a bit, to tell DJ what you are looking for, then have DJ take it from there. This could be through text or voice.
But it would perhaps be foolish to suggest that the writer of this article is the first person to think of this and that no one at Spotify is developing such a feature as we speak.
What is nice about that is that business owners looking to integrate product recommendation A.I. are likely to enjoy the same type of technology in their own business. This will allow your customers to optimize the product recommendation process to their own benefit.
For business owners, the note here is to make sure that your product recommendations platform does not feel as one-way, but involves the customer in the process of finding the perfect product.
Final Lessons
A.I. is clearly reaching a place where recommendation algorithms do not operate quietly, but will become a more obvious presence for customers.
Spotify’s DJ provides a glimpse at the future of product recommendation A.I., and presents a strong argument for business owners wondering how A.I. can help customers in choosing products and services.
Have you been using Spotify’s DJ feature? If so, how do you like it? Is there anything about product recommendation A.I. that you would also like to learn about?
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Guardian Owl Digital is dedicated to helping businesses everywhere learn about and implement A.I.
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