Acast today announces the launch of Smart Recommendations — an AI search engine that allows advertisers to find relevant podcast audiences in seconds, simply by describing who they want to reach. The aim is to optimize how podcast advertising is bought and sold, making campaign planning faster and more effective.

Using AI models combined with a decade of Acast’s own data and experience, Smart Recommendations works like an AI media planner — turning a simple prompt like “I want to reach women in Canada interested in investing” into a curated list of high-fit podcasts.

"Navigating the expansive podcast landscape to pinpoint the ideal audience can be both time-consuming and complex," said Acting CEO and CFO Emily Villatte. "Smart Recommendations addresses this directly by leveraging Acast's decade of proprietary data alongside Podchaser's extensive insights. This enables advertisers to find valuable, niche audiences with exceptional speed and accuracy."

Early testing of Smart Recommendations with Acast’s internal sales teams and select customers has yielded promising results. Over 200 campaign briefs have utilized the tool in testing, leading to a significant reduction in planning time - by up to as much as 92%. Notably, 80% of ad buyers in testing discovered additional, previously unconsidered podcasts for their campaigns. Early indicators from shows with under 50,000 weekly listens show a significant uplift, including a 14% increase in median purchase rate.