Pocket FM, the audio series app behind hundreds of long running serialized dramas, gave its writers an AI assistant called CoPilot in 2024. The tool can rewrite prose into dialogue, suggest cliffhanger endings and keep track of characters across hundreds of episodes. Since then the company has gone much further, and by 2026 AI sits at the center of how it produces, translates and voices its shows. Here is what the tool does, how writers earn, and why the approach is so divisive.
What Pocket FM is
Pocket FM is an India based startup, backed by Lightspeed and other investors, that publishes audio series: stories split into many short episodes, closer to a soap opera or a web novel than to a podcast. Listeners get early episodes free and pay to unlock more, either per episode or through a subscription, with ads supporting some free listening. The US is a major market for the app, and many of its shows are built to run for a very long time.
That model needs volume. A hit series can stretch to hundreds or even thousands of episodes, so the company has a constant appetite for new scripts, which explains why it turned to AI early.
What the CoPilot tool does
Pocket FM built CoPilot by studying listener engagement data to learn what keeps people pressing play in each genre. Writers get a set of assistants inside their workflow:
Turns descriptive passages into lines characters can speak, which suits audio.
Checks pacing against what tends to work in a given genre.
Suggests sharper cliffhangers and more tension between characters.
Builds character bios, relationship maps and episode summaries.
Flags plot holes and grammar issues and leaves comments on drafts.
It also has familiar chatbot style functions such as shortening or expanding a passage and writing from a prompt, and it can suggest tags for background sound effects to help the production team. Alongside CoPilot, Pocket FM introduced adaptation tools that translate stories and also swap names, places and cultural references for a new market. The company first used this approach in Germany before rolling it out more widely.
How Pocket FM writers get paid
Pocket FM works with a large pool of independent creators rather than a small staff of writers. It does not publish a single public rate card, and contract terms differ by market and by show. What the company has shared are aggregate numbers. In early 2026 it said more than 300,000 creators published on the platform in 2025, about 90% of them first time storytellers. It also said roughly one in five creators earns over 100,000 rupees a month, and the top 1% earn more than 5 million rupees a year.
The arrangement is not free of friction. In the US, a group of former contractors sued Pocket FM starting in November 2024, alleging they were misclassified as independent contractors and raising claims about wages and working conditions. Pocket FM called the allegations baseless. The suits were pending at last report.
Later developments through 2026
- January 2026: Pocket FM hired former Meta AI scientist Vasu Sharma to lead its AI work.
- March 2026: it announced a partnership with OpenAI to use OpenAI models across its production stack for writing, localization and multilingual distribution. At the time it cited more than 100,000 AI native series, over 250 million listeners and AI created titles as its fastest growing segment.
- April 2026: CEO Rohan Nayak said the company had passed a 400 million dollar annualized revenue run rate and was profitable on an EBITDA basis, crediting what he called an AI native storytelling system. These are company claims and have not been independently audited.
Pocket FM has also used AI voice technology, including ElevenLabs, for parts of its audio production, which means AI can now touch nearly every step from first draft to finished episode.
The wider debate over AI in serialized audio fiction
Supporters argue that tools like CoPilot handle the grind of serialized writing, such as remembering who said what three hundred episodes ago, so human writers can focus on ideas. For a business built on daily episodes in many languages, faster drafting and translation also mean more stories reach more listeners.
Critics see a different picture. Writers worry that engagement driven suggestions push every story toward the same formula of constant conflict and cliffhangers. Voice actors and narrators fear synthetic voices will replace paid sessions. And many creators want clearer answers on how their work feeds the models that may one day compete with them.
FAQ
What is Pocket FM CoPilot?
It is the company’s AI writing suite that helps creators convert narration to dialogue, plan story beats, suggest endings and keep track of characters and plot.
Do Pocket FM writers have to use AI?
The company made the tools available to all its writers, but it has not said publicly that using them is mandatory for every show.
Is Pocket FM available in the US?
Yes. The app is available in the US, which is one of its largest markets.
The verdict
CoPilot was an early sign of where Pocket FM was heading, and by 2026 the company describes itself as AI native from script to voice. That model has helped it scale fast, but questions about pay, contractor status and creative sameness have grown alongside it. Writers should weigh the speed boost against how much control they keep over their stories.
Updated October 2026: rewritten to explain Pocket FM’s CoPilot tool, how creators are paid, and the company’s AI moves through 2026.
Featured photo: Lena Kudryavtseva on Unsplash.
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