Steven Bartlett said one use of AI has mattered more to his business than anything else: translating his podcast into other languages.
“There’s nothing more important than what we’ve done for our business than translations. Period,” Bartlett said during the “What it Takes to Build” panel at the World Economic Forum at Davos on Tuesday.
The British entrepreneur and host of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast was in conversation with Jessica Lessin, the CEO of The Information, alongside Bret Taylor, formerly the co-CEO of Salesforce and CTO of Meta.
Bartlett said using AI tools to translate the podcasts was initially an “expensive experiment.” The problem he was trying to solve, he said, was reaching the untapped market of non-English speakers.
“If we’re just in English, we’re reaching like 10% of the world,” Bartlett added.
There were technical challenges, too. Some languages use longer words, Bartlett said, meaning three-hour English-language conversations could become significantly longer when translated, risking the audio and video falling out of sync.
Two years ago, Bartlett announced on LinkedIn that “The Diary of a CEO” had hired a full-time data scientist who helped the company achieve a technological breakthrough, enabling them to use AI to translate the podcast into “EVERY language.”
At Davos and in the LinkedIn post, Bartlett did not elaborate on exactly how the AI translations work. Today, however, the videos show Bartlett speaking Spanish in a voice similar to his own, a shift he said had significantly expanded the podcast’s reach.
“This month, 28% of my audience is Spanish,” he said, adding that Spanish speakers now have access to interviews with some of the world’s most high-profile podcast guests, citing his own interview with former first lady Michelle Obama as an example.
Other guests on the podcast include former vice President Kamala Harris, Simon Cowell, and the psychologist Jordan Peterson.
Spotify said in its “2025 Wrapped” press release in December 2025 that “The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett” was the platform’s second-most-listened-to podcast globally, behind “The Joe Rogan Experience.” On YouTube, Bartlett’s podcast channel has 14.5 million subscribers.
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