Are we ready to replace human-narrated audiobooks with AI-narrated ones? A case study of the municipal library of Prague

Abstract

Since the covid-19 pandemic and beyond, public libraries have experienced an increase in demand for audiobooks. Such trend has encouraged library management to invest in its production through human-narrated style. However, these investments are often associated with inflated costs at the expense of decreasing library efficiency. In response, AI may appear to be the panacea. Conversely, the opposite may be true, given that AI has double-edged effects. Firstly, AI has the immediate potential to eliminate inefficient library spending. By contrast, synthetic AI voices are linked to readers’ aversion to them. Using data on 747 active users of the Municipal Library of Prague (the largest Czech library) in 2024, this study shows that, although AI-narrated audiobooks have high potential, such a service is still perceived as supplementary to existing library services. The contribution of this study lies in revealing the main obstacles preventing readers from using AI-narrated audiobooks. Moreover, our findings raise questions about the use of such audiobooks and pose several formidable challenges for library managers. Practical implications for addressing these issues are provided in the last part of this study.