Pocket FM, an Indian audio storytelling platform, has doubled its annualised revenue run rate to $500 million (£394 million) over the past year, driven largely by its expanding use of artificial intelligence in content production. AI now powers 93% of the platform's overall catalogue and generates 99% of new content, according to co-founder and chief executive Rohan Nayak, though the firm says human creators remain central to devising ideas and storylines, with AI used to scale production rather than replace creative input entirely.

The shift has made content production around 80 times cheaper, with 100 hours of material that once took roughly a year to make now produced in a single day. Pocket FM's more than 550,000 creators now generate about 2.5 million hours of AI-powered content annually, up from a total catalogue of just 100,000 hours two years ago, and its 12-month revenue retention rate has climbed to 76% from 44%. The company's revenue has grown from $250 million a year ago to $430 million in April and now $500 million, with the US its largest market at roughly 70% of run rate, and its parent, Pocket Entertainment, is now extending the AI-driven model into a new microdrama app, Pocket Saga.