YouTube Music is rolling out a set of AI-driven capabilities designed to help listeners uncover music, get to know artists better, and stumble upon podcasts they might otherwise never find. The announcements came during this year's Made On YouTube event and include two headline features: "Ask Music," a conversational interface for both music and podcasts, and "Your Podcast Lineup," a tailored audio guide built to surface new shows.

Ask Music lives inside the YouTube Music app and lets people describe what they're in the mood for using plain, everyday language instead of hunting down specific tracks or artists. It draws on a catalog exceeding 300 million songs, spanning official releases, remixes, live performances, covers, and DJ sets. Listeners can use it to assemble custom listening queues, learn what motivated an artist, or dive deeper into music history.

According to YouTube, the experience is meant to feel less like a search engine and more like asking a friend — you simply type your request. Someone might, for example, ask Ask Music to put together a mix inspired by the tracks behind a particular song. Other questions work too, like who played bass on a given track or other behind-the-scenes details about how it was made.

Alongside that, YouTube Music is launching Your Podcast Lineup, an AI-generated personalized audio guide for podcast discovery. It targets a problem most listeners know well: there are far more podcasts out there than anyone has time to hear. Even people with a solid roster of favorite shows can fall behind on new episodes, much less seek out fresh ones. Your Podcast Lineup will sit on the podcast page within the YouTube Music app. Every week it will serve up a brief spoken preview of recommended shows, along with an explanation of why each one might resonate with that particular listener. From there, it can transition straight into suggested episodes.

Spotify recently rolled out an AI feature pointing in a similar direction. Its personal podcasts feature uses AI to generate podcast episodes tailored to a user's interests and prompts.

These additions reflect YouTube's wider effort to weave AI throughout its products. Last year, YouTube Music tested AI-powered music hosts that deliver stories, fan trivia, and commentary tied to whatever the user is listening to. Both new updates are set to arrive soon for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscribers around the world.