The Bauer group is experimenting with AI-generated traffic news. Another step towards hyper-personalised radio.

Bauer is now replacing a large proportion of its traffic bulletins on Greatest Hits Radio and Hits Radio with updates generated and read by AI. The group worked with INRIX, its long-standing partner for traffic data, to switch to an automated system.

Practical changes

The majority of traffic reports are no longer recorded by humans. The bulletins are produced automatically from INRIX data, assembled using their intelligence and automation systems, and then ‘voiced’ by an AI voice modelled on the tone of in-house journalists. Bauer promises faster, more regular and consistent news. At INRIX, the need for human operators is reduced because the entire workflow is based on data and automation.

What does it look like?

Why is Bauer moving in this direction?

The group says it wants to deliver information that is more accurate, more responsive and better aligned with IP usage. They are opening the door to use cases that are still impossible on FM, with dynamic bulletins updated in near-real time, formats differentiated according to the listener’s location, and a mix of local news without having to rely on heavy geographical coverage.

INRIX calls this a “natural evolution” of its service. Their AI system works on the same datasets as journalists, but generates bulletins faster and more consistently.

The radio sector steps up the pace of AI

The movement is not limited to Bauer. The UK ecosystem is already exploring several AI building blocks: more and more stations are testing synthetic voices or content produced by AI to reduce costs and increase local granularity, and audio.co (formerly RadioNewsAI), acquired by Aiir, offers automated bulletins (traffic, weather, news, commercial voice). Traffic is an obvious use case. Radio can go even further: hyper-local weather, real-time service messages, zone-based alerting… or even personalised audio streams based on the listener’s location.