Spotify’s New AI DJ Speaks Spanish — And It’s Better Than Most Humans

When an English-speaking app tries to greet you in Spanish, a certain kind of awkwardness occurs. The accent falters. Instead of coming from a conversation, the phrasing seems stiff, like it was taken from a phrasebook. The feeling is familiar to anyone who has used a translation app for five minutes.

Therefore, it wasn’t just that it worked when Spotify discreetly released a Spanish-speaking version of its AI DJ last fall. It was that it had a human-like sound to it.

Livi is her name. Alternatively put, Olivia Quiroz Roa, a senior music editor from Mexico City, is the voice behind her. Following what Spotify called a lengthy international casting call, she outperformed other applicants because her voice “resonated the most with listeners.” The corporate wording is that. According to the company, people actually said that she sounded like a friend recommending music. It’s a minor but significant difference. For years, algorithms have been making music recommendations. It’s more difficult to fake friends.

In early 2023, Spotify introduced DJ X, the first AI DJ, based on Xavier Jernigan, the company’s head of cultural partnerships. Using tools from OpenAI and Sonantic, the AI voice platform Spotify covertly purchased back in 2022, the technology combines generative AI, personalization data, and an eerily lifelike voice. The end product is a feature that not only plays music but also discusses it using the rhythm and vernacular of a real person.

According to the company, DJ users listen to a lot of music, and over the past year, engagement has increased by over 200%. Only Spotify can truly determine whether this is because the feature is genuinely good or because Spotify keeps pushing it harder.

But it’s not the technology that makes Livi intriguing. It’s the choice she made. Spotify could have just translated DJ X’s voice into Spanish, the simple route that nearly every tech company has tried at some point. Technically impressive, quicker, and less expensive. Rather, they cast a completely different individual. Someone whose intonation, phrasing, and subtle verbal tics are specific to a place—in this case, Mexico City—with all the associated rhythm. This type of decision implies that Spotify has been aware of how poorly translation typically works when cultural factors are involved.

The majority of Latin America and Spain are covered by the rollout. Premium users in Argentina, Uruguay, and other countries can now ask Livi for “clásicos de reggaetón de los 2000” or “canciones tranqui para desconectarte”—phrases that wouldn’t make sense when translated by a translator. Livi’s release coincided with Spotify’s addition of text-based requests, which users had been vocally requesting on social media for months.

Instead of expressing your mood verbally, you can now type it. helpful on a bus that is quiet. helpful when you want to ask an algorithm for depressing songs at two in the morning without your roommate hearing. But there’s something a little odd about all of this, and it’s worth mentioning. The marketing term for Livi is “beta,” which is Silicon Valley slang for “we’ll see.”

Spotify has increased its U.S. prices twice in the past year, and the more the company spends on features like these, the more pressure it faces to defend the price. It’s unclear yet if listeners will stick with Livi once the novelty wears off or if she’ll just become another tab in the app that people only vaguely remember. It’s evident that speaking with Livi doesn’t feel exactly like speaking to a machine just yet. And that means something in 2026.