AI, US Expansion and the Audio-Video Convergence: Audion’s Global Ambitions
Originally featured on & interviewed by La Réclame.
Cannes, late June 2026. We walk past the Havas Café alongside Yannick Bolloré—but he isn’t the person we're meeting this morning. Under the parasasols of the Mondrian Hotel, the Audion team is waiting for us.
Having established itself as one of Europe's leading digital audio and podcast advertising companies, the French adtech is now setting its sights on the United States while positioning Audion AI as a key differentiator in an increasingly competitive market.
We sat down with Kamel El Hadef and Arthur Larrey, Audion’s co-founders and co-CEOs, as well as Geoffrey Fossier, Global CMO, for a candid conversation about the growing convergence of audio and video, the current limits of AI in audio creation, and the company's global ambitions.
What are Audion’s international ambitions?
Kamel El Hadef: When we raised funding in 2022, our objective was to establish Audion as one of Europe's leading digital audio companies. We believe we've successfully reached that milestone. The next step is becoming a truly global player. The US is an essential market for us. It's the world's largest advertising market, and we're already working with American brands and agencies. Opening an office there—and having one of our founders relocate to lead the business—was the natural next step. We're approaching the US market with long-term commitment because succeeding there requires significant investment, both in talent and technology. [Audion's €15 million funding round completed in 2026 is expected to support this expansion, alongside co-founder Arthur Larrey's relocation to New York.] Beyond the US, we're also looking at markets such as Japan, where we're already expanding our network of publishers and creators, the Middle East, and several European countries where we still see room for growth, particularly Spain. Our ambition is straightforward: to become one of the global leaders in digital audio and podcast advertising.
Audion AI launched earlier this year. What does the platform do today?
Geoffrey Fossier: Audion AI brings together everything we've built around artificial intelligence over the past few years. Rather than offering isolated features, we wanted to consolidate all of our AI capabilities into a single platform that makes them much more accessible and practical for our clients. One of its core capabilities is generating advertising concepts from a simple prompt. Depending on the complexity of the brief, the platform can produce dozens of tailored campaign scripts in seconds or minutes. For example, an automotive brand launching a new vehicle will receive very different creative recommendations from a brand whose primary objective is driving foot traffic to dealerships.
Will AI eventually automate audio advertising production?
G.F.: That's not how we see Audion AI. The goal isn't to replace creative agencies or recording studios. We use AI to inspire brands—to help them explore creative directions they might not have considered and to demonstrate what's possible with dynamic audio advertising. Once the concepts and scripts have been developed, production still goes back into the studio. Voice generation models have become remarkably sophisticated in English, where some outputs are already close to broadcast quality. In French—and more broadly across Romance languages—we don't believe the quality consistently meets the standards our clients expect.
K.H.: Creativity remains absolutely central to audio advertising. Major brands care deeply about voice performance, tone and overall production quality. Today, you simply can't walk into a meeting with a CAC 40 company and suggest that an entire campaign should be generated by AI. The technology has made tremendous progress compared with five years ago, but it hasn't yet reached the level advertisers expect. For now, AI is an outstanding tool for inspiration and creative exploration rather than a replacement for human talent.
Is the line between audio and video disappearing?
G.F.: Absolutely. Podcasts no longer exist purely as audio content. They're distributed across multiple platforms and, increasingly, in video formats as well. We're seeing a real convergence between the two. That's exactly what we're addressing with Audion AI. We've built an intelligence layer that connects to both audio and video platforms to identify the most relevant content—regardless of format—based on each brand's objectives. Our goal is to help solve two major industry challenges: the fragmentation of the podcast ecosystem and the increasingly blurred boundary between audio and video.
What's next for Audion?
Arthur Larrey: Our immediate priority is scaling Audion AI across our client base while using the platform to unlock new business opportunities. At a company level—and for me personally—the focus is making our US expansion a success. It's the world's largest advertising market and a strategic priority for us. We spent several years building our European business, and our latest funding round gives us the resources to take this next step.
Doesn't the US market present overwhelming competition?
K.H.: The US already has strong, well-established players—as does every mature market. But the real question isn't whether competition exists. It's whether you can differentiate yourself through your positioning, your technology and your go-to-market strategy. Interestingly, some of our competitors are also valuable partners. We work closely with Spotify, radio broadcasters and major media groups. In the US especially, that "frenemy" dynamic is well established: everyone wants to grow the market while building their own business. We're also entering the market with Audion AI, which we believe brings genuine innovation to the audio advertising ecosystem. That's a meaningful point of differentiation and allows us to occupy a distinct position within the value chain.
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About Audion
Founded in 2018 by Arthur Larrey and Kamel El Hadef, Audion has established itself as the go-to partner for digital audio solutions for brands and their media agencies. With a technology-driven and AI-powered approach, Audion transforms audio into a high-performing, controllable, and measurable media lever across the entire marketing funnel.
Leveraging proprietary technologies integrated with artificial intelligence, Audion designs, activates, and optimizes results-oriented audio campaigns capable of delivering tangible outcomes - from brand awareness to business performance.
With offices in Paris, New York, London, Milan, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, Audion brings together a team of 50 experts dedicated to helping advertisers unlock the full strategic and operational potential of digital audio.
Website: www.audion.ai
