Audible’s new AI “Ask a Question” feature lets you interrupt Jane Austen (politely)

• Audible’s new “Ask a Question” feature lets U.S. listeners to the new Pride & Prejudice audiobook ask an AI expert any questions about the book.
• You can ask about plot, characters, or context without pausing playback.
• The beta feature is currently available for thousands of classic and public domain titles.

If you’re enjoying listening to the drama of Regency literature but suddenly find yourself confused over whose cutting wit has embarrassed another character, Audible’s newest experiment has you covered.

The audiobook platform’s “Ask a Question” feature is rolling out in beta in tandem with a new full-cast version of Pride and Prejudice, offering U.S. listeners the opportunity to ask an AI expert about the plot, characters, and even historical context and references while the audiobook keeps playing.

No need to pause, switch apps, or scroll through Reddit. The in-app tool that blends AI-generated responses with live listening.

You simply tap the “Ask a Question” button in the Audible app’s player while listening to a supported audiobook. Type your question, hit send, and within moments you’ll get a concise response based on both the audiobook content and external context. It’s delivered quietly while the narration continues.

Though featured on Jane Austen’s famous novel, the AI tool is arriving on many other public domain titles across the Audible catalog. So, you could be mid-ballroom scene, listening to passive-aggressive small talk, and ask what year it’s happening, or confirm if this is the scene where Elizabeth changes her mind, with an answer provided before Lady Catherine de Bourgh finishes her sentence.

Audible says the tool is aimed at deepening immersion, not interrupting it. That’s why the recitation doesn’t stop when you send your question. Audible wants to keep you inside the velvet ropes of the novel, even when you need to look outside it for an answer.

AI annotations

It might seem like a small tweak, but the implications of this change are broader than simply a more flexible footnote. It’s part of a growing trend to make listening more interactive as a way of engaging people in content that isn’t just podcasts. Audiobooks have always lived in a space between books and radio.

Unlike music, you usually don’t just let them play in the background. But unlike text, they aren’t searchable or skim-friendly. You can’t highlight a sentence or stick a bookmark on a particularly well-crafted sentence.

Ask a Question offers a kind of on-demand companion, but one that isn’t intrusive. Classic literature often comes bundled with its own time-traveling baggage: unfamiliar slang, period-specific social rules, and entire plot arcs that hinge on inheritance laws you’ve never heard of.

Being able to ask, “Why is it such a big deal that he has no fortune?” or “Is this marriage normal for the time?” can turn a baffling story into a relatable parable. And Audible hopes the AI-powered nature of the responses will make them better and faster by keeping it all within the app.

The new feature follows other recent AI experiments from Audible. The company has released an AI-powered audiobook discovery tool named Maven, along with AI-driven narration^[1] and translation tools.

There are legitimate philosophical questions about whether these kinds of tools devalue reading. Whether AI has us outsourcing the learning we should do when reading old books, or the chance to come up with our own interpretations. That might be the case. But sometimes you just want to know who Charlotte Lucas married, and why, before the next chapter begins.

You might also like