Pocket FM hires former Meta scientist Vasu Sharma as head of AI to advance audio storytelling

Pocket FM Brings Former Meta Scientist to Lead AI Innovation

Bengaluru-based audio streaming platform Pocket FM has appointed Vasu Sharma as its head of AI, marking a significant move to strengthen its technological capabilities in content creation and personalization 1

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. Vasu Sharma, a former Meta scientist who contributed to Facebook AI Research (FAIR), brings extensive experience in multimodal foundation models and generative AI to his new role 2

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. Reporting directly to cofounder Prateek Dixit, Sharma will spearhead AI research and innovation across narrative generation, production intelligence, and large-scale localisation 1

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Deep Expertise in Large Language Models and Multimodal AI

Sharma's credentials position him uniquely to tackle the challenges of AI-driven storytelling. At Meta, he worked on trillion-scale multimodal foundation models and contributed to major programs including Llama, Chameleon, MaVIL, and audio-video models 1

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. His research portfolio includes over 90 papers cited more than 10,000 times at leading conferences such as NeurIPS, CVPR, and ACL, demonstrating deep expertise in long-context reasoning and narrative intelligence 1

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. Beyond Meta, his career spans roles at Amazon Lab126, Citadel, and Carnegie Mellon University, where he led projects in multimodal learning, self-supervised learning, large language models, and computer vision 2

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Advancing AI Tools for Content Creators

In his new role, Sharma will focus on strengthening proprietary tools such as Pocket FM's AI CoPilot and Pocket LLMs, which support story ideation, drafting, editing, emotional toning, and multi-language adaptation 1

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. "Existing AI models can generate text, but they don't really grasp story structure or dramatic flow -- the things that make content engaging," Sharma told ET. "My role focuses on developing AI models with the most essential components that genuinely impact creators" 1

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. He emphasized that AI should enhance creator workflows rather than replace them, ensuring content quality remains high while creators maintain control 1

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Pushing Beyond Current AI Limitations in Creative Writing Assistance

The appointment addresses a critical gap in current AI capabilities. Cofounder Prateek Dixit explained that while most AI tools today reach about 80% of human-level quality, Pocket FM needed someone who could push that boundary. "We needed someone like Vasu to push that boundary -- developing models that can reach 95-99% accuracy in creative writing assistance, which requires serious research and custom model development," Dixit said 1

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. Sharma currently leads a team of five to ten researchers and applied engineers, with plans to expand 1

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Scaling Content Production for Global Markets

The strategic hire comes as Pocket FM scales rapidly across markets. The platform serves more than three lakh creators and hosts an audio series library exceeding one lakh titles 1

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. In September last year, the company launched its AI Creator Suite for Indian writers, enabling them to convert stories into fully produced audio series within a single day, significantly reducing research and post-production timelines 1

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. Revenue for FY25 reached Rs 1,768 crore, up 68% year-on-year, driven by expansion of its content catalogue and growth in key markets such as the US and India, with recent entry into the European market 1

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. Sharma's mandate to deliver immersive audio experiences through content personalization will be crucial as the platform scales globally 2

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