New Delhi, July 15 -- SAN FRANCISCO - You can now talk to Spotify. Not at it, but with it, back and forth, in natural language, about what you want to hear next or what you heard three years ago when you were in a very specific mood. The company launched a conversational AI assistant on Monday for Premium subscribers in the United States, Ireland, and Sweden, marking the most consequential change to how people find music on the platform since the AI DJ feature arrived in 2023.

The feature accepts text or voice input from the Home and Now Playing screens on iOS and Android. Users can ask the assistant to build playlists, explain what they are currently listening to, pull up specific artists, or ask questions about their own listening hist...