Jul 15, 2026: AI_TRANSCRIBE now supports AAC audio files

Snowflake Cortex AI_TRANSCRIBE now supports AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) input, both as a standalone audio file and as the audio track inside a supported video file. Because AAC is one of the most widely used audio codecs across podcasts, streaming, and video pipelines, you can now transcribe a wider range of real-world recordings directly in Snowflake, without first converting them to another format.

Key use cases include:

  • Transcribe streaming and broadcast audio: AAC is a dominant codec for internet radio, live streams, and digital broadcasting. Transcribe audio captured as AAC for media monitoring, search, and analysis.
  • Process podcast and media libraries: AAC is a standard codec for podcast and streaming audio distribution. Transcribe episodes and media archives to power search, summarization, and content analysis.
  • Analyze video soundtracks: AAC is the default audio track in MP4 video. Transcribe webinars, interviews, and marketing videos whose audio is encoded as AAC.
  • Transcribe contact center and call recordings: Many call recording and streaming platforms store captured audio as AAC. Transcribe support calls and combine the output with other Cortex AI Functions for sentiment and quality analysis.
  • Simplify audio ingestion pipelines: Ingest AAC files as-is and transcribe them with a single SQL query, eliminating custom transcoding steps before analysis.

For more information, see AI_TRANSCRIBE.