The publishing landscape is evolving quickly, and we believe the authors we serve deserve a partner who evolves thoughtfully alongside it. That’s why we’ve started using AI in a few select areas of our workflow. Not to cut corners or replace the expertise and care you rely on, but to help us make promoting your book faster, easier, and more effective.
We're equally committed to being open about how we use this technology, why we chose to adopt it, and, just as importantly, what safeguards we have in place to ensure it works for you, not around you.
As part of that commitment, IngramSpark is diligent about keeping harmful or low-quality content out of our catalog. We occupy a unique role in the publishing ecosystem: we want to champion and elevate independent voices, while also making sure those voices aren't drowned out by content that's less appropriate or less valuable to readers.
While our role as a distributor and aggregator does place some limits on the control we can exercise, within that role we've invested significantly in systems and practices designed to protect consumers, serve as a dependable partner to our retail and library customers, and reduce marketplace noise so that thoughtful, well-crafted books (like yours) have room to be seen.
While we've not adopted AI across the board, we've been very deliberate about where it could genuinely add value without compromising the quality or integrity our authors expect. Here are the specific ways we're putting it to work for you:
IngramSpark Assist
IngramSpark Assist recommends metadata based on your book title and description, helping you quickly fill in fields such as Audience, BISAC, Keywords, Thema, Short Summary, and, when relevant, Qualifying and Regional Subjects. The tool processes and returns all metadata in American English. While it can interpret title descriptions written in other languages, its output will always be in American English.
As GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) begins to shape how readers discover books, high-quality, detailed descriptions matter more than ever. In many cases, structured or bulleted copy helps AI-driven search tools understand your content and present it to the right readers in a clear, meaningful way.
Need-to-Know Info
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IngramSpark Assist offers recommendations to help you move through setup more quickly, but you always make the final decisions about your metadata.
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At this time, IngramSpark Assist is available only during the setup of new titles and doesn't apply to titles already in your account. To use the tool, your description must meet a higher minimum character count than is required for basic book setup.
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We don't use your content files (your book’s interior or cover) to train the AI model. If you choose to use IngramSpark Assist, we may use the metadata it generates to improve our understanding and enhance future recommendations.
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If you decide not to use IngramSpark Assist, your metadata isn't processed or used in any way related to this feature.
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- During the Beta period, we invite users to share feedback. Your input helps us refine the tool and improve the accuracy and usefulness of future recommendations.
Ingram iD
Our Consumer Marketing Services give you direct access to customized consumer and reader audience data available only through Ingram. Ingram iD is a self-serve, easy-to-use tool that lets you advertise to our proprietary database of segmented Verified Readers on platforms such as Google and Facebook. Built for authors, it helps you focus your marketing on high-value readers through precise audience targeting and real-time analytics.
Need-to-Know Info
- Ingram iD brings it all together: One platform to manage social ads, search campaigns, email promotions, and engaging giveaways.
- Setting up an ad in Ingram iD is designed to be a simple process to empower you to make effective ads for your book(s) without having to navigate the complicated ad platforms.
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With just your ISBN, Ingram iD finds your ideal audience and builds professional ads for Facebook, Instagram, and Google—handling everything from copy to images with no technical skills required.
- You can understand your advertising impact with advanced metrics and detailed reporting, ensuring you get the most out of every ad campaign.
- Ingram iD is free to set up; campaigns require a U.S. credit card.
Covered
Covered is Ingram’s modern hub for everything that happens before a book reaches the shelf. In one streamlined, intuitive experience, publishers can share digital catalogs, marketing materials, digital review copies, and galleys, while booksellers and librarians explore what's coming next. The service itself was not built with AI, but we did use AI early on to prototype Covered, gather feedback, and refine the experience.
Need-to-Know Info
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Covered will enter a Beta period with select publisher content in July or August of this year, and in 2027, we plan to open it to the broader industry.
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We're focusing first on the U.S. market. Over time (2027 and beyond), Covered will expand to serve users around the world. At launch, it will offer core catalog and discovery features along with buying tools such as markups, buy suggestions, comps, order export, and select POS integrations.
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Booksellers and publishers will be able to choose how and when to share data. Ingram follows a clear data privacy notice and remains transparent about how information is collected, used, and shared.
MARC Records
MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) records are the industry-standard digital formats libraries use to describe books, digital media, and other resources. They allow computerized library systems to communicate, share cataloging data, and support seamless discoverability across platforms.
These records are how librarians locate and display titles for their patrons, so they're essential to having books properly cataloged and available in libraries. We've developed an internal tool that helps us create MARC records more efficiently and for a wider range of titles, using the metadata publishers provide. This accelerates the cataloging process and strengthens our support for library partners.
Ultimately, our use of AI comes down to one thing: your success as an author. Every decision we make about the tools we use is filtered through that lens. We're excited about what this technology makes possible, and we take seriously the responsibility that comes with it.
Transparency is more than a policy for us; it’s a promise. Thank you for trusting us with your work.
