Podcast transcripts and SEO

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to a content marketing role with a recruitment company specialising in the AI market. One of our main marketing strategies is our podcast series with professionals in the industry.

Currently there is no process in place for transcribing the podcasts. Having read online that this can be a good way to optimise content and rank for keywords i suggested implementing this to our SEO vendor.

They came back and said however that transcriptions would offer no SEO value other than for hearing impaired visitors.

Can anyone clarify if this is true or if i need to suggest a new SEO partner