Since the 2023 Hollywood strikes, major studios have been quietly evaluating the potential for generative AI in film and TV production workflows in hopes of driving cost savings. On the whole, studios have been slow and restrictive toward involving AI in production, amid copyright concerns and respective union negotiations in progress between SAG-AFTRA, the WGA and DGA and the AMPTP.
Consumer acceptance of generative AI in content will be among the considerations driving decision-making on its use in film and TV content creation, as discomfort with AI use is potentially damaging to interest in consuming content.
U.S. consumers are more likely to feel uncomfortable than comfortable with AI use in most film and TV processes, according to Luminate’s Entertainment 365 consumer survey data. The greatest discomfort registers for scenarios that involve replacing actors with digital replicas or fully synthetic performers.
While negative sentiment outweighs positive, about a third of respondents are indifferent toward AI use in production across the board. Likewise, consumers are more likely to be accepting of some uses. Sentiment is net positive toward AI use for sound effects (+11%), special or visual effects (+10%), animation (7%) and dubbing (2%), calculated as the difference between the combined shares of respondents very or somewhat comfortable with AI use and those uncomfortable.
Sentiment has worsened toward AI-written movies and shows. Net consumer interest is negative on watching movies or TV shows penned with generative AI, with older audiences most anti-AI in screenwriting. Interest has dropped since May 2025 for all generations, most starkly among Gens Alpha, Z and X.
The pace and nature of AI adoption in Hollywood has been uneven. AI studios and independents have adopted most aggressively and in the open, followed by tech-forward studios including Netflix and Amazon-owned MGM. Some, such as Lionsgate, have struck partnerships with Runway with intent to use their AI video tech in development and production.
Aside from major studios, an expanding set of independent entertainment content studios are proactively bringing generative AI models and tools into their content creation processes to produce film, TV, episodic social video or other multimedia formats. Often bringing together AI tech and creative talent, AI studios are aggressively experimenting and designing novel workflows from scratch in the belief that using gen AI most effectively in production requires a more holistic reinterpretation of the entire pipeline.
