The name of the game for streaming services since their meteoric rise has been simple: collect content. Building expansive catalogs of movies and shows—first through acquiring distribution rights and later by producing original programming—has been the cornerstone of their approach to attracting and retaining subscribers. The bigger the library, the bigger the draw, as platforms sought to position themselves as the ultimate one-stop entertainment destination. For years, the streaming wars were a race to outpace competitors in both volume and exclusivity.
However, in recent years it has appeared that this strategy has reached its limits. As libraries swelled to overwhelming proportions, concepts such as “decision paralysis” and “content fatigue” began to enter the conversation, and today’s audiences increasingly demand not just access to a vast catalog, but a curated, personalized experience that anticipates their preferences and simplifies the decision-making process.
Algorithms have helped to streamline content discovery, filtering and sorting content by analyzing patterns such as viewing history and genre preferences to recommend content. But these systems are reactive, and limited in their understanding of nuanced preferences that go beyond explicit data points like clicks or ratings. Generative AI has the ability to go beyond simply analyzing past behaviors, utilizing deep learning models to understand context and intent on a much more granular level.
According to Dan Goman, founder and CEO of the cloud-based media supply chain company Ateliere Creative Technologies, implementing GenAI presents an opportunity for the entertainment industry to shed its reputation of slow technological adoption. “This industry is 1000% resistant to any change, at all, period. It literally takes an act of God or a force majeure for something to make them change,” Goman said. Entrenched workflows and legacy systems have long dominated Hollywood’s approach to content creation and distribution, but GenAI has the ability to help platforms unlock new pathways to profitability.
GenAI offers the dual benefit of speed and scale, allowing streaming platforms to fundamentally improve how they manage and distribute content. Tasks such as transcription, localization, and metadata tagging often require weeks of manual labor and significant budgets, but GenAI can take this timeline to seconds. For example, releasing a single TV series in multiple languages has always been a lucrative way for streaming services to grow their subscriber base, but each version requires careful adaptation through specialized teams in order to ensure cultural relevance and accurate translations. GenAI allows these processes to be automated and optimized, accelerating the pace for global distribution and increasing profitability as a result.
Ateliere Connect, one of the products offered by Ateliere, uses GenAI to analyze massive datasets at a rapid rate, enabling real-time content versioning and allowing creators to quickly pivot in order to capitalize on cultural trends or release regionally tailored versions of content. Goman points out that while algorithms are limited to analyzing existing data, GenAI has the creative capability to generate alternatives. For example, if a particular scene or joke fails to resonate or translate effectively in a specific market, GenAI can propose culturally appropriate modifications that aligns with local sensibilities. This creates opportunities for deeper market penetration, as well as long-term revenue growth.
As we just explored, GenAI has the ability to automate redundant, resource-intensive processes, offering streaming platforms significant reductions in operational costs while increasing efficiency. The cost of acquiring licensing rights to high-demand content remains substantial, and the escalating competition to produce original programming has only further exacerbated costs. At the same time, competition and consumer demand for lower prices has forced platforms to offer more value while limiting their ability to raise prices.
GenAI offers solutions that tackle the tensions between rising operational costs and shrinking profit margins. Ateliere’s proprietary FrameDNA™ tool identifies only the unique differences between video assets, allowing platforms to avoid storing redundant content across their libraries. Storage costs can quickly escalate for large-scale platforms that are managing extensive catalogs, and integrating FrameDNA™ into their workflows can reduce cloud storage expenses by as much as 90%.
Goman emphasizes that beyond trimming budgets, GenAI frees up resources—both human and financial—that can be redirected toward innovation. Rather than relying on legacy workflows that drain time and resources, streaming platforms can focus on storytelling and audience engagement, enabling the kind of strategic thinking that drives long-term growth.
GenAI’s ability to analyze audience behavior and preferences at an unprecedented scale has opened the door to entirely new revenue streams. Dan Goman has spoken extensively about the challenges streaming services face regarding pricing and bundling, emphasizing that these issues are central to the industry’s current state of flux. Streaming platforms initially disrupted traditional cable models with standalone, low-cost subscriptions, but the market has since evolved and forced platforms to rethink their strategies.
AI-powered dynamic pricing models have the ability to allow streaming services to optimize their subscription rates, making sure they can attract price-sensitive views while still capturing value from their most loyal customers. AI can identify opportunities to offer flexible pricing options such as limited-time discounts or customized subscription packages that align with the budgets of price-sensitive subscribers, while offering perks such as exclusive features or premium tiers to loyal subscribers that are willing to pay more for enhanced experiences.
Advertising, a long-time staple of media monetization, is similarly at a transformative point thanks to GenAI. Platforms now have the ability to deliver ads that are both highly targeted and contextually aligned with the content itself. Disney’s AI-powered “Magic Words” technology analyzes scenes within their Disney+ and Hulu content to identify elements such as mood, imagery and themes to generate metadata tags that allow advertisers to align their messages with specific scenes or emotional tones.
In development are also GenAI technologies that can take advertising into a brave new world with dynamic product placement. Rather than traditional ad breaks, AI can seamlessly integrate brands and products into the narrative fabric of the content. Imagine a character in a show drinking a specific brand of coffee or using a particular gadget—digitally inserted with AI during the post-production process. Going even further, GenAI allows the placement of these items to be dynamic, changing depending on the viewer’s demographics, locations, or preferences.
Imagine a world where your streaming service understands that after a long day, you’re more likely to want to watch a light-hearted comedy than a gritty drama. Content bundles shift dynamically to reflect the seasons of your life while ads seamlessly align with your interests, feeling less like interruptions and more like thoughtful recommendations. You can explore movies and tv shows from across the globe without language barriers, knowing that every line is translated with precision and delivering an experience that’s as authentic as the original.
This is the potential generative AI can bring to consumers: smarter, more deeply personalized content that allows studios and other content creators to focus on pushing the boundaries of storytelling and sparking creative innovation. Writers, directors, and other creatives in the field can concentrate on crafting narratives that resonate deeply, knowing that AI can optimize workflows and profit margins are bolstered thanks to reduced operational costs and new revenue streams.
For Goman, the industry has spent too many decades lagging behind in adopting technological advancements, often resisting change until necessity forces its hand. GenAI has the ability to transform monetization strategies, unlocking new revenue streams and optimizing existing ones if the industry can embrace it.