The entertainment and advertising industry today faces a paradox. The average person spends hours on their phone, computer, or TV, watching movies, videos, and shorts. Demand for content has never been higher, but traditional film and television are losing ground. Viewership for scripted TV and movies has dipped to about 50% of total video consumption in the US, down from 61% just six years ago. Studios struggle with stagnant budgets, delayed production timelines, and competition. With the advent of generative AI, however, all this will change and the movie industry as we know it will disappear. The future of moviemaking lies in gen AI and the possibilities are endless.
Gen AI provides endless possibilities for scenes that filmmakers in the past could only dream about. Gen Ai will amplify our imagination and open doors for diverse creators by unlocking unprecedented efficiency and innovation. True, it was always human imagination and resourcefulness that created the best movies and that will not disappear. What will change, however, is the ability to make human dreams a reality.
This seismic transformation is not about machines churning out blockbusters. It’s about empowering filmmakers to focus on what matters: crafting narratives that move us and producing out-of-this-world scenes that would not be possible without the aid of AI, which is already reshaping production pipelines and forcing the industry to rethink how to harness its potential.
Pre-production, where the magic begins to come together, often stalls under resource constraints. AI tools now accelerate this stage and contribute greatly as they make ideation an easier task. Storyboarding, once a labor-intensive sketch session, can now be handled by AI systems that interpret script descriptions and output dynamic animated sequences in minutes. Custom-trained AI models now allow creators to visualize sets, plot camera and lighting angles, and plan a scene from A-Z. This approach minimizes costly surprises later and helps directors avoid reshoots.
Studios benefit because AI enables A/B testing of scenes before a single frame is shot. Visual effects is now a completely different ballgame as AI provides endless possibilities with no need for sets, makeup, costumes, or expensive alternate forms of rendering. What Ai does is allow for bolder storytelling. In the past, producers were limited by what they could shoot in real life or produce through older computer programs. What once required massive teams of VFX artists for weeks can now be prototyped in hours. Today, we’ve reached an entirely new universe of possibility and creativity.
For all its wizardry, AI will never be able to replace the human touch. Great films demand a compelling story, empathy, cultural nuance, and that indefinable gut feeling that only humans can provide. Algorithms can plot twists, but they can’t capture emotion. It is true that some jobs, like VFX engineers might be at stake, but while costs may drop in technical realms, they will rise in talent, with a focus on visionary directors, diverse writers, and editors who are experts in AI. Even so, unions from the Writers Guild to SAG-AFTRA have rallied for protection, insisting AI serves as a co-pilot, not captain.
The truth is that gen Ai isn’t coming for Hollywood. Instead, it is creating more jobs and offering more pathways to creativity and perhaps quicker turnaround. By turbocharging pre- and post-production, it promises a renaissance in filmmaking. Still, taking the unions into account is important and there is a need for robust regulations and a commitment to use human talent over automation.
The film industry is hurtling toward a hybrid reality. Technology evolves but the art of connection endures. Filmmakers who embrace AI as an ally will not only reinvent production, they will redefine what it means to tell a compelling story worth watching.