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Artificial Intelligence

How AI Is Changing Entertainment and Media

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AI is changing entertainment and media across production, audience discovery, distribution, advertising and rights—not just by generating scripts, images or music. The central tension is between new tools and formats on one side, and questions about human creativity, audience trust, licensing and creator pay on the other. The effects differ depending on whether AI assists a person’s work or generates an output itself.

Where AI is entering entertainment and media

Deloitte’s 2026 Media & Entertainment Industry Outlook describes AI as part of both visible creative work and less visible operations. Its analysis covers creative workflows, production pipelines and audience analytics, as well as the challenge of helping content stand out in a crowded media environment. These are strategic observations, not measurements showing that every company or production uses AI in the same way.

Generative AI draws attention because it can produce or transform material, but AI can also support work around content: organizing production processes, analyzing audience information and helping people navigate large libraries. That makes the change broader than a question of whether a film, song or program was generated by a machine. It also concerns how work is made, presented, found and monetized.

Deloitte warns that AI-generated material could add to the volume of content competing for attention across social feeds, platforms and screens. More output does not automatically mean more distinctive or satisfying work. In that environment, quality, audience understanding, partnerships and differentiation matter alongside production efficiency.

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AI-assisted work and fully generated output are different cases

The label “AI-made” can obscure important differences. A tool that helps a person with a production task raises different accountability and rights questions from an output generated largely by AI. The sources do not establish a universal scorecard for judging these uses, but the distinctions below help clarify what to ask.

Use What it describes Questions it raises
AI-assisted workflow A person uses AI within a creative or production process. Deloitte discusses AI in creative workflows and production pipelines. What did the tool do? Who made the consequential creative decisions? Were any protected works used, and on what terms?
Fully or substantially AI-generated output Content produced by generative systems, rather than simply work in which AI assists a human creator. Deloitte discusses the prospect of more AI-generated content; CISAC summarizes estimates concerning AI-generated music and audiovisual output. What information informed the generation? Is the output identified clearly to audiences? How, if at all, are affected creators credited or remunerated?

These questions are not equivalent to a finding that a particular use is lawful, unlawful, fair or unfair. Rights and policy rules differ by jurisdiction, and the UK government’s 2026 report describes policy developments across jurisdictions rather than one worldwide rule.

Discovery is part of the AI shift

For audiences, the effects of AI may appear in how they search for and receive recommendations, not only in what appears onscreen. Gracenote/Nielsen’s April 8, 2026 release addresses AI-assisted entertainment discovery and argues that discovery depends on underlying content data as well as interface design. Better interfaces cannot compensate for poor or incomplete information about what a library contains.

The release describes an online survey of 4,003 U.S. AI chatbot users aged 13–79, fielded January 23–February 4, 2026. Its Gen Alpha findings refer only to respondents aged 13 and 14. Those details define the sample: the survey should not be treated as representative of all U.S. media audiences, all young people, or audiences in other countries. Its survey framing is evidence about the group studied, not proof of how every viewer discovers entertainment.

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For a nonfiction viewer, discovery quality has a practical dimension: can a search or recommendation make clear what a documentary is about and help distinguish relevant works? AI may make interaction faster or more conversational, while the usefulness of the result still depends on the data behind it and how the system presents that result. The available findings do not establish a universal level of accuracy, trust or improvement across services.

Market growth does not tell creators what they will earn

PwC’s June 22, 2026 summary of its Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2026–30 forecasts global entertainment and media revenue of US$4.2 trillion in 2030, a 3.4% compound annual growth rate through 2030. PwC reports US$3.5 trillion in global revenue for 2025 and expects 4.6% growth in 2026. The 2030 figure and 2026 growth rate are forecasts, not settled outcomes. PwC’s broad market covers advertising, connectivity and consumer spending across 12 segments and 53 territories; it is not a measure of income earned by creators or of any one media category.

Creator-rights organization CISAC summarizes a 2024 PMP Strategy study that models a different question: the potential value of AI-generated outputs and exposure of creator revenue. Its figures are scenario estimates, not observed losses or confirmed future results.

Area Modeled 2028 estimate Potential creator-revenue exposure
Music €16 billion estimated annual value of AI-generated music outputs, according to the 2024 CISAC summary of the PMP Strategy study. 24% of music creators’ revenues potentially at risk under that study’s assumptions; a projection, not an observed loss.
Audiovisual About €48 billion estimated value of AI-generated audiovisual output in 2028, according to the same summary. 21% of audiovisual creators’ revenue potentially at risk by 2028 under the study’s assumptions; a projection, not an observed loss.

The scale of these estimates should not be confused with certainty about who captures the value or how a particular filmmaker, musician or production will be affected. CISAC presents the study from a creator-rights perspective; its policy position and the study’s modeled estimates are distinct from a neutral, settled finding about future earnings.

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Copyright licensing is growing, but announced deals show only part of the market

The UK government’s March 18, 2026 report on copyright and AI describes licensing markets for AI development as new and growing, while noting that many agreements remain private. CREATe analysis cited in the report examined publicly announced deals from March 2023 to February 2025. Within that announced-deal sample, news publishing accounted for 68%, images for 14% and academic publishing for 7%.

Those percentages describe the stated categories in the public announcements analyzed; they do not measure every private contract, every kind of copyrighted work used in AI development or the share of all training material that is licensed. The report also discusses metadata and standards as possible ways to communicate reservations or licensing conditions. Their practical effect depends on uptake by creators, intermediaries and developers; the report does not establish one universally adopted mechanism.

CISAC Vice-President Ángeles González-Sinde Reig expressed the rights-holder concern this way: “AI tools can profoundly support our work as story tellers and film makers. But there is an enormous anxiety that in the rush to exploit and monetise generative AI, creators will be treated like an afterthought, lacking the right to authorise uses of their work, unprotected by transparency rules and unable to receive fair remuneration. We must not forget that it is human creators who provide the fuel of the AI world and who must be at the centre of policy making and regulation.” This is the perspective of a creator-rights organization, not a neutral consensus statement.

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How to assess AI’s role in a film, program or platform

No single label answers whether an AI use is responsible or useful. For viewers, makers and media organizations, these practical questions separate the main issues without treating all AI use as the same:

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  • Identify the use. Is AI assisting a person’s workflow, generating content, or shaping discovery and audience analysis?
  • Ask about rights and accountability. Is there information about permission or licensing, transparency about training materials, attribution and remuneration? A public announcement alone does not reveal the full terms of a private agreement.
  • Consider the audience experience. Does an AI search or recommendation help people find relevant work, and does the interface make the basis and limits of its results understandable?
  • Look beyond volume. Does the use contribute to quality or a distinctive format, or mainly add more material competing for attention?

For documentary and other nonfiction work, these questions are especially useful when the audience needs to understand how a work was made or what a recommendation represents. They do not replace checking the specific production’s disclosures or the rules that apply where it was made and distributed.

What the evidence supports—and what it does not

Taken together, the sources support a picture of change across workflows, discovery, market forecasts and licensing—not a simple claim that AI will replace entertainment or that it will benefit every creator. Deloitte offers industry strategy analysis; Gracenote/Nielsen describes a defined survey population; PwC provides a broad market forecast; CISAC summarizes modeled creator-exposure estimates; and the UK report discusses policy and a limited set of public licensing announcements.

These sources do not establish a single global copyright rule, a standardized ranking of AI tools, or a confirmed outcome for creators’ future income. Their evidence is a snapshot as of September 27, 2026; forecasts, policy and licensing practices can change.

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