{"id":2169671,"date":"2025-11-21T02:28:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2169671"},"modified":"2025-11-21T02:28:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T02:28:22","slug":"generative-ai-in-entertainment-the-future-of-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/generative-ai-in-entertainment-the-future-of-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"Generative AI in entertainment: The future of storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"BlogEntryContent_mck-c-blog-entry-content__display-date__KyYLY\"><time datetime=\"2025-11-19T00:00:00Z\">November 19, 2025<\/time><\/span>Demand for video content has never been higher, with the average US adult spending nearly seven hours per day watching video across platforms.<sup>1<\/sup> Yet premium TV and film budgets are flat, production timelines are long, and competition for consumers\u2019 <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/industries\/technology-media-and-telecommunications\/our-insights\/the-attention-equation-winning-the-right-battles-for-consumer-attention\">increasingly fragmented attention<\/a> continues to intensify. In the United States, TV and film make up only 50 percent of total video viewership, down from 61 percent in 2019, as social content gains share of time.<sup>2<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The emergence of <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/featured-insights\/mckinsey-explainers\/what-is-generative-ai\">gen AI<\/a> has the potential to radically alter this landscape, rewiring how stories are developed and produced. Gen AI and the set of new tools and technologies it powers could be the most transformative force in the entertainment industry since the shift to streaming\u2014reinventing every stage of the creative process from script to screen.<\/p>\n<p>Early next year, McKinsey will examine these developments in an in-depth article based on dozens of interviews with entertainment industry executives, creative talent, technologists, investors, and academics. The publication will explore how gen AI will shape the future of the $181 billion global content-creation value chain\u2014from previsualization to postproduction.<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<h2>Where the transformation begins<\/h2>\n<p>Film and television have always been shaped by technology, from practical effects and cable to CGI and streaming. But AI could represent a shift in not only how content is made but also who gets to make it. AI product experts are hopeful that technological advances will further democratize storytelling. According to one AI expert, \u201cThere are a lot of gatekeepers right now to getting anything greenlit or distributed. The more that AI is high-quality and responsible, the more great stories get told.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That democratization could unlock new voices and formats. Directors who once spent years developing their backlog of projects might now have <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/featured-insights\/mckinsey-explainers\/what-is-an-ai-agent\">agentic solutions<\/a> capable of producing detailed storyboards. Indie producers with limited budgets could do their work without having to raise as much financial backing. Beyond premium long-form content, digital-native creators could build new content types, such as Sam Finn\u2019s project \u201cThe Unfinished Film,\u201d which put fans in the director\u2019s seat to produce their own ending.<sup>4<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>At the same time, major studios are likely to see gains in both productivity and precision. \u201cIf pre-vis doesn\u2019t yield a clear shot list, it creates more difficulty later,\u201d an AI product leader explained. \u201cWith AI, you can A\/B-test shots before you shoot them, saving time on set and enabling more creativity once cameras roll.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Signals from the frontier<\/h2>\n<p>Initial research suggests that the greatest near-term value will emerge in pre- and postproduction, which contribute about half of total production spending and are areas in which gen AI can enhance rather than replace creative judgment.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Preproduction acceleration.<\/em> AI-assisted storyboarding, 3D modeling for sets, and camera path planning can front-load work in preproduction and shorten the length of physical production, including costly reshoots. Adobe\u2019s Firefly Foundry approach<sup>5<\/sup>\u2014commercial safe, IP-protected models trained for specific IP owners\u2014hints at what\u2019s next: \u201cYou don\u2019t need a model that works for everyone,\u201d a leader at Adobe said. \u201cYou just need one trained for that use case.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em>Postproduction efficiency.<\/em> AI is already automating cosmetic improvements, de-aging, and dialogue replacement. As a former studio executive observed, \u201cVanity fixes are a significant share of visual effects [VFX], and that\u2019s now pretty easy to do with AI. These tasks used to be incredibly manually intensive.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><em>Marketing and engagement.<\/em> From automated trailer editing to AI-assisted audience testing, \u201cMarketing asset creation is an obvious and lower-stakes use case,\u201d one studio executive noted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These use cases are not speculative. Studios are already deploying gen AI tools in Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and other professional workflows to extend shots, remove booms, or realign visuals to the soundtrack\u2014the kind of microtasks that once absorbed hundreds of staff hours. Studio executives expect as much as 80 to 90 percent efficiency gains in VFX and 3D asset creation.<\/p>\n<h2>What won\u2019t change\u2014and what\u2019s next<\/h2>\n<p>Even as technology reshapes the production process, experts emphasize continuity in one area: storytelling itself. \u201cGreat stories and great storytelling will always matter,\u201d said a gen AI product leader. \u201cAI can speed the workflow, but creativity still defines the outcome.\u201d Another studio executive echoed that sentiment from the production side: \u201cHistorically, if you reduce the cost of VFX, the movie doesn\u2019t get cheaper\u2014it looks better because we reinvest savings into quality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several entertainment and tech executives agreed that cost structures will shift. The Hollywood adage of \u201cfix it in post\u201d is giving way to \u201cfix it in pre\u201d\u2014shifting quality control earlier in the process. Over time, this could reallocate value pools across production houses, VFX providers, and distributors, changing where and how investment flows.<\/p>\n<p>Still, many in the industry remain uneasy about the potential impact of gen AI on the already declining number of entertainment jobs. Guilds and unions\u2014including the WGA (Writers Guild of America), the DGA (Directors Guild of America), SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild\u2013American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), and IATSE (the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees)\u2014have taken clear stances that gen AI should be used to augment roles, not replace them. Several studios have challenged relationships with foundational models and publicly available text-to-video tools that they claim were illegally trained on the studios\u2019 IP.<\/p>\n<p>These concerns underscore the importance of clear regulatory and ethical frameworks regarding creativity, content rights, and gen AI. One product leader noted, \u201cEntertainment executives should be asking what models are used in their ecosystem. They need to start thinking about the \u2018nutrition label.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Looking ahead<\/h2>\n<p>The full McKinsey article\u2014to be released in early 2026 ahead of the Sundance Film Festival\u2014will explore several plausible scenarios for how gen AI could reshape the entertainment industry:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>incremental productivity gains across current workflows<\/li>\n<li>entirely new production processes enabled by new tools<\/li>\n<li>a restructured industry model in which creative boundaries are redrawn and value pools are redistributed across production and distribution<\/li>\n<li>a fundamental reset of the entire video production landscape that changes the economic model of video, including for user-generated content <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In each scenario, the article will assess the economic implications across the content production value chain for studios, creators, and platforms. It will also examine the crucial human dimension\u2014trust, authorship, and ethics\u2014and outline a practical playbook for leaders navigating this shift. The goal is to help legacy media companies, new tech entrants, and investors separate hype from reality and identify where AI can drive creative and commercial value in the next era of storytelling<strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/our-people\/marc-brodherson\">Marc Brodherson<\/a> <\/strong>is a senior partner in McKinsey\u2019s New York office, <strong>Alec Wrubel <\/strong>is a consultant in the Southern California office, and <strong>Jamie Vickers <\/strong>is an associate partner in the London office.<\/p>\n<p><sup>1<\/sup> Ethan Cramer-Flood, \u201cUS time spent with media 2025,\u201d EMARKETER, February 27, 2025.<br \/><sup>2<\/sup> EMARKETER; PQ Media.<br \/><sup>3<\/sup> McKinsey analysis; Luminate; Omdia.<br \/><sup>4<\/sup> <em>Adobe Blog,<\/em> \u201cThe Unfinished Film: Where your imagination leads and AI follows,\u201d blog entry by Stacy Martinet, July 31, 2025.<br \/><sup>5<\/sup> \u201cAdobe Firefly Foundry delivers proprietary and on-brand generative AI models for businesses,\u201d Adobe, October 28, 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.mckinsey.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>November 19, 2025Demand for video content has never been higher, with the average US adult spending nearly seven hours per day watching video across platforms.1 Yet premium TV and film budgets are flat, production timelines are long, and competition for consumers\u2019 increasingly fragmented attention continues to intensify. In the United States, TV and film make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2169672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2169671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Generative-AI-in-entertainment-The-future-of-storytelling.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2169671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2169673,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169671\/revisions\/2169673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2169672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2169671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2169671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2169671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}