Netflix is no longer just experimenting with artificial intelligence—it's deploying generative AI tools in active productions, marking a significant shift in how streaming giants approach content creation. In a recent earnings call, co-CEO Ted Sarandos announced that the platform featured its "very first GenAI final footage" in the show El Eternauta (The Eternaut), where an AI-generated building collapse scene was produced 10 times faster and at a fraction of the cost of conventional visual effects pipelines. This milestone underscores a strategic pivot where AI is moving from theoretical promise to practical, on-screen reality.

A Leap in Visual Effects Efficiency

Netflix's internal production team collaborated with show creators to leverage AI for rendering the high-intensity destruction sequence, which would typically require extensive manual labor and resources. Sarandos highlighted that this approach democratizes advanced effects:

"We remain convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper. There are AI-powered creator tools. So this is real people doing real work with better tools. Our creators are already seeing the benefits in production through pre-visualization and shot-planning work, and certainly visual effects. It used to be that only big-budget projects would have access to advanced visual effects like de-aging."

The efficiency gains here are transformative. By automating labor-intensive processes, Netflix can allocate more resources to creative experimentation, potentially leveling the playing field for mid-budget productions. This aligns with broader industry trends where generative AI tools—such as those for texture generation or physics simulation—are reducing barriers to high-quality VFX, allowing smaller teams to achieve Hollywood-scale results.

Beyond Production: AI in Personalization and Monetization

Co-CEO Greg Peters expanded on Netflix's AI ambitions, noting its role in enhancing user experience and revenue streams. The company is integrating generative AI into personalization algorithms and search functions, which debuted earlier this year, and plans to launch interactive ads in late 2025. These ads could leverage AI for dynamic content adaptation, offering targeted viewer engagement based on real-time data. Such innovations come as Netflix reports robust financials: Q2 revenue hit $11.08 billion (up 16% year-over-year) with $3.13 billion in profit, driven by over 95 billion hours of content watched in the first half of 2025—one-third from non-English titles.

Implications for Creators and the Industry

This move signals a maturation of generative AI in media, where tools are now reliable enough for final cuts rather than just pre-production. For developers and engineers, it highlights opportunities in building specialized AI models for creative workflows—think real-time rendering or collaborative editing platforms. However, it also raises questions about the future of VFX professions and ethical considerations, such as data sourcing for training these models. As studios race to adopt similar tech, Netflix's success could accelerate industry-wide standards, making AI-assisted production the new baseline for streaming competitiveness. The true victory lies not in replacing human ingenuity but in amplifying it, turning what was once exclusive into something expansively inventive.

Source: TechCrunch by Ivan Mehta.