Netflix adopts artificial intelligence widely in streaming

The financial impact of this technological shift has already begun to appear in the reports to shareholders. The streaming giant closed the period with a record quarterly revenue of 12.56 billion dollars, driven by this aggressive policy of cutting operating expenses. The management's current goal is to expand its reach to become a comprehensive entertainment ecosystem, promising to give much more weight to interactive video games streamed via the cloud directly to subscribers' TVs and phones, in addition to investing in video podcasts and social clips. Diversifying the catalog with games is an intriguing strategy to retain the audience, provided the company delivers truly interactive experiences and not just generic quick-to-market spin-offs.

The infrastructure behind this large-scale automation took shape following a billion-dollar deal behind the scenes in the spring of 2026. Netflix paid around 600 million dollars to acquire the startup InterPositive, a technology company founded by the actor and director Ben Affleck. This acquisition provided the necessary tools to speed up the processing of digital images and manage heavy cloud-based tasks. The practical application of these algorithms throughout the year ended up being spread across projects in various parts of the world.

The practical use of Artificial Intelligence in 2026 was in projects from different parts of the globe, including the following:

The science fiction series L'Eternauta, which used computer-generated workflows to expedite the completion and touch-up of its visual effects sequences.

The reality show Wonka's The Golden Ticket, where the technology allowed for the authorized vocal cloning of the late actor Gene Wilder.

The productions Glory (India), Brasil 70: A Saga do Tri (Brazil), and The American Experiment (USA), which relied on algorithms to generate digital crowds, historical battle sequences, and framing plans.

This intense automation in original productions set off alarm bells and generated a wave of legitimate distrust among professionals in the audiovisual sector. In an attempt to mitigate the press damage and calm the unions, co-CEO Ted Sarandos publicly defended the streaming platform's strategy. The executive assured that the intention is not to replace human professionals with lines of code, affirming that the company still relies on real directors and actors to deliver remarkable works, and that the algorithms act solely as technical assistance tools. This corporate justification sounds quite rehearsed, trying to sugarcoat a reality where the human factor loses ground to deadline urgency and profit spreadsheets.

This entire discussion was sparked after the company itself officially confirmed that it has embedded generative AI-based workflows in approximately 300 original productions released since the beginning of 2026. The computer intervention took place almost entirely in the post-production phase, being used to adjust the lighting of completed scenes, correct small details in background settings, and create graphic elements. The internal justification for this change of stance is the drastic reduction of costs and delivery times, with the company admitting that several complex scenes would be summarily deleted from final scripts purely due to lack of budget if they had to rely on traditional computer graphics methods. It's a quite delicate moment for the entertainment industry, where the blind pursuit of cash optimization risks standardizing the visual aesthetics of what we watch.