Hollywood has always evolved through disruption, but this time the shift feels different, as artificial intelligence is no longer confined to experimental labs or isolated creative tools. Instead, it is increasingly being embedded across the entire entertainment pipeline, from early-stage development and pre-visualization to post-production, marketing, audience analytics, and distribution strategies, while also beginning to integrate directly into films and television production itself, by some of the biggest names in the industry.

So, here are the 7 major studios you should be watching closely, as they’re already investing heavily in AI integration across their production pipelines.

For years, Disney publicly approached AI cautiously because of labor backlash, copyright concerns, and union negotiations surrounding the growing use of generative technology in Hollywood. But behind the scenes, the company has been actively experimenting with AI tools for production, visual effects, and content generation. Things escalated dramatically in late 2025 when Disney signed a three-year partnership with OpenAI tied to Sora, OpenAI’s video generation platform, as per the Los Angeles Times.

The agreement included a reported $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI alongside access to more than 200 Disney-owned characters for AI-generated video creation, involving integrations connected to Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars intellectual property, making it one of the biggest AI-entertainment deals Hollywood had seen so far.

Now, the company's deal with OpenAI is reportedly shutting down, and its AI tech stack is being internally restructured across divisions like Industrial Light & Magic, Disney Research, Disney+, and Imagineering. AI is increasingly being explored for visual effects pipelines, digital asset generation, recommendation systems, theme park experiences, virtual production, and interactive storytelling technologies.

Amazon MGM Studios has officially stepped into the AI filmmaking race in a major way. In May 2026, the studio launched a multi-million dollar GenAI Creators’ Fund alongside Amazon Web Services during the “AI on the Lot” conference hosted directly at Amazon’s Culver City studio lot. The event marked one of Hollywood’s clearest signals yet that generative AI is no longer being treated as a side experiment, but as a full-scale studio strategy.

As part of the announcement, Amazon unveiled its first wave of AI-assisted animated projects, including Cupcake & Friends from BuzzFeed Studios, Love, Diana Music Hunters from Albie Hecht and pocket watch, and Punky Duck from filmmaker Jorge R. Gutierrez. All three projects are planned for Prime Video.

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While Amazon has not publicly disclosed a dedicated Hollywood AI spending figure, AWS has already invested billions globally into generative AI infrastructure, including major AI partnerships, custom chips, Bedrock AI services, and Anthropic-backed systems that can eventually integrate into entertainment production workflows.

Netflix has arguably become the most openly aggressive major Hollywood studio when it comes to practical AI deployment. Rather than quietly testing generative AI behind closed doors, the company has already started integrating the technology directly into production, visual effects, advertising, and platform infrastructure. In 2025, Netflix officially confirmed that it used generative AI in the Argentine sci-fi series The Eternaut for a major VFX sequence involving a collapsing building in Buenos Aires, according to Reuters.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed during the company’s quarterly earnings call that the AI-assisted sequence was completed nearly ten times faster than traditional VFX workflows while also significantly reducing production costs. More recently, Netflix expanded its AI ambitions even further by acquiring InterPositive, an AI filmmaking technology company founded by Ben Affleck in 2022, which helps filmmakers solve practical post-production challenges using footage already shot during production.

Fox Entertainment has been approaching AI from a different angle than most traditional Hollywood studios. Rather than focusing purely on blockbuster filmmaking tools, the company has been building what it describes as a “next-generation entertainment ecosystem” centered around creator-driven content, vertical video, AI-assisted storytelling, and scalable digital production infrastructure.

One of Fox’s earliest major moves came in 2021, when Fox Entertainment and its animation studio Bento Box Entertainment launched Blockchain Creative Labs, a new digital content and technology division focused on NFTs, blockchain-powered entertainment, and creator monetization systems.

The initiative included a massive $100 million creator fund. In 2025, Fox Entertainment expanded its AI ambitions even further by taking an equity stake in HOLYWATER, an AI-powered vertical video and micro-drama platform, which uses AI-assisted production systems to help creators rapidly produce and distribute short-form cinematic content across mobile-first platforms.

The company operates several AI-supported entertainment apps, including My Drama, My Passion, and My Muse, with the latter specifically focused on vertical series developed using generative AI tools. FOX Entertainment Studios is committed to producing more than 200 vertical video titles over the next two years for HOLYWATER’s streaming ecosystem, including projects like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession.

Warner Bros. Discovery is also not far behind in Hollywood’s growing AI race, as the company has increasingly taken an expansive approach toward artificial intelligence. One of the company’s most visible AI initiatives has come through its growing collaboration with Google Cloud. In 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced an AI-powered captioning system for Max built using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, which reduced caption production time by nearly 80 percent while also cutting costs by roughly 50 percent for unscripted programming.

Warner Bros. Discovery has also reportedly worked with AI video infrastructure companies like Moments Lab, whose clients include major media organizations such as Hearst and Amazon Ads. The company’s AI-powered MXT platform helps media companies automate archival indexing, rapidly identify usable footage, and streamline the creation of trailers, highlight reels, and social media clips using multimodal AI analysis.

Lionsgate became the first major Hollywood studio to publicly go all-in on a custom generative AI model when, in September 2024, the company announced a landmark partnership with AI startup Runway. The deal was officially revealed through Lionsgate’s investor relations release, and according to Lionsgate and Runway, the model is designed to assist filmmakers across multiple stages of production, including pre-production planning, storyboarding, visual effects, post-production workflows, and cinematic video generation.

Lionsgate Vice Chair Michael Burns openly framed AI as a major financial opportunity for the studio and suggested the technology could potentially save the studio millions of dollars in production and effects costs over time. Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela also positioned the partnership as the beginning of a new era in entertainment production, but the announcement immediately triggered backlash from across the world, highlighting that Hollywood’s AI gold rush still comes with plenty of potholes.

Paramount Global has taken one of the most cautious and infrastructure-focused approaches to artificial intelligence in Hollywood, prioritizing backend integration over high-profile AI filmmaking announcements. In 2024, Paramount Advertising officially announced a partnership with the generative AI platform Waymark to develop AI-assisted video advertising tools for local businesses and television advertisers.

Backer RedBird Capital is funding AI-focused B5 Studios to create agile, low-budget cinema pipelines. Beyond advertising, Paramount has increasingly integrated AI into the operational backbone of Paramount+ recommendation engines, metadata organization, and engagement analytics.

That said, 2025 industry reporting suggested that Paramount may be exploring partnerships or internal testing involving generative AI platforms such as Runway and OpenAI-linked technologies. A broader strategic layer also comes from RedBird Capital Partners, which played a major financial role in the Skydance-Paramount takeover and merger structure that is expected to reshape the company’s long-term direction.

The company has also been linked to AI-adjacent media investments, including backing B5 Studios, an AI-focused film and television production company designed to build lower-budget, highly scalable production pipelines using generative AI tools and automation-driven workflows. These seven major studios have already begun integrating AI into their production pipelines in various ways.

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