Netflix quietly flipped the switch on AI, using it across nearly 300 productions to make content faster, cheaper, and a lot more scalable. Hollywood’s relationship with AI has been uneasy for years, and the anxiety only sharpened during the writers’ and actors’ strikes, when creators worried about studios replacing human labor with cheaper digital shortcuts. 

Amidst all this chaos, Netflix has just bragged that it has used AI on nearly 300 of its projects.

In an earnings-related interview with Deadline, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company is using generative AI to speed up complicated visual work while keeping quality high, which is a notable shift for a service still spending heavily on original programming.

“We’re leveraging Gen AI for really complicated shots and sequences… enhancing crowds, or historical battle scenes, those kind of things,” Sarandos said.

Sarandos further said the tools have been used across about 300 titles so far this year, with the biggest gains coming from shots that productions might otherwise have skipped because they would have been too costly. He also suggested that AI is not replacing human creatives so much as expanding what teams can actually afford to put on screen.

“It’s produced twice as fast and at half the cost of previous options.” Sarandos made that point to Deadline while discussing The American Experiment, a documentary series that used 17 minutes of AI-enhanced footage. The broader message is that Netflix sees AI savings as something it can reinvest into more programming, especially as the company plans to raise content spending by about 10% in 2026. 

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But while Netflix is betting big on AI to reshape production, its financial performance shows the business side is still facing pressure.

Netflix had a rough quarter, and the market reaction showed it. After the company’s latest earnings update, its stock slid to a new 52-week low, reminding investors that even a streaming giant can hit turbulence when growth starts to look a little less exciting.  Netflix brought in $12.56 billion in revenue for the second quarter and $3.401 billion in net income. 

More importantly, the company’s outlook for the summer looked softer than what Wall Street wanted to see, with projected revenue growth slowing down compared with recent quarters. That kind of slowdown matters because Netflix has spent years being treated like a winner that can keep expanding almost automatically.

Now, the company is dealing with a more cautious mood, both from investors and from the wider entertainment business. The stock drop also comes as Netflix is still trying to move past losing out on a Warner Bros. deal, even if a breakup fee helped cushion the blow. In other words, the company is not in crisis, but it is clearly in a phase where people are watching every move more closely.

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What do you think about Netflix using AI across hundreds of productions? Does it make content better or raise concerns about creativity? Let us know in the comments.