Netflix uses Generative AI across its production and platform pipelines. Debuting on-screen in the Argentine sci-fi series El Eternauta, the technology cuts VFX time ten-fold, lowers costs that once blocked mid-budget shows, fuels AI-powered personalisation and search, and sets up new revenue streams through interactive ads arriving in H2 2025.
Netflix Uses Generative AI – Key Points
- First on-screen GenAI footage – Netflix uses Generative AI to render a collapsing-building sequence in El Eternauta 10 × faster and at lower cost than legacy VFX, a milestone co-CEO Ted Sarandos calls “the first GenAI final footage to appear on screen.”
- Human-in-the-loop workflow – Netflix uses Generative AI creator tools co-built with filmmakers. Artists guide pre-visualisation, shot planning and digital de-aging while AI handles heavy renders, making blockbuster-level visuals feasible for mid-tier budgets “not otherwise feasible,” Sarandos says.
- Labour context – GenAI’s rise follows the 2023 dual strikes by SAG-AFTRA and the WGA, where control of AI remained a key sticking point. Netflix stresses “real people doing real work with better tools,” aiming to expand possibilities without replacing crews.
- Platform integration – GenAI now drives personalisation, localisation, conversational search (live since 7 May 2025) and ad-tech. Interactive, AI-generated ads roll out H2 2025; executives project the fast-growing ad business will roughly double in 2025, aided by its proprietary platform.
- Earnings snapshot – Q2 2025 revenue: USD 11.08 billion (▲ 16 % YoY); net profit: USD 3.13 billion. Viewership hit 95 billion hours in H1 2025, one-third non-English. The finale of Squid Game S3 also boosted the quarter.
- Strategic positioning – With generative AI embedded end-to-end, Netflix accelerates content throughput, lowers VFX barriers, unlocks richer ad inventory and tightens its lead while rivals scramble to match the toolchain.
Why This Matters
The shift shows generative AI leaving R & D and entering prime-time production. It compresses timelines, democratises advanced effects, reshapes crew roles and promises highly personalised advertising. Studios, guilds and brands must adapt contracts, training and campaigns as AI-augmented workflows become standard.
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