The entertainment industry may be approaching a strange new reality: the actor you are watching might not be an actor at all.
AI-generated dramas and digital performers are moving from experimental technology into everyday entertainment, with production companies increasingly using artificial intelligence to create characters, scenes and entire short-form productions. The shift is happening quickly enough that some performers are already losing work – and, in some cases, being asked to help create the AI versions that replace them.
The Financial Times reports that powerful new video-generation tools, including ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0, are accelerating the adoption of AI in short dramas. The technology allows companies to produce higher-quality videos faster while dramatically reducing production costs.
AI is already taking roles, not just assisting actors
The scale of the change is difficult to ignore. According to DataEye, 89 of the top 100 animated dramas on Douyin, ByteDance’s Chinese short-video platform, were AI productions in May. The Financial Times also reports that about 128,000 short dramas were released in the first quarter of 2026, more than three times the number released during the entire previous year. About 95% were AI-generated, according to the China Netcasting Services Association.
The economics explain why producers are embracing the technology. Professor Shen Yang of Tsinghua University told the FT that a three-to-five-minute drama that required five people and roughly three months to produce in 2024 can now take a single employee just one or two days.
Production costs have fallen alongside those timelines. Zeelin, an AI animation company, reportedly published about 8,000 one-minute short-drama episodes in May, with the average cost around $90 to $120 per minute – about 10% of the cost when humans were used. For viewers, that could mean an explosion of cheap, rapidly produced entertainment. For performers, it is already looking much less exciting.
During an interview at SXSW in Austin, renowned filmmaker Steven Spielberg expressed concerns about the expanding influence of artificial intelligence in creative sectors. Spielberg stated in an interview at the 2026 event that although he is in favor of technology in many areas, he is adamantly against AI taking the place of human creativity in filmmaking.
The people behind the performances are becoming the raw material
Greg Wollner, a short-drama actor and producer, told the FT that he had been shooting three productions a week before Seedance 2.0 was released. Afterwards, he said, “everything just went,” and many of his friends had to leave the profession.
Some performers are being asked to “distill” their images, voices and acting styles into AI systems before losing their jobs. One children’s educational-program host told the FT she was pressured to consent to an AI replica of herself or risk being replaced by other actors. She eventually negotiated a five-year contract that included one year’s salary and veto rights.
Amazon’s MGM Studio unit is now also using artificial intelligence to speed up and lower expenses in film and TV production. Hollywood is wary of AI’s impact on jobs and industry procedures, but the company aims to integrate it throughout the creative process.
Reuters reports that Albert Cheng leads a small team at Amazon’s “AI Studio” that develops proprietary tools to expedite pre-production planning and post-production editing. According to Cheng, the AI Studio aims to decrease costs and improve creative workflows while involving writers, directors, actors, and other creative workers at every stage.
And this is why the rise of AI dramas matters even if you never watch one. The technology is demonstrating a new model for entertainment in which the expensive human production process can increasingly be compressed into software. AI-generated performers are no longer waiting for the future to arrive. They are already competing for screen time – and the audience may not always know the difference.
