Netflix revealed in its second-quarter earnings call that it has used generative artificial intelligence in 300 of its titles. The data, included in the shareholder letter, marks the first time the company has provided a concrete figure for the use of AI within its catalog, and none of these projects had been previously announced as AI-integrated content.
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, gave the most specific example to date: the docuseries The American Experiment contains 17 minutes of footage produced with generative AI tools. These sequences were produced twice as fast and at half the cost compared to previous options. "It allowed us to expand the scope of the series in ways that would not have been viable before," Sarandos said. "These sequences were salvaged thanks to the availability of generative AI tools, because otherwise they would have been left out of production due to cost or time."
The documented uses cover different stages of the process. Pre-visualization, set references, visual effects, post-production, crowd shot enhancement, and reconstruction of historical battle scenes are the cases mentioned in the shareholder letter. The list of titles also includes Glory from India and Brazil 70: A Saga do Tri from Brazil.
The corporate context supports this direction. In early 2026, Netflix acquired InterPositive, Ben Affleck's AI company focused on film production. Sarandos clarified that the 300 titles are the result of other tools already operating in parallel, and that InterPositive is still in its early stages within the company's production ecosystem.
The co-CEO was careful to frame Netflix's stance toward the industry: "AI doesn't change the fact that it takes great art to make something great. AI will give creatives better tools to bring their visions to life. Films are made by people who make films. AI gives them better tools to make them even better." Regarding the destination of the generated savings, Sarandos was direct: it will be reinvested in more content, which fuels greater engagement and the platform's growth cycle.
The question that prompted the disclosure of the data was whether the cost savings from AI would reduce the annual content budget of $20 billion or result in lower payments to talent. Sarandos's answer was no: production times are shortened and quality improves, and those savings return to the system as more content.
From next+'s perspective, the revelation of the 300 titles is a turning point in the narrative of AI in the entertainment industry. Until now, most studios had used AI discreetly or experimentally, without quantifying its presence within their catalog. Netflix has just normalized its use at scale and put concrete numbers on the table: double speed, half the cost. For creatives and the audiovisual production industry, Sarandos's message doesn't close the conversation about AI's impact on employment in the sector, it opens it with more urgency. When a platform that spends $20 billion a year on content says that AI savings will be reinvested in more production, not less, it is redefining what it means to scale in entertainment. The question the industry needs to answer is not whether AI will be in productions—it's already in 300. It's who controls the creative and economic decisions that these tools make possible.