Generative AI is the driving force behind a sharply rising number of platform functions, user interactions, and creative processes at Netflix today. The company earned high marks in the Fortune 2026 AIQ 75, ranking 17th overall on the list, which looks at how Fortune 500 companies are using AI day-to-day in their businesses.

This embrace of AI is fitting for a company famous for being at the forefront of innovation, with Netflix having pioneered the streaming video format now common across the entertainment industry.

Netflix’s goal is to be a great partner to filmmakers and serve viewers what they want to see, says Ritwik Kumar, Netflix’s vice president of AI strategy and innovation, who’s led machine learning at the company for almost a decade. As he sees it, maintaining those principles through this period of rapid technological change is both Netflix’s mission for this moment and its greatest challenge.

“Stumbling on that would be pretty bad for our business,” he notes. “So I would say not being at the cutting edge of giving our creators the tools that they want or personalizing things for our members are the biggest risks for our business.”

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Many of Netflix’s current AI transformation efforts draw upon its roots in personalization.

“In this generative AI era, we have quite a strong conviction and growing body of evidence that we could do way better for our members when it comes to getting them the right piece of content they would fall in love with at the right moment,” says Kumar.

A new “conversational interfaces” concept, currently in pilot testing, seeks to move beyond the cumbersome and restrictive routine of typing into the search box. Instead, users can talk and have a deeper conversation with the Netflix platform about what they want to watch. Kumar believes voice is the next frontier for the platform, allowing for a greater exchange of information to indicate the viewer’s mood.

“What we saw when we ran a pilot … is that you can have a much more fluent dialogue with the system,” he says. “Actually, people have a lot more to say about what they are in the mood for. Or even if they aren’t sure, they would explore in ways that were previously just impossible.” Other Netflix executives have presented the feature as a way to cut through the overwhelming number of options the streamer offers.

“Not being at the cutting edge [is one of] the biggest risks for our business.”

Ritwik Kumar, VP of AI Strategy and Innovation, Netflix

AI is helping Netflix fine-tune what its audience sees in other ways, too. The company’s new AI-enabled ad format allows advertisers to connect the “vibe” of the ad to whatever the viewer is currently watching.

For example, when a user pauses Stranger Things, the ad that appears on-screen can now directly reference elements from the show, eliminating what Kumar describes as a jarring transition from content viewers are deeply engaged with to something completely irrelevant.

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Using AI to get shots that would otherwise be impossible or prohibitive is similarly Netflix’s pitch for the technology in the creative process. The company doesn’t dictate that content producers use AI or any specific tools, Kumar says, but it does go out of its way to make AI available to creators. And in the event that Netflix’s selection of mostly third-party tools turns out to be inadequate for a filmmaker’s vision, members of Kumar’s teams work directly with the filmmaker to build a more bespoke solution for their needs.

The streamer has leaned heavily into AI for content production, noting in July that roughly 300 titles on the platform this year have used generative AI at some stage in the production life cycle. In March, Netflix paid $587 million to acquire Ben Affleck’s AI film-tech startup, InterPositive, which is developing “AI-powered tools built by and for filmmakers,” according to the company. Netflix is also currently building an AI animation studio called INKubator for short-form content.

That said, artificial intelligence is a sensitive issue in the industry Netflix operates in. Regardless of what otherwise impossible shots the technology may have brought to life, the use of AI in creative works remains contentious for many. AI was a central issue in the 2023 contract negotiations between Hollywood studios and the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and when director Danny Boyle said he used generative AI in the making of Netflix’s upcoming Oscar hopeful Ink, it was headline industry news. The Hollywood Reporter called Netflix’s use of AI to re-create the voice of the late Gene Wilder for a new Willy Wonka-inspired reality-TV show “a rather unsettling choice, and might strike some as a bit tasteless, if not outright creepy.”

On the risk that content made with AI, no matter how good, might affect viewer interest or brand trust, Kumar believes that it won’t matter if it’s done right. While a component here or there may be enhanced with AI, he says, there is still a lot of art and traditional creative decision-making at play. He doesn’t believe Netflix has anything wholly generated by AI on its platform and thinks the notion that a filmmaker could use AI to simply prompt their way to a compelling shot “feels fantastical.”

“We take our lead from our members telling us what they’re loving or not,” he says. “So the idea is to not dwell too much on technology. It’s just a tool.”