Amazon AI Studio will accelerate film and TV production while preserving human creativity

Led by entertainment director Albert Cheng, the studio is developing AI tools to reduce costs, streamline workflows and improve processes such as character consistency and scene editing. | Photo credit: FRANCIS MASCARENHAS

At the Amazon MGM Studio, veteran entertainment executive Albert Cheng leads a team charged with developing new AI tools that he said will reduce costs and streamline the creative process. Amazon plans to launch a closed beta program in March, inviting industry partners to test its AI tools. The company expects to share the results in May.

Cheng described AI Studio as a “startup” that operates under Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ “two pizza team” philosophy: keeping the group small enough to be fueled by two pizzas. The team consists mainly of product engineers and scientists, with a smaller creative and business contingent. Amazon is publicly embracing AI in response to rising production budgets that limit the number of shows and films companies can finance. The technology will speed up certain processes to make more movies and TV shows more efficient.

“The cost of making is so high that it’s really hard to make more and it’s really hard to take big risks,” Cheng said in an interview. “We fundamentally believe that AI can accelerate, but will not replace, innovation and the unique aspects that (humans) bring to creating the work.”

The move to adopt artificial intelligence comes as A-list actors like Emily Blunt have expressed fears about the rise of AI – and AI actress in particular.

Tilly Norwood would make their jobs redundant.

Amazon emphasized that writers, directors, actors and character designers will be involved at every stage of production, using AI as a tool to enhance creativity. Like many other tech companies, Amazon is also pushing nearly every division to find applications for AI, pointing to the technology’s successes as one of the reasons why it has cut some 30,000 corporate jobs since October, the largest layoffs ever. That included some job cuts at Prime Video.

Cheng said AI can help Prime Video overcome some of the inherent challenges of large-scale film and television production. The AI ​​Studio builds tools that bridge what Cheng described as “the last mile” — perhaps a cheeky reference to Amazon’s delivery operation — between existing consumer AI offerings and the granular control directors need for cinematic content. That includes improving character consistency between shots and integrating with industry-standard creative tools.

Amazon is leaning on its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, for help and plans to work with several major language model providers to give creators a broader range of options for pre- and post-production filmmaking. Cheng said that protecting intellectual property and ensuring that AI-created content is not incorporated into other AI models are essential for the AI ​​Studio to work. The AI ​​Studio works with producers Robert Stromberg (“Maleficent”) and his company Secret City, Kunal Nayyar (“The Big Bang Theory”) and his company Good Karma Productions; and former Pixar and ILM animator Colin Brady, as it explores new tools and how best to implement them.

The Studio, which launched last August, points to the hit series ‘House of David’ as an example of how AI could be used in the future.

For the second season of the biblical epic, director Jon Erwin used AI in combination with live-action footage to create battle scenes, seamlessly editing the two together to expand the scope of sequences at a lower cost.

Published on February 4, 2026