Netflix has achieved an unpublicized milestone that could change the manner in which movies and television are made. The streaming giant announced Thursday that it successfully used artificial intelligence to create actual video that viewers have already been watching on screen the first time generative AI has created final content for a Netflix show, the company said.
The technology was developed while making “El Eternauta” (“The Eternaut”), an Argentine show in which Netflix staffers collaborated with producers to create a building collapse scene entirely using AI technology. What would have taken a week of painstaking visual effects was done in a matter of days, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said.
“We saw the very first GenAI final cut footage on screen,” Sarandos disclosed during Netflix’s quarterly earnings call. The scene was done ten times faster than would have been possible with traditional methods, and with massive cost savings.
But AI is not something Netflix is embracing simply as a cost-cutter. Sarandos emphasized that the technology is something more than a way of democratizing high-end filmmaking techniques previously reserved for franchise-level productions.
“We still believe AI is an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and television shows better, not cheaper,” he said. “Before, only big productions could afford to pay for costly visual effects like de-aging. Now these technologies have become available for more creators.”
How Netflix Uses AI to Enhance Creativity and Drive Revenue?
The company is already seeing AI change various stages of production. Pre-visualization is being used by Netflix producers through artificial intelligence, which allows them to set up shots before camera rollouts. The technology is also making visual effects processes easier, allowing small productions to get results that used to require massive budgets and crews.
“This is actual people doing actual work with better tools,” Sarandos underscored, dispelling concerns that AI will substitute human imagination. Instead, Netflix positions the technology as complementing what creators do and not substituting for them.
Beyond production, Netflix is applying AI to its whole platform. Co-CEO Greg Peters said the company uses generative AI to enhance personalization features so users can better discover content they will enjoy. The technology is also powering search functionality and ad platforms.
The company will launch AI-driven interactive ads mid-2025, following its AI-driven search function it launched at the start of the year. Both are part of Netflix’s broader strategy to leverage artificial intelligence to develop more compelling user experiences and to automate its business operations.
The AI efforts arrive as Netflix maintains its robust financial results. The firm posted second-quarter revenues of $11.08 billion, a growth of 16% compared to last year’s similar quarter. Earnings were at $3.13 billion, which shows the site’s potential to increase viewership and revenues.
Netflix’s “El Eternauta” and the Future of Entertainment
Netflix’s global reach continues to expand, and audiences have watched over 95 billion hours of content in the first half of the year 2025 alone. Notably, foreign-language content now takes up a third of all viewing time, and the success of the platform in creating multilingual, foreign content that speaks universally.
The success of “El Eternauta” and AI-generated scenes could be a game-changer for the entertainment business. With Netflix proving that AI can produce engaging end footage at lower costs and less production time, other streaming services and movie studios will increasingly be utilizing their own AI.
For audiences, this technology change could result in varied storytelling as artists will be able to use top-of-the-line tools once reserved for Hollywood’s largest productions. As artificial intelligence gets smarter, the distinction between what is created by algorithms and what is created the old-fashioned way will become increasingly hard to find.
Netflix’s ambitious foray into AI-generated content production isn’t merely a technical achievement; it’s a glimpse into the future of the entertainment world, where human creativity and artificial intelligence combine to make manifest tales that perhaps might never have been seen on screen.
