Research: Consumers don’t understand AI yet
January 14, 2025

AI is rapidly changing the way people are interacting with entertainment and companies are embracing AI to streamline operations and improve efficiencies in producing, marketing and distributing content. While AI tools are being used to create images, music, scripts, ads and other video content, the lines between what’s ‘real’ and ‘fake’ are becoming even blurrier as post-production AI tools are enhancing not just backgrounds and environments, but character identities and storylines.
Hub Entertainment Research has released its first study on AI in Entertainment revealing that while most consumers have heard of generative AI, very few feel like they understand how it works or what it’s for. When it comes to producing entertainment, there are some tasks they want to remain the purview of real live humans.
Most consumers are aware of generative AI, but few feel confident they understand it.
Over 70 per cent of respondents are familiar with the term ‘generative AI’, and more than half (57 per cent) say they’ve used a generative AI product like ChatGPT or others. However, only 18 per cent are ‘very confident’ they could explain to someone else what generative AI is or how it works.
Nearly all are at least somewhat worried about AI’s impact on society.
The vast majority have at least some concerns about AI. Two thirds are very worried about undetectable deepfakes and potential loss of privacy, and the majority (57 per cent) are worried about people losing their jobs to AI. These concerns are shared even among those who think AI will be positive for society in general.
When it comes to entertainment, comfort level varies by task.
Consumers strongly prefer human creativity for tasks like writing scripts, dialogue, and music. However, they are equally or more comfortable with AI handling technical tasks such as creating CGI effects and writing subtitles or descriptions.
Consumers want to know if they’re watching something made with AI.
Two thirds (67 per cent) say that any content made with AI should be ‘clearly and obviously labelled’, and another 26 per cent say there should be an easy way for viewers to check if the title they’re watching contains any AI content. Only 6 per cent said platforms don’t need to inform viewers about use of AI.
Consumers feel comfortable with AI when it comes to better content discovery.
Improving the discovery process is one area where consumers are comfortable with AI, and even excited about the improvements it might bring.
· Three-quarters of respondents said they were somewhat or very interested in AI applications to analyse their viewing across platforms to give better recommendations (76 per cent), recommend shows for particular situations like watching with others (77 per cent), or to summarise all the reviews of a show before they decide to watch (74 per cent).
“Consumers don’t understand AI yet, but they know enough to feel concerned about the impact on society and on entertainment in particular,” said Jon Giegengack, principal at Hub and one of the study authors. “Studios and distributors should prioritise tasks viewers are comfortable with (like better discovery), and tread lightly on creative tasks where they prefer real humans. Perhaps most importantly, they should be up front with audiences about how and when AI is used.”