By Alice Chambers |
AI is reshaping how media companies produce, package and monetise their content, according to Avi Saxena, chief technology officer at Warner Bros. Discovery, who led a session at IBC 2025.
“Our creators are the core of the company, after they produce the content, we use AI to make the content available to all of our audiences,” said Saxena.
That reach extends across the full pipeline – from production to semantics, localisation, discovery, engagement and monetisation.
One of the key opportunities lies in metadata. “When the media is consumed on a streaming platform we have a lot of opportunities to increase engagement via metadata,” said Saxena.
Metadata can support captioning and accessibility, but also powers personalisation and discovery.
“The amount of metadata that can be extracted is insane,” said Saxena. “Technologists are trying to find more and more ways to extract that data.”
Saxena explained how semantics-driven approaches are replacing traditional keyword-led search. “More and more consumers want to use natural language,” he said.
Instead of typing short terms, audiences increasingly expect to describe moments in detail, such as ‘when Harry encounters a cloaked figure drinking unicorn blood in the forest at the night’. This is where semantic search delivers results that feel more natural.
“Semantic search is the big groundbreaking revolution that’s happening right now,” said Saxena. “With lexico, a dog is a dog, but with semantic, a dog is a companion.”
AI is also being applied to content promotion and engagement. “When a consumer sees a drop-in moment, they are more likely to engage with that content,” Saxena explained. These short highlights are typically consumed without audio, so Warner Bros. Discovery uses AI to generate six to eight candidate clips per title, and then a human will check they align with the narrative of the show Warner Bros. is promoting. Almost 40 per cent of drop-in moments are now created by AI, according to Saxena.
In sports, AI-driven excitement ratings are making it easier to condense matches into highlight reels or near-live summaries.
“We are all getting used to watching sports in a compressed timeframe,” said Saxena.
Warner Bros. Discovery combines crowd noise, match events such as goals, penalties or red cards, and contextual data to generate highlight feeds, helping audiences catch up on the most exciting parts of a game even if they join late.
Monetisation is another focus. By recognising multiple subjects in-frame – such as clothing, furniture or food – AI can enhance contextual advertising opportunities, creating new revenue streams while improving relevance for viewers.
With these advances, Saxena emphasised, the role of AI is not to replace creative talent but to amplify their work and ensure content resonates with audiences everywhere.