AI‑DRIVEN MEDIA PIPELINES SET THE STAGE FOR 2026 AND BEYOND

RICHARD KERRIS, Vice President Developer Relations, IGM of M&E

As we head toward 2026, AI stops being a bolt-on to the media pipeline and becomes part of the fabric that great storytelling runs on. We’re moving into a world where AI is built directly into live video streams, enabling the automatic picking of highlights, checking quality, meeting regional standards, and even upgrading low resolution to 4K in real-time.

All of this means creators can spend more time on the story itself, instead of wrestling with the tech. Global distribution becomes AI-native where neural dubbing, lip-sync, and cultural adaptation make “day-and-date, multi-language” the default and finally unlock the economics of deep content catalogs. Advertising shifts from “which spot do we serve?” to “which creative do we generate for this person, in this moment?”, with dynamic, AI-driven campaigns already delivering double-digit lifts in performance.

Underneath it all, rights, metadata, and measurement evolve from scattered spreadsheets into a live, AI-readable decision layer that governs how every frame, feed, and impression is packaged, priced, and reported. None of this replaces the art, and if anything, the storytellers still decide what matters and AI just makes sure their work can move, adapt, and earn at the speed and scale the next era of media demands.