Video: TrendMacro conversation with McKinsey partner Jamie Vickers on how artificial intelligence is transforming Hollywood

The film and video industry has highly concentrated distributors, with just five controlling 80% of global content spend. But there are thousands of producers. Consumer attention is saturating, approaching 14 hours/day of media in the US, and shifting heavily toward user-generated content. AI is already delivering 5 to 10% productivity gains in development and pre-production. Unlike capital-intensive past technologies like CGI,  AI tools are cheap, enabling widespread experimentation. Adoption is fastest in visual pitches, A/B testing, analytics and "fix it in pre" to cut reshoots and shooting days. Production lags implementation due to quality gaps, union concerns, and IP issues, though early wins exist in VFX, animation, background reconstruction, and documentaries. Post-production offers strong potential for effects and editing. New formats emerge unpredictably, consumer choice expands, and value often accrues to incumbents and tech providers -- though AI's low barriers may break this pattern with disruptions that can't be predicted. He sees possible benefits for user-generated content platforms in distribution, where algorithms dominate, and expects a mix of cost savings and more and better storytelling. At McKinsey, the firm is aggressively embracing AI to raise analytical quality and deliver better client outcomes.