The illusion of progress
For nearly a decade, artificial intelligence has been touted as the future of media and entertainment. Netflix has invested heavily in AI-driven personalisation and operational systems, continuously testing new models for engagement and optimisation. Disney continues to test automation tools. Warner Bros. runs ongoing proof-of-concept projects. Yet for all the headlines, panels, and prototypes, meaningful integration has remained frustratingly elusive. Endless pilots and proof of concept projects have filled the last few years each full of promise, most ending in silence. Now, as I work alongside companies facing intensified pressure for profitability, audience retention, real-time personalisation, and operational agility, it is clear that isolated AI experiments are no longer enough. The pilot era is over. What comes next is intelligent orchestration, an approach fundamentally different, inherently more strategic, and critical for survival in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
The trap of pilot purgatory
A recent industry survey conducted in June 2025 painted a sobering picture. Despite rising AI budgets, over 60 percent of media executives are still stuck in pilots, spending more time testing than transforming and only 4 percent operationalised AI at scale¹. Even more telling, nearly half of industry leaders cited unclear use cases and ROI uncertainty as the largest barriers to effective adoption. I’ve seen this first-hand. At Cannes this year, I heard the same refrain across panels and beachside meetings: ‘We’re testing, but not scaling.’ But testing without commitment creates stagnation. This is what I call pilot purgatory, an endless loop of testing, proving, and pausing. It’s safe. It’s structured. But it doesn’t build anything. And in a landscape defined by rising costs, real-time engagement, and global pressure, staying in purgatory is not a neutral choice. It’s a risk.
Why fragmented AI isn’t enough anymore
Strategic pressure is mounting. In my work with content and technology teams, I hear it constantly. Streaming platforms are battling churn and the growing expectation for hyper-personalisation. Game publishers are navigating the complexity of live-service operations, compliance, and localisation. Production teams are buried in rights tracking and versioning. And agencies? They’re sprinting to deliver market-specific creative faster than ever. Fragmented workflows and isolated automation just can’t keep up. While platforms like TikTok and Meta are rolling out AI-driven DIY creative tools aimed at small businesses, the companies I work with don’t need more tools. They need orchestration with intelligence. They’re not looking to just generate more content. They want systems that adapt, decide, and deploy at scale.
The new runway for competitive advantage
What makes this moment different is not just that AI is better. It’s that the infrastructure to support true orchestration is finally emerging. Until recently, there were no systems built to connect content, data, compliance, and logic in real time across the full lifecycle of media creation and distribution. But that’s changing. AI native platforms are now being designed for orchestration. Built from the ground up to enable intelligence that is secure, governable, and affordable.
Beyond automation: the rise of agentic orchestration
The media and entertainment industry’s next evolutionary step is obvious: a strategic transition from isolated automation to systemic orchestration. Unlike traditional automation, which assists, agentic systems act. They decide, execute, adapt and respond across multiple workflows simultaneously without waiting for instruction. They are fit for a world that moves in real time.
When designed well, agentic orchestration becomes the intelligent backbone of a company’s operations. Not an add-on, not a tool, but the infrastructure through which decisions flow. Orchestration enables streaming platforms to dynamically tailor promotional content instantly across dozens of international markets, cutting localisation from weeks to hours. In gaming, real-time live-service updates, content translation, and compliance happen automatically, boosting player engagement while reducing friction. Film and audio production companies utilising orchestration gain real-time management of compliance, rights tracking, and asset metadata, significantly accelerating production timelines and reducing operational risk. Creative agencies implementing agentic orchestration rapidly iterate campaign assets, optimising creative output and minimising repetitive manual labour, freeing teams to concentrate on strategic innovation.
This is how media organisations move from friction to flow. From linear content operations to adaptive ecosystems that scale with demand.
The real shift is in leadership
But orchestration requires more than infrastructure. It demands a new kind of leadership. I often tell executives this: the real leap is not building smarter systems but becoming a different kind of leader. One who doesn’t manage tasks but designs systems that manage themselves. The most powerful leaders aren’t asking, ‘What should we automate?’ They’re asking, ‘What can I offload so I can focus on what actually moves us forward?’ What I can observe is that companies with high AI maturity get even 3× higher ROI than those just testing the waters.
Today’s CROs are no longer just chasing CPMs. They’re re-engineering revenue operations through agentic systems that adapt in real-time to audience, regulation, and creative context. The most effective COOs aren’t managing workflows they’re architecting feedback loops. And CMOs, if they’re smart, are investing in infrastructure that doesn’t just push creative, but shapes it through intelligence.
Governance, compliance, and performance monitoring are no longer separate layers. They must be embedded directly within orchestration frameworks. In every project I advise, we insist on real-time auditing, automated metadata, and rights tracking – because trust can’t be an afterthought.
Real-time feedback loops are integral, continuously feeding operational performance data, market signals, and audience insights into orchestration systems. These loops ensure constant optimisation and refinement of workflows, enabling rapid adaptation to changing market dynamics and customer expectations.
One overlooked shift is the need to shape brand presence not just for consumers, but for the AI agents now parsing the internet. Training data matters. Influencing LLMs may soon require content designed not to be read, but to be remembered by algorithms. Orchestration is how that happens.
Adopting orchestration strategically involves incremental implementation and rapid scaling. Initial pilot orchestration projects should target high-impact operational areas, clearly demonstrating value to build internal momentum and confidence. Modular integration of orchestration technology into existing infrastructures allows rapid deployment without large-scale disruptions, ensuring immediate and measurable operational improvements.
Strategic patience and iterative agility are equally essential. Leaders must communicate incremental successes transparently, remain patient with evolving results, and continually refine orchestration frameworks to align with shifting industry landscapes and organisational priorities.
The rise of agentic AI is also reshaping how we think about talent. As digital labour becomes embedded, leaders must invest in AI literacy, workflow design, and soft skills to make the most of these systems. Technology alone doesn’t transform companies, people trained to wield it do. This new orchestration should liberate talent, empower teams to shift from routine operations to strategic creativity, innovation, and storytelling, thus amplifying human creativity rather than replacing it.
Where to begin
The temptation is always to start small. A workflow. A tagging system. A campaign tool. I would say: don’t start with isolated tools. Instead, pick one high-friction area where multiple systems collide and you can deliver exponential returns. Orchestration only creates real value when it addresses connected complexity. For media and entertainment, the most powerful starting points are content localisation, live-service updates, multi-region rollouts, and rights-bound metadata.
As generative agents begin to shape not just content creation but content discovery, we’re entering a phase where orchestration needs to consider not only human workflows, but AI-to-AI ecosystems. The next recommendation engine might not be a human but an LLM choosing one brand over another.
These orchestration pipelines must be modular, governed, and integrated with real-time data sources. They must evolve as the audience, platforms, and content evolve. They must be designed not as tools, but as systems.
Not just faster: Smarter. Freer. Future-Ready.
The companies that embrace this shift won’t just move faster. They’ll operate differently. With less friction. With more clarity. And with systems that scale intelligence as easily as they scale content. The next decade in media and entertainment won’t be defined by who tests AI the longest. It will be shaped by who orchestrates it best. The pilot culture is over. What we build next is what will last.
References
¹ AI Adoption in the Media Industry: Where It’s Working and Where It’s Stuck, Amagi & Dan Rayburn, June 2025. https://www.amagi.com/resources/insights-ai-impact-media-industry
