---
type: source
title: "Why the 'New Paramount' Is Placing AI Creation at Its Core"
author: "MiDiA Research"
url: https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/why-the-new-paramount-is-placing-ai-creation-at-is-core
date: 2026-04-01
domain: entertainment
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: processed
processed_by: clay
processed_date: 2026-04-27
priority: high
tags: [paramount-skydance, ai-production, david-ellison, progressive-syntheticization, studio-strategy]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

Paramount Skydance under CEO David Ellison is placing AI at the center of its content production strategy. Key elements:

- Skydance's virtual production AI tools (used in Mission: Impossible, Transformers) are being scaled across all Paramount Studios
- AI tools applied to script development, casting, and visual effects — "real-time rendering and data-driven creative decisions"
- David Ellison explicitly "aims to use AI to forecast what viewers want" (IMDb News)
- $2 billion in annual cost savings by 2026, with a portion reinvested in AI development

**The progressive syntheticization pattern:**
The $6B in cost synergies from the WBD merger are expected to come from "non-labor and non-content areas: technology, cloud, procurement, and facilities." This is precisely the progressive syntheticization path — using AI to make existing workflows cheaper rather than starting fresh with AI-native production.

PSKY explicitly positions AI as enhancing, not replacing, owned IP value: "generative AI will enhance, rather than erode, the value of owned film and TV intellectual property by lowering production costs and enabling new interactive revenue streams."

**The "Three Pillars" strategy:**
1. IP dominance — Star Trek, DC, Harry Potter, Mission: Impossible
2. Technological parity with Netflix — AI-driven production
3. Financial deleveraging

15 theatrical releases planned for 2026 (from 8 previously) combined with WBD's 15 = 30 box office releases/year. All franchise-concentrated.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** PSKY is implementing exactly the progressive syntheticization pattern Clay identified as the incumbents' path — using AI to reduce costs within existing production workflows, not to disrupt from below. This is the sustaining innovation path. The KB already has the claim [[GenAI is simultaneously sustaining and disruptive depending on whether users pursue progressive syntheticization or progressive control]] — this is an empirical data point confirming which path incumbents are taking.

**What surprised me:** The explicit acknowledgment that AI enhances IP value — PSKY sees AI + owned franchise IP as synergistic, not in tension. Studios used to oppose AI; now the merged major is betting on it. This is a significant strategic pivot.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Any indication that PSKY is pursuing progressive control (starting from AI-native production) or that they're funding AI-first filmmakers rather than AI-enabled traditional workflows.

**KB connections:**
- [[GenAI is simultaneously sustaining and disruptive depending on whether users pursue progressive syntheticization or progressive control]] — PSKY is the clearest incumbent example of the sustaining path
- [[five factors determine the speed and extent of disruption including quality definition change and ease of incumbent replication]] — PSKY's AI adoption doesn't change the quality definition; it maintains production-value as the quality signal while lowering costs
- [[Hollywood talent will embrace AI because narrowing creative paths within the studio system leave few alternatives]] — PSKY's AI mandate confirms this dynamic

**Extraction hints:**
- CLAIM CANDIDATE: "Incumbent media conglomerates are adopting GenAI through progressive syntheticization (efficiency within existing workflows) rather than progressive control (AI-native production from scratch), confirming the strategic asymmetry between studio and independent AI adoption."
- Could update existing [[GenAI is simultaneously sustaining and disruptive...]] claim with PSKY as 2026 empirical anchor.

**Context:** David Ellison (Skydance) was previously a tech entrepreneur before entertainment — his strategy is explicitly "tech-forward." This is a legacy studio being run by someone who believes in the technology path, making it the best-case scenario for progressive syntheticization working.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)

PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[GenAI is simultaneously sustaining and disruptive depending on whether users pursue progressive syntheticization or progressive control]]

WHY ARCHIVED: PSKY is the largest and clearest real-world case study for the progressive syntheticization path. The $6B synergy plan, the AI tools being scaled, the explicit framing of AI as IP-enhancing — all confirm what Clay predicted about how incumbents would respond to GenAI.

EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the syntheticization vs. control framing. Don't get lost in the merger financials. The key extraction is: "incumbents use AI within existing workflows; independents use AI to bypass those workflows."
