New Delhi: Indian media and entertainment companies are ramping up investments in artificial intelligence and product engineering, appointing dedicated AI leaders and building proprietary tools to narrow a long-standing technology gap with global rivals.
The push reflects a broader shift in an industry that has historically prioritised content over product and technology infrastructure.
A Ficci–EY report shows AI adoption is gaining ground in India’s media sector, particularly in content creation and processing, with 60% of surveyed companies already using it. Even so, spending remains measured: 46% allocate less than 5% of their IT budgets to AI.
Firms such as JioStar and Pocket FM have recently expanded their AI capabilities, focusing on streamlining story development, production workflows, and localisation, while improving content discovery and retention.
Pocket FM said the focus is on building a differentiated, technology-led entertainment ecosystem rooted in strong storytelling and deep consumer insight.
"Over the past couple of years, we have strengthened our AI-powered recommendation systems to improve content discovery and retention, while also deploying our in-house AI Creator Suite to streamline story development, production workflows, and localisation,” said Prateek Dixit, co-founder - product, tech and AI, Pocket FM.
The company has recently strengthened its AI leadership with the appointment of Vasu Sharma as head of AI, whose mandate includes advancing narrative intelligence, long-context reasoning, and scalable localisation capabilities, while ensuring that AI systems remain creator-first and ethically governed, Dixit said.
“These investments enable us to accelerate content production, enhance personalisation, optimise cost structures, and scale global IP more efficiently, all while preserving the primacy of human creativity,” Dixit added.
For long, Indian media companies focused on content while global players focused on product, data, and technology infrastructure alongside content, said Vijay Subramaniam, founder and group CEO of Collective Artists Network.
“Our latest product is a cinema-native production technology platform, that brings together generative systems, LoRA (low rank adaptation)-driven character architecture, controlled shot pipelines, 3D/VFX integration, lip-sync, upscaling, quality control, and delivery into a single production environment,” Subramaniam said.
Industry executives say ownership of intellectual property and distribution will remain central as AI reduces the time and cost of content development.
“Development and production will increasingly become much cheaper and faster with advancement in AI. What the best companies will need to do is either aggressively invest in acquiring or developing key IPs or have captive distribution and ideally both,” Ranjeet Pratap Singh, co-founder and CEO of storytelling platform Pratilipi.
To be sure, global studios and platforms operate with significantly larger technology budgets, with media infrastructure spending by international companies currently reaching roughly $340 billion annually. A company like Netflix, for example, is estimated to spend $3.39 billion on research and development.
Competing with global media giants is not only about scale, but also about speed, technology integration, and cultural relevance, said Danish Devgn, founder and CEO, Lens Vault Studios, whose company is developing data-driven content strategies for digital-first IPs, particularly through YouTube-native formats. It has made investments in building a dedicated AI capability through Prismix Studios, its generative AI and visual innovation arm.
Talent challenges
Companies often face challenges related to talent competition, infrastructure scale, and sustained investment in advanced AI capabilities while operating in highly price- sensitive markets, said Kartik Mehta, chief business officer and head of Asia, Channel Factory, a technology and data platform.
"However, their advantage lies in deep cultural understanding, multilingual adaptability, and agility in innovation,” Mehta added.
Brands are increasingly prioritising product-led growth through AI-native marketing and distribution stacks, said Rajiv Dingra, founder and CEO of digital agency ReBid said. “Over the past year, many Indian platforms have invested in real-time data pipelines that unify app, OTT, CTV, and commerce data into a single source of truth, AI-led personalisation,” Dingra said.
- AI adoption is increasing in India's media sector, with 60% of companies utilizing AI for content creation and processing.
- Investment in AI technology can lead to improved user engagement and operational efficiency.
- Cultural understanding and multilingual adaptability can provide a competitive edge against global players.
Many companies are also actively leveraging advanced generative AI platforms and real-time engines to develop AI-driven worlds and characters along with immersive VR experiences that meet international quality benchmarks.
ShareChat has established a global AI organization with hubs in India, Singapore, and London and made leadership appointments in this regard. "By optimizing our proprietary models, we have seen a 50% increase in time spent per user on Moj over the last six months alone,” said Ankush Sachdeva, co-founder and CEO, ShareChat, Moj & Quick TV.
The key to competing with global players is balancing technology investment with localized insights, allowing companies to build differentiated consumer experiences while maintaining operational efficiency, said Mehta of Channel Factory.