Prime Video’s Kelly Day: AI is creativity unleashed

Prime Video’s vice president and head of international, Kelly Day, has talked up the role of AI in its shows and said it will allow creativity to be “unleashed”.

Day, speaking at the RTS Convention in London, reflected on the decade since The Grand Tour’s launch - the streamer’s first original outside of the US - before noting that Prime Video had spent £4bn in the UK since 2022, in contrast to £1bn in the five years before then.

She also discussed the the shifting experience of viewers, adding that TV had always been defined by “new technologies, new platforms, new ways of watching,” which felt “seismic” but didn’t damage storytelling.

“They supercharged it,” Day said. “AI is the next shift and I believe it’s the biggest yet. What excites me about it is how we are putting transformative tools directly into the hands of creators.”

She said AI was helping younger generations and smaller companies compete, suggesting “first-time filmmakers are generating concept art” and “small production companies are creating high-quality animations without a huge price tag.”

Day added that AI is also helping pre-visualisation, sound design and VFX workflows that enable producers to “dream bigger on tighter budgets”, acknowledging that “making great television can often be prohibitively expensive” and affects what makes it to screen.

“For a studio like us, AI enables us to bring down the cost of production while maintaining quality, meaning more stories get made, more creative risks get taken, and more diverse voices get heard.”

Day rejected the notion that AI threatens creativity, adding: “That’s creativity unleashed. AI doesn’t replace imagination. It amplifies it. We’re not looking for an AI model to write the next Fleabag – and I don’t think it could.

“But AI might help the person who does spend less time on admin and more time on the creative vision that makes a show like that sing.”

International originals chief Nicole Clemens also took to the stage, talking up the streamer’s demand for IP and urging producers to send ideas, having trailed an increased spending strategy at Edinburgh TV Festival last month.