Industry Overview
Media and entertainment is in the midst of a painful restructuring. Over 17,000 media and entertainment jobs were cut in 2025, an 18% increase from the prior year. Los Angeles County alone has lost 41,000 film and TV jobs, a quarter of its entertainment workforce, in just three years.
Yet the picture is complex. Only 12% of readers are comfortable with AI-generated news, and 90% of Americans want disclosure when AI creates content. Major studios are cautious, with less than 3% of production budgets going to generative AI. Meanwhile, the creator economy is growing: as traditional media shrinks, employment in the creator economy increased 5%. AI excels at volume content but authenticity and human creativity command premium value.
Key AI Tools Disrupting Media & Entertainment
Roles at Highest Risk
AI generating news summaries, earnings reports, and routine stories at scale.
AI handling scheduling, logging footage, transcription, and basic editing tasks.
AI voice synthesis producing natural-sounding commercial voiceovers at low cost.
AI auto-editing, color correction, and thumbnail generation reducing manual work.
Safer Roles in Media & Entertainment
Creative vision, storytelling, and team leadership are fundamentally human.
Source cultivation, public records analysis, and accountability journalism need human judgment.
Original concept development, talent management, and creative strategy remain human.
Emerging AI-Era Roles
Verifies content origin, manages AI disclosures, and ensures editorial integrity.
Creates and supervises AI-generated content for entertainment and marketing.
Helps individual creators leverage AI tools to build sustainable media businesses.
How to Future-Proof Your Career in Media & Entertainment
Focus on original reporting, investigation, and analysis AI cannot replicate
Learn AI creative tools to increase your output and reduce production costs
Build a personal brand and audience that values your human perspective
Develop multimedia storytelling skills across text, video, and audio
Understand AI content laws and ethical guidelines for responsible use
Key Statistics
Recent Industry News
News organizations, streaming, and film production all seeing significant cuts.
2025-11-15A quarter of the entertainment workforce eliminated since 2022.
2025-10-0190% of Americans want AI disclosure in news content.
2025-08-20Recent AI Layoffs
Sources & Methodology
Risk estimates are derived from multiple public data sources including government labor statistics, industry surveys, and research reports. Overall risk scores combine AI adoption rates, automation potential of common tasks, and labor market projections. Individual results may vary based on role, employer, and region.Layoff data last updated: October 28, 2024
- •Bureau of Labor Statistics - Media & Communications Occupational Projections, 2024-2025
- •Challenger, Gray & Christmas - Media & Entertainment Job Cut Report, 2025
- •Reuters Institute - Digital News Report: AI & Journalism, 2025
- •FilmLA - Los Angeles Production & Employment Report, 2025