AI is about to make a splash on your phone

So, Hollywood vet Lloyd Braun wants to use AI to produce "microdramas," serialized soap operas for your mobile screen.

The shows will be produced on a shoestring budget, using AI to lower costs even more.

This isn't a new model. It's already a booming business in APAC, as well as in the US.

And it's not just Braun who's interested. Disney is too; it recently admitted microdrama app DramaBox into its Disney Accelerator program, which provides investment capital and collab opportunities with Disney executives.

I've had a front row view to the microdrama/vertical video series trend for the past 2 years. My daughter works for one of the top companies in the space, Goodshort. I've been fascinated with the business model - viewers get the first several episodes free, and then once they're hooked, they have to pay to view the rest, either by buying "coins" or a subscription to the content.

The shows are addictive and cheesy, with titles like "Giving Birth and Getting Divorced" and "My Husband's Nephew is My Guilty Pleasure." People often bring up Quibi when they think of this genre, but Quibi's downfall was its expensive production model. The shows produced by Goodshort, DramaBox and others are made for a fraction of the cost.

A Goodshort drama

Introducing AI into the production process has its risks, of course. As Brooks Barnes wrote in the New York Times article about MicroCo's launch, "A.I. is a touchy subject in Hollywood. Creative workers, in particular, worry about being replaced by machines. But at least so far, few studios are using it the way MicroCo intends to use it."

Animation is one area where MicroCo plans to incorporate AI, reducing costs to as little as $1500 per minute, vs. $15,000 to $60,000 for traditional animation.

That works out to just 2.5% to 10% of the cost.

Will audiences care how the shows are made? Or will the addictive storylines win out? Either way, I’ll be watching this space.