- Prime Video and Netflix are planning new AI-generated home pages
- Netflix Revealed Its ‘GenPage’ Tests Ahead of New Prime Video Report
- Viewers Aren’t Convinced Home Pages Are Going in the Right Direction
You’re about to see a lot more generative AI in your streaming apps: Netflix has posted details of the tests it’s running with generative AI on its homepage, while PakGazette reports that Amazon Prime Video is also set for an AI-powered overhaul.
Starting with Netflix, the company has revealed that it is working on a way to use generative AI to do much of the heavy lifting on the app’s home page. That includes determining which recommendations each user should see, adapting to user feedback and behavior over time, and combining movies, shows, games, podcasts, and live events in the best way.
It starts with a message: “Given everything we know about this user and this request, what landing page should we generate to maximize user satisfaction?” – and Netflix seems pleased with the results. However, there are still some issues to work on, such as the AI model not knowing much about a movie or show that has just been released.
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User engagement increased in Netflix’s internal testing, with the application of the new ‘GenPage’ AI model, and recommendations became more relevant more quickly. What’s more, the time required to render the home page decreased. This is still in its early stages and Netflix hasn’t said when it will reach users or in what form, but it’s in the works now.
AI ‘front and center’ on Prime Video
As for Amazon, a new report from PakGazette says that Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has personally decided that Prime Video will act as a showcase for AI in the near future, and that an upcoming homepage redesign will put AI “front and center.”
That’s according to people “with direct knowledge of the matter,” so don’t take it as confirmed just yet. The homepage overhaul project is apparently known as ‘Lighthouse’ and is said to be conceived as a way to reclaim some of the AI spotlight from rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
We don’t have many details on what this will look like, but movie and TV recommendations will have more AI injected, PakGazette says. The AI will also better learn viewers’ personal preferences over time and respond to voice commands.
You may see tiles on the home page, such as “80s action movies.” The report gives no indication of when this hotfix might begin rolling out, but it is apparently already being tested with a select number of users in a variety of ways.
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Now that two of the big streaming giants are apparently committed to AI-controlled home pages, the next question is what users might think about it. There’s so much to see on each platform that some sort of filter or algorithm is needed, but is this AI-centric approach the right way to do it?
Previous reviews of the homepage may give us some clues: A major Netflix redesign implemented last year received many complaints online, but the company’s internal data showed it was working, so it stayed in place. It was speculated at the time that more AI was on the way, and it appears that is now the case.
“I don’t know if I’m alone,” writes one Redditor, “but I hate the concept of ‘personalizing’ my content. No offense to anyone, but AI so far hasn’t been good at predicting anything about me… Personally, I don’t want software to think for me.”
Reactions to Prime Video’s upcoming AI overhaul seem similarly pessimistic. “This seems completely unnecessary,” comments one user, while several suggest the move might even be enough to incline them to cancel their Prime Video subscription.
