Since last year, the team where Bangsaqi works has released multiple AI short dramas. From simulated live-action dramas launched on overseas platforms to several animated dramas, the matrix of works produced by Li Nianze's company has begun to take shape.
Staring at her phone screen, "Hengpiao" Li Jiaoe fell into deep thought. The casting call group that once had 99+ messages per hour had been quiet for several days. Last year, Liu Jianqiang was still producing visual effects for a science fiction film, but this year his job had already been "taken." As the AI wave sweeps through the film and television industry, AI short dramas that can "cut costs by 80%" are challenging every link in the traditional industry chain. Some are actively transforming, while others are "crossing the river by feeling the stones." The future film and television industry will usher in an era of major reshuffling.
The AI wind "blows over" the traditional film and television industry
"Last year, a character actor like me could shoot four or five dramas a month, earning a thousand yuan a day, and I had to get up at three or four in the morning to catch the first scene." This "bearded" actor Li Jiaoe, who came from Northeast China to Hengdian to pursue his dream, has now already switched careers to become a "renovation blogger." This is not one person's dilemma. On social media, "Hengpiao" workers are sharing their "unemployment" daily lives, and the hashtag "short drama actors unemployed" has already accumulated a large number of views. Some take part-time jobs delivering food to make a living, some livestream selling clothes after switching careers, and more choose to leave and start over back home. In April this year, Li Jiaoe said in an interview that people in the industry all say the number of productions started has dropped by 80%, and "personally I think that's true."
Li Jiaoe's estimate is not alarmist. As the wind of AI short dramas roars in, many investors have begun to take a wait-and-see attitude, and the market space for live-action dramas has been sharply compressed. There were once rumors online that "Hongguo Platform will reduce investment in live-action dramas," causing panic among industry insiders. Data shows that in the first half of 2026, China's AI short drama users exceeded 600 million, the market size exceeded 22 billion yuan, and 367,000 micro short dramas were launched across platforms, with AI short dramas accounting for more than 74%. At the same time, another role in the traditional industry is experiencing the same shock.
"Before Spring Festival I was still joking with colleagues that I could make a living from visual effects until I was 80. As long as I could still hold a mouse and keyboard, I could keep working." Liu Jianqiang's self-mockery carried bitterness. He was still exchanging New Year greeting messages with clients on New Year's Eve, but just two or three days after AI short dramas exploded across the industry, he realized: "I've lost my job." The chain reaction came swiftly and cruelly. He learned that a former client company had already begun layoffs, sold off equipment, and retained only a small team of about ten people to pivot into the AI field. This veteran post-production visual effects practitioner with ten years of experience watched helplessly as his livelihood teetered in the tide of the times. Since the end of last year, signals of AI short drama development had already been released. In November 2025, ByteDance's "Hongguo Manju" App reached 8.54 million monthly active users within one month of launch. DataEye data shows that in 2026 the domestic AI short drama market size is expected to exceed 40 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 138%.
Why AI short dramas are surging so fiercely
In Liu Jianqiang's view, the most attractive point of AI short dramas is the sharp drop in cost. "For a production crew, the cost of the early shooting stage can be eliminated and they can go directly into post-production. The savings are astonishing." Liu Jianqiang roughly estimated that the emergence of AI short dramas can directly reduce the cost of a drama by 80%. Pang Wei, general manager of Qingdao Haixiao Culture Film and Television Media Co., Ltd., did the math. In the past, the production cost of a live-action short drama often ran into hundreds of thousands of yuan, and well-made dramas could even reach a million yuan, while an AI simulated live-action drama could be done for 50,000 yuan. Such a huge cost gap has made "small investment, high return" AI short dramas a new favorite of capital. Bangsaqi, CTO of Qingdao Kunyi Culture and AI lead, also recognizes the huge temptation of cost in this storm. Considering only computing power costs, the cost of an AI short drama can be controlled from several thousand yuan to several tens of thousands of yuan. A 200-minute low-quality animated drama might cost only a few thousand yuan, which was unimaginable in the past.
Beyond cost is the shortening of the production cycle and the compression of manpower. In the past, even for micro short dramas known for speed, it took at least a month from shooting to final editing. AI short dramas eliminate the early shooting stage and do not require a full crew. One person and one computer can complete a simple AI short drama in just a few days.
Transitioners' "survival" and "seeking change"
In the industry's "major reshuffling," every link in the former traditional film and television industry chain is staging a drama of "survival." Some are crossing the river by feeling the stones in their transformation, while others treat this change as a new opportunity and seek a path to ride the wind and waves in the storm. As the "city of film and television," Qingdao gathers a large number of micro short drama crews and production companies. "AI startup teams look forward to your joining." In March this year, a recruitment notice in WeChat Moments revealed Pang Wei's determination to transform. At the end of last year, when the wave of AI short dramas struck, his company, Qingdao Haixiao Culture Film and Television Media Co., Ltd., no longer limited itself to traditional micro short drama business and set up two new subsidiaries focused on AI short dramas outside the original company. Pang Wei mentioned that in Qingdao's micro short drama circle, transformation seems to have become a consensus. "Several companies I know have also transformed into AI short dramas."
In this storm, there are both survivors who act as soon as they hear the wind and those who actively seek change. Kunyi Cultural Creativity (Qingdao) Co., Ltd., founded by Li Nianze, fully transformed to the AI track last year. In one year, they have produced dozens of AI short dramas. From simulated live-action dramas launched on overseas platforms to several animated dramas, the work matrix has begun to take shape. Not only have animated drama works gained nearly 30 million in popularity on the Hongguo platform, but many works have also won the national second prize in the first Shandong Digital Engineer Innovation and Creativity Competition and the International Digital Engineer Invitational Tournament, and were shortlisted for the Hainan International Film Festival. Riding the current trend of "one-person companies," Sun Yupeng, a practitioner in the artificial intelligence industry, is leading students to explore the path of AI short drama co-creation. He breaks the traditional drama production model and adopts a "everyone is a short drama creator" model, which not only reduces production costs and shortens duration, but also allows everyone to experience the joy of entrepreneurship. At present, Qingdao's first AI co-created short drama "A Ray of Subtle Sunlight," produced by Sun Yupeng and his students, has been launched, opening a new model of short drama co-creation.
The moment of industry reshuffling has arrived
When the development of the times reaches a fork in the road, no one can fully predict the future. But what can be foreseen is that the arrival of AI has already pushed the film and television industry into a stage of re-shuffling. Qiao Jieqiong, a professor at the School of Media of Qingdao University of Science and Technology, believes that the arrival of the AI era is a reconstruction of the film and television industry's production process. AI has lowered the technical threshold for film and television production, which means non-professionals can also realize their "film and television dreams." The industry is also about to enter a "lightweight" era, with film transforming from "heavy industry" to "light industry." "In the past, films and TV dramas relied on heavy-industry studio shooting and visual effects. With the application of AI technology, their special effects production cycles will be greatly shortened and costs will also drop significantly." In the early stage of AI short drama development, dramas of various qualities emerged one after another, but ultimately they will move toward a qualitative transformation. "In 2025, the state also issued relevant policies for the development of micro short dramas to guide value orientation. AI short dramas will also shift from quantitative growth to quality excellence in the future, and this transformation will be very fast." Li Nianze also gave the same judgment: "In the future, what we compete on is not production capacity, but premium content."
How will future AI dramas and traditional film and television dramas develop? Will one replace the other, or is this just a temporary boom? "AI is a means and a tool, not a replacement." In Qiao Jieqiong's view, AI only changes the production methods of some scenes in traditional film and television dramas and intervenes in a more efficient and low-cost way, but it will not change the essence of film and television. "Live-action performance is irreplaceable. For documentaries, long-form film and television dramas, and so on, what people appreciate is the real scene, and this cannot be replaced by AI." Pang Wei believes that AI short dramas cannot replace the emotional impact and fan effect of live-action dramas. In the future, the two lines will develop in parallel, covering different customer groups and jointly moving toward premiumization. On September 17, at the State Council Information Office's series of themed press conferences on "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan," Wang Xiaoliang, director of the Network Audiovisual Program Management Department of the National Radio and Television Administration, clearly stated that "live-action dramas are the main force in premium creation and must be strongly supported." Supporting live-action short dramas has risen from an industry call to the level of policy guidance.
The emergence of AI, whether for front-end practitioners or students in related university majors, presents entirely new opportunities and challenges. While people marvel at the changes it brings, they are also embracing AI with a more positive attitude. After the shock of "unemployment," Liu Jianqiang quickly formed a new team and invested in AI film production with heavy science fiction themes. "Everyone in the team are 'veterans' who have worked for more than ten years, and they are relatively strong in aesthetics and experience." In Liu Jianqiang's view, AI is not an enemy "stealing jobs," but a tool for improving efficiency. "It places higher comprehensive demands on people. For producers responsible only for execution, it is a shock, but for people with strong comprehensive abilities, it is a new opportunity." In this "reshuffling," the role of human creators has not disappeared, but has been elevated from "executor" to "commander." Tools are evolving, art is seeking new carriers, and those film and television stories continue.