AI (Artificial Intelligence) is being adopted in almost every industry to enhance and streamline operations. The streaming industry is no exception. From enhancing content delivery to designing innovative viewer experiences, this powerful technology is changing the way we create and consume content. Ever opened your favorite streaming platform to find exactly what you were looking for staring back at you? Or enjoyed uninterrupted live soccer streams in flawless quality from your smartphone, having expected that all-too-familiar buffering wheel to scupper the experience? The chances are, AI is behind these improvements to user experience. 

In this article, we explore some of the ways AI is being used in the streaming industry to transform the way we consume content, and set new standards for viewing experiences, both in terms of what we watch and how we watch it. 

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AI-driven content creation

Many content providers are using AI to analyze viewer preferences to guide future productions, enhance the search for new content, and improve subscribers’ user experience, in order to create a bond between them and the platform itself, ultimately enhancing loyalty and revenue. By way of example, AI is being used by platforms such as Hulu to power voice recognition for faster searches; Amazon is using AI-powered A/B testing to analyze how subscribers interact with different thumbnails representing movies and series; AI is controversially being used to write scripts or predict the success of a particular idea in order to guide investment choices.

AI is also being harnessed to make targeted advertising more relevant and personalized on platforms like Spotify, which analyzes user habits to play tailored ads, much like social media platforms, such as Instagram. Advanced AI systems leverage psychographics and neurolinguistics to understand individual preferences, therefore making it possible for streaming services to personalize content recommendations as if speaking to a friend. This approach contrasts vastly with traditional mass-targeted advertising, and is likely to transform the way marketing connects with consumers, and vice versa. 

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AI-powered streaming analytics from System73

AI is also being used to optimize streaming quality and user experience in real time. At System73, for example, we harness the power of AI to drastically improve content delivery and viewing quality. First of all, our diagnostics technology has been developed to analyze the open internet and find the optimal delivery pathways, using AI to scan the network in seconds. The data gathered is transferred onto intuitive dashboards for content publishers and distributors to analyze, allowing them to observe viewer behavior and trends, and tweak content delivery strategies as needed. 

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Live content delivery driven by AI

This data can also be harnessed to inform our live (linear) content delivery solution, Edge Intelligence. This advanced technology also uses AI to build reliable, centrally orchestrated broadcasting trees that offload traffic from traditional CDNs by routing content across the most efficient and fastest pathways in order to send the highest bitrate to viewers’ devices and maximize QoE. This approach is designed to bypass edge server congestion, resulting in low latency and minimal to no buffering events, enhancing the viewing experience and reducing the risk of churn.

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Reach further than other traditional delivery strategies

Edge Intelligence also scales up autonomously, handling streaming demand in real time and more viewers join the network. In fact, the more viewers that join the network, the stronger it becomes, to the extent that we are able to ensure high QoE for up to 95% of viewers, as evidenced by our recent experience delivering the UEFA Champions League Final to a global audience. Edge Intelligence is also able to reach further geographically than traditional CDNs, even in typically hard-to-reach regions, such as South America and the Middle East. 

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For more information on reducing churn, to find out about System73’s Data Logistics Network, or to speak to a member of our team, visit www.system73.com.

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