The British Film Institute has released a comprehensive look at how generative AI is reshaping the UK screen industry. The findings in the new BFI report, in partnership with the CoSTAR Foresight Lab, paint a picture of incredible opportunities and challenges.
The UK’s film, high-end TV, and gaming sectors collectively employ more than 200,000 people and pump an estimated £21 billion into the economy annually. Keeping this in mind, the authors of “AI in the Screen Sector: Perspectives and Paths Forward” – Angus Finney, Brian Tarran, and Rishi Coupland – don’t mince words.
“The stakes are high,” writes Coupland. “Without strategic planning, the UK screen sector may find itself outpaced by global competitors and new AI-native studios. Generative AI could democratise content creation and empower new voices, but it could also erode traditional business models, displace skilled workers, and undermine public trust in content. The sector’s future may depend on its ability to harness AI’s benefits while mitigating its risks.”
The creative vs. AI tension
The researchers describe a “duality” of “excitement and scepticism” across the industry. Although there has been reporting about the backlash of AI use in filmmaking, plenty of “screen sector adoption of generative AI is also happening behind the scenes, without public outcry.”
The report’s authors note that, “Generative AI technology is not perfect but is improving in its suitability for creative tasks.” They add that, “As generative models learn the structure and language of screen storytelling – from text, images and video – they can then replicate those structures and create new outputs at a fraction of the cost and expense of the original works.”
The numbers tell a story
Approximately 8% of more than 3,000 UK-based BFI fund applicants reported using AI to aid in their submissions over the past 18 months.
What stands out more, though, is the sheer scale of unauthorized content usage: Scripts from more than 130,000 films and TV shows have been used to train generative AI models.
The report’s authors do not hold back about the implications of this action. They describe copyright as “the dominant concern around AI today” and say that many models “in wide use have been trained on copyrighted material without the permission of rightsholders or any form of payment to creators.” The researchers warn that this “existing training paradigm for generative AI models poses a threat to the fundamental economics of the screen sector and its ability to create value from making and commercialising new IP.”
A nine-step action plan
The question now isn’t whether AI will reshape the UK screen sector, but whether the industry can adapt quickly and thoughtfully enough to maintain its competitive edge while preserving the creative values that make British content distinctive.
BFI offers nine key recommendations centered around three strategic pillars: developing collaborative frameworks across the industry, providing targeted support where it’s needed most, and removing barriers that could stunt growth in this new era of AI.
- Rights: Set the UK in a position as a world-leading IP licensing market
- Carbon: Embed data-driven guidelines to minimise carbon impact of AI
- Responsible AI: Support cross-discipline collaboration to deliver market-preferred, ethical AI products
- Insight: Enable UK Creative Industries strategies through world-class intelligence
- Skills: Develop the sector to build skills complementary to AI
- Public transparency: Drive increased public understanding of AI use in screen content
- Sector adaptation: Boost the UK’s strong digital content production sector to adapt and grow
- Investment: Unlock investment to propel the UK’s high-potential creative technology sector
- Independent creation: Empower UK creatives to develop AI-supported independent creativity
As the report suggests, this is a moment for strategic thinking rather than reactive scrambling. The UK has built its reputation as a global creative powerhouse through decades of innovation and storytelling excellence. In the “pursuit of a future where AI enhances, rather than detracts from, our creative power,” how it navigates the surge of AI may well determine whether that reputation continues to flourish.
Read eWeek’s coverage about what Marvel directors Joe and Anthony Russo said about AI use in filmmaking, as well as famed director David Cronenberg’s take on this year’s Oscars AI controversy.