Netflix Launches First AI-Branded Content Recommendations Feature on TVs

Netflix, which has seen viewer engagement slide in recent quarters, is turning to AI for a new feature aimed at spurring users to find something new to watch.

The company on Tuesday (Nov. 3) is debuting AI Discover, a new feature on the Netflix TV app, initially to a limited number of subscribers in the U.S. In the first iteration of the new AI-based tool, you are prompted to explore content based on preset themes (such as “Something Light,” “Scare Me,” “Workplace Comedy Favorites,” “Family Movie Night,” “Quick Watches,” “Family Scandal Sagas” or “Royal Court Intrigue”). The recommended titles are produced in real time, according to Netflix, based on a user’s viewing history and preferences as well as what’s trending on the platform.

The streamer will begin rolling out AI Discover in the U.S. to customers who use Netflix in English on supported smart TVs. If you have access to it, you will see a “Discover” tab with a red gem-shaped icon and a “New” label in the top navigation bar on your TV. The company plans to expand the feature to more regions and customers in the coming weeks.

Netflix has long used machine-learning and AI technologies to personalize content recommendations, but AI Discover is the first user-facing application that the company is branding as powered by artificial intelligence. The hope is that the AI-recommended titles will be another tool to drive up Netflix’s total watch time among viewers, especially in the U.S. Amid a recent drop-off in per-subscriber viewing, Netflix overhauled its content leadership team, which included replacing content chief Bela Bajaria with industry veteran Peter Rice in a bid to produce more hits.

The AI content recommendation feature is interactive, but it’s not a chatbot-like experience. AI Discover will not be available on kids’ profiles.

When you click on the Discover button on the Netflix interface, it shows a message that says, “Give me a moment while I find your next obsession.” Here’s how the theme-based AI Discover experience works, according to Netflix:

• Pick from a range of themes, each previewed with a clip from a show or movie. Some match a mood (“Something Light,” “Scare Me”), an intended audience (“Family Movie Night”) or how much time you have (“Quick Watches”). Others might reflect what’s new or popular, or what you’ve been watching lately.
• The app displays an array of matching movie or TV show recommendations.
• You can then pick from more specific themes to continue searching; or you can select “Something Different” for a fresh set.
• Every title has a “Tune Your Recommendations” button, right next to “Play” and “My List.” Use it to keep a recommendation, or to ask Netflix to not recommend something again.

Netflix is positioning the AI-powered recommendation feature as a work in progress — and it says it wants customers to provide input about how useful they find it. “Think of AI Discover as our test kitchen: we’re trying out new recipes for discovery, and your use and feedback help us decide which ones to keep, improve or serve up next,” Netflix says in a blog post about the new feature. “Some may even make their way into the main Netflix experience.”

AI Discover is powered by a “new intelligence layer we’ve been building that responds to what members tell us in real time and keeps learning,” according to Netflix.

“What we’re most excited about is how it feels to use,” the company says. “Tell us what you’re after, and the experience adjusts. Tell us a recommendation isn’t for you, and we’ll remember it in AI Discover, so it won’t keep turning up.”

Netflix has also adopted AI in other areas of its business. About 300 titles across the streamer’s library have used generative AI across their production process, the company announced in July. This spring, Netflix paid $587 million to buy Ben Affleck-founded company InterPositive, which it says gives filmmakers AI tools to use throughout film and TV productions.