Artificial Intelligence Outlook 2026

The growth of AI in the media and entertainment industry

In the latest edition of Disguise Magazine, we explore the impact of artificial intelligence within our industry. More particularily, the role AI plays in content creation and the ways it can help speed up repetitive tasks for our community, enabling them to focus on the creative aspects of their projects. 

What's the current outlook of artificial intelligence in 2026?

It happened quietly, and then all at once. Artificial intelligence has moved from the experimental fringes to the very centre of the global economy. From logistics to advertising, finance to manufacturing, AI has embedded itself into the daily tools and decision-making processes that keep the world moving. The question is no longer if it will reshape industries, but how deeply and continuously it will embed itself into the way we work, create and make decisions. 

This acceleration isn’t accidental. It is the result of a synchronised global ecosystem pushing forward in unison. NVIDIA has redefined the limits of computational power, providing the hardware engine for this new era. Microsoft and AWS are building the vast cloud architecture to support it, while OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Meta set the pace for generative models that make AI accessible to the public. Meanwhile, heavy investment from Alibaba and Baidu is driving foundation models and cloud AI across Asia, ensuring this shift is truly global in scale. 

Beyond scale and speed, one of the most significant outcomes of this moment is democratisaton. AI is lowering barriers to entry across industries - reducing dependence on specialised resources, removing friction caused by language, geography, access and connecting talent around the world through shared tools and platforms.

But what does this macro-economic shift mean forthe entertainment industry?

The same sophisticated architectures driving the global industry are now flowing into our creative pipelines. We are seeing these tools enter the studio; they are influencing real-time content, previz, worldbuilding, and content workflows. But this is not a narrative of replacement - in the creative industries, AI can be a catalyst rather than a substitute, compressing timelines, removing friction from workflows, and creating more space for what ultimately matters: the idea.

Key trends and insights

The creative sentiment

• 69% of creative professionals say AI unlocks new ways to express creativity (Google)

• 66% say AI helps them create better content (Google)

The efficiency gain

• 40% performance improvements seen when workers use generative AI (Harvard Business School)

The market momentum 

• $347B projected global AI market size by 2026 (Statista)

• 37% expectated annual growth rate (CAGR) of the AI market (Statista)

• 64% of organisations are slaready leveraging generative AI (Google)