AI Aides for News & Culture Search, Summarisation & Discovery

Content-fatigued audiences increasingly expect enhanced discovery features to aid their cultural exploration. Several SXSW speakers explored AI boosts for media services and streaming platforms designed to help users access key information more easily and quickly – or, in the case of art museums, more slowly, sending online users down rabbit holes of deep, edifying exploration.

AI-Bolstered Production for Filmmakers, Content Creators & Musicians

Speakers avidly dissected the interplay between human creativity and generative AI’s potent abilities – a key SXSW topic since generative AI burst onto the scene in 2023. As AI video, music, translation and social media content creation tools quickly advance, entertainment giants and amateur producers alike are scaling up output by outsourcing key tasks.

Music, Sports & Storytelling Fan-Tainment With Tech-Fuelled Flair

For entertainment and sports brands, fuelling fandoms with novel and ever-more captivating ways to connect is a growing imperative, as discussed in Future-Forward Entertainment: 25/26 and Look Ahead 2025. A range of companies discussed next-level fan experiences, leveraging technologies including animatronic robots, immersive domed-screen theatres and AI avatars. 

Gaming’s Under-Tapped Opportunities

With gaming’s long boom stalled – global spending on interactive entertainment fell 7% in 2024 compared with the 2022 peak (Aldora, 2025) – several speakers focused on revealing under-utilised opportunities for game companies and advertisers alike. Namely: the substantial cohort of Gen X/Boomer long-time gamers feeling unseen; cheaper, lower-fi hardware and games; and non-endemic brands embarking on strategies that combine gaming and advertising.