Ads are going to get even… worse and weirder. At least that’s what it sounds like to us. It’s bad enough that basically every streaming platform has abandoned the vision of the user experience to ply even moderately costly subscription tiers with as many ads as will fit. But now, Netflix indicates it will use AI to create ads for viewers during their watching experience beginning in 2026. Amy Reinhard, president of advertising at Netflix told attendees at Netflix’s upfront presentation (which we saw via Media Play News), “When you compare us to our competitors, attention starts higher and ends much higher. And even more impressive, members pay as much attention to mid-roll ads as they do to the shows and movies themselves,” and noted that “Netflix would be launching AI-generated interactive advertising midroll and pause ad formats beginning in 2026.”
It’s unclear what exactly “AI-generated midroll and pause ads” will look like on Netflix when they arrive in 2026. But it certainly sounds like a threat. It’s bad enough to sit through ads filled with real people who were at least performed by actors, written by writers, and directed by directors. The idea of seeing Netflix filled with uncanny-valley ads from AI that think they know something about you is… we don’t like it.
According to Reinhard, ad-supported tier subscribers watch on average 41 hours of Netflix per month. Kotaku reveals that those users watch roughly three hours of ads per month. That feels like WAY too many ads. At least, users don’t have to worry about these commercials being strange AI ads when they watch Netflix, but not for long.
“Either they have great technology, or they have great entertainment,” Reinhard concluded, “Our superpower has always been the fact that we have both.” That does feel like a true statement. But we will that Netflix would use its powers for something other than plying users with AI-generated ads.
Content shared from nerdist.com.