Artificial intelligence plays a vital role in the OTT industry in many ways. From content discovery and editing to video indexing and improving the quality of digital images, artificial intelligence can be used to sell online content and ensure extraordinary user engagement in the streaming industry.
Let us first understand what Artificial Intelligence is before talking about the role of Artificial Intelligence in streaming media.
In computer science, artificial intelligence refers to the development of machines capable of replicating human reasoning and problem-solving abilities. With artificial intelligence, computers and machines can learn, reason, and analyze past data to make predictions that are close to perfect.
Now that you have gained a basic knowledge of artificial intelligence let us explore its role in shaping online streaming.
An Indexing System For Videos
With artificial intelligence, a video content indexer anticipates customer needs in order to make video content more relevant. It increases engagement on the online video platform and enhances video discovery.
AI-powered video indexers enhance the search experience by extracting audio and visual information from your videos. By leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, your video content can be discovered more effectively, resulting in an increase in the monetization value of your videos.
To sum up, with all of the digital information available today, online streaming accounts for the lion’s share, while video streaming is expected to account for 82% of internet traffic by the end of 2022.
Content Recommendation System
One of the most important roles of AI in streaming media is to recommend relevant audio and video content. Take Netflix as an example. According to Netflix, its AI-powered recommendation engine knows so much about your digital consumption habits, namely what genre of movies and series you enjoy watching. As a result, it displays a stream of related and genre-specific short and long-form videos that you cannot ignore! It is the magic of artificial intelligence.
AI-based recommendation systems can filter content based on user history, search terms, video age, etc. In order to increase personalization and enhance user engagement. YouTube is a good example of this. YouTube’s AI-driven recommendation system matches relevant advertisements according to historical data to recommend advertisements you are likely interested in when watching a video.
An additional component of Artificial Intelligence is the “Trending Now” section, highlighting the most popular shows watched by users at a particular location. For example, many people stream sports worldwide, such as Kayo Sports in UK, USA, Europe, etc. As a result, the content recommendation system shows them ads tailored to their region and videos according to their interests. A recommendation is also made based on the genre of videos you have watched in the past. Similarly, if you have recently viewed a romantic comedy, similar results will be displayed – thanks to the algorithm and artificial intelligence.
Personalized Thumbnails
The show’s thumbnail varies depending on whether the video is viewed on an Android device, a Mac, an iPhone, a tablet, or any other device. A thumbnail is a very effective way to capture users’ attention and pique their interest in the show. Therefore, having a good first impression of the show is extremely important and must match exactly what the user hopes to enjoy. Over time, streaming services became aware that even though thumbnails are important, they were not receiving the same results as expected. Therefore they started utilizing artificial intelligence to improve the results.
Every thumbnail is generated algorithmically using artificial intelligence and reflects users’ preferences. Multiple thumbnails are created for one show, and algorithms and AI are used to determine which thumbnail the user should view. For example, even a comedy suggestion related to a romantic concept includes a thumbnail if you regularly view selections from the ‘romance’ genre. It is an innovative use of artificial intelligence in streaming services that significantly impact users’ experience and retention.
High-quality streaming
Streaming services are using AI to improve and optimize the video quality of their content. However, even though streaming services offer the users HD and Ultra HD streaming options, this offer cannot be availed most of the time. The internet speed and bandwidth vary from country to country, which makes it difficult for streaming companies to offer video quality that everyone enjoys.
Streaming companies are solving this issue with the help of AI. They focus on specialized video coding that can deliver a clear stream to areas where bandwidth is low. In addition, as streaming services are going global and targeting more customers, they are focusing on improving customer satisfaction. Among the helpful approaches is improving the quality of video streams.
As streaming services meet the internet speed requirement to enjoy content in specific video quality, there are a lot of unhappy customers. Especially in regions with slower internet speeds than technologically advanced countries, low speed can ruin video quality, but Dynamic Optimizer can be the solution to this issue.
Dynamic Optimizer uses algorithms to analyze video frames and compress them. Another advantage is compression without compromising content quality. Streaming hubs use this tool on multiple device applications, including tablets and phones preferred in Asian countries.
Final Thoughts
As a matter of fact, data science, machine learning, big data, and other aspects of AI impact the streaming industry as we know it today. Despite this, there are still several obstacles to overcome before AI can completely transform the streaming industry. A surveillance system is necessary to improve AI, and user experience since AI mimics human behavior.
As the goal of implementing AI in the streaming world revolves around improving the user interface, users’ feedback should be considered necessary because it can highlight improvement areas.