“Our CEO keeps saying AI will fix our content discovery problems. But I haven’t heard a word about programming strategy in months. Are we just done trying?”
— Director, Editorial & Curation, SVOD Service
That’s not a vision. That’s a white flag.
When leadership starts pitching AI as the magic bullet for “discovery,” what they’re really saying is: “We don’t know what to promote, so maybe the machine can figure it out.”
But discovery isn’t broken because the tech is bad. It’s broken because the experience is flat.
Whether your service is living inside a third-party aggregator like Prime Channels, Roku, or Apple, or operating through your own app, AI can’t fix a weak pitch. If your content feels like a random pile of shows and the rows look like they were assembled by a spreadsheet, no algorithm’s going to turn that into a destination.
Sure, AI can help optimize metadata, sort titles more efficiently, maybe even personalize things a bit better. But that’s not the job. That’s cleanup.
Discovery works when programming has shape, when there’s intention behind what gets promoted, how it’s sequenced, and why someone should care. That doesn’t happen through a model. It happens through vision.
Here’s a test: what’s the first thing you want someone to watch on your service this weekend?
If you can’t answer that without checking an Excel sheet, then yeah, your platform’s not leading. It’s reacting.
So what’s the fix?
- Lead with editorial. Whether it’s your O&O app or someone else’s tile, your voice matters. Frame content. Package it with clarity. Add urgency. Give the audience a reason to care beyond “it’s new.”
- Program like you’ve got taste. Calendar drops. Cultural hooks. Rows that say something. “Because You Watched…” is a shrug. Start acting like you believe in the slate.
- Use AI to scale that voice,not replace it. Let AI help with versioning, packaging, and personalization. But set the strategy yourself. Machines don’t make moments. People do.
Because it doesn’t matter if your content shows up on Prime Video, Apple TV, or your own app. If there’s no shape to what you’re offering, no amount of AI will make it matter.
Skip Says
Discovery isn’t a tech problem. It’s a strategy problem.
AI can sort your library. But it can’t make the library worth entering.
If your slate doesn’t stand for something, expect your audience to scroll right past it.
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