A card-drawing artist with a monthly salary of 7,000 is just a "temporary worker" in AI short dramas.

「Core Tip」

The AI card - puller has transformed from an "AI mage" to an assembly - line worker in just one year.

In 2025, AI short dramas rose rapidly, sweeping across the entire video content production industry. As a position spawned by the AI short drama industry, numerous card - pullers use the prompts typed on their fingertips to support an empire of 100,000 AI short dramas per quarter. However, they are also being rapidly devoured by the AI technology they have nurtured.

From "AI mage" to "assembly - line worker", the lifecycle of this profession may not exceed two years. Its rapid rise and fall reflects the cruelest truth under the AIGC wave: All positions that can be standardized are queuing up to be taken over by algorithms.

Three Card - Pullers: Different Lives under the Same Wave

The card - puller, a profession that sounds like it has a gaming element, is essentially a content operator in the era of AI text - to - video.

Their core work is to break down the scripts written by screenwriters into 15 - second shots, guide AI to generate video clips by writing prompts, and then select usable materials from them. This process of repeated generation and selection is vividly called "card - pulling" in the industry.

In less than a year, this position has attracted a large number of young people. They come from different professional fields and have different reasons for entering the industry, but they face similar dilemmas in the same wave.

Xiaoyang is currently interning at a company in the Yangtze River Delta. This company previously produced live - action short dramas and quickly established a new AI department after AI dramas became popular.

Xiaoyang's job is a card - puller. Her department is divided into several groups, with each group led by a director and consisting of 4 card - pullers. Originally, it was planned to have a video editor, but since they couldn't recruit a senior editor with experience in creating hit dramas, the card - pullers have to take on this role as well.

Xiaoyang's internship salary is 4,000 yuan, which is much higher than the industry average. Many companies only pay interns 150 yuan per day, less than 3,000 yuan per month. "The company's KPI pressure is okay."

In fact, the monthly salary of full - time card - pullers is only 4,000 - 7,000 yuan, and the salary increase space is extremely limited. Xiaoyang's daily work is to read the script, write prompts according to the storyboard form given by the director, generate 15 - second video segments using Jimeng, and then edit and splice them. "The degree of freedom is extremely low. The director will specify every tone and every pause, and often an entire shot has to be redone."

Different from Xiaoyang's relatively relaxed work state, Xiaolu is going through the most difficult time in his career. Xiaolu graduated from the digital media art major of a 211 university. During his university years, he took on many shooting jobs for promotional videos and information flows. After graduation, he entered a traditional film and television company to work as a live - action short drama photographer.

At the end of 2025, the company fully transformed into AI short dramas, laying off two - thirds of its employees. The post - production special effects department was completely cut, and the original team of more than 300 people was reduced to less than 100. Xiaolu was retained because of his youth and strong learning ability, and his role changed to a full - process AI production artist.

"The current work intensity is much higher than when shooting live - action." Xiaolu's company implements a "7 - day delivery system". A 60 - episode short drama must be completed within 7 days: read and break down the script on the first day, prepare assets such as characters, scenes, and props in two days, spend the next four days on card - pulling and editing, and the last two days on supplementation and modification.

"I often stay up all night. At least two days out of the seven days, I have to stay up until three or four in the morning, and the pressure before delivery is extremely high." What's even harder for him to accept is the salary cut. His actual income is nearly 40% less than before. The company's assessment system is also quite chaotic, centered on the "integral consumption rate" and "material utilization rate". The first 10 episodes need to be carefully polished, which consumes a lot of points, and it's easy to fail the assessment.

Xiaohei is the most experienced among the three and the only entrepreneur. He originally worked in traditional animation. At the end of 2025, seeing the opportunity in AI short dramas, he established his own production team. His team adopts a "online + offline" dual - track system: 70 people online are responsible for low - threshold dubbing drama subcontracting, using assembly - line operations; a core elite team of 10 people offline is responsible for high - quality drama production.

"We initially took dubbing orders at 80 yuan per minute, and then it rose to 300. After Jimeng increased the price, we don't take orders below 500 yuan. Now the market price is basically 800 yuan per minute."

In Xiaohei's view, the card - puller is not a technical position at all. "It's basically just manual labor." In his team, the card - puller's job is to copy and paste the prompts written by the prompt writer into the generation box, upload reference pictures, and then click generate. "If there are problems like model penetration or incorrect character proportions in the shot, just pull the card again and change a couple of words."

He said without hesitation that this position has no irreplaceability. "As long as you can type, you can get the hang of it in three days."

From "AI Mage" to "Assembly - Line Worker": A Position Crushed by Costs

When card - pullers first emerged, they were called "AI mages" because this position was considered a new role capable of harnessing AI to create content. However, in just half a year, this profession lost its luster and became the so - called "assembly - line worker" recognized in the industry. Behind this transformation are the essential attributes of the card - puller's work and the unbearable computing power cost pressure in the AI short drama industry.

On the surface, the threshold for being a card - puller is extremely low. As Xiaohei said, as long as you can type, you can be a card - puller. When looking for a job, companies only require applicants to submit a portfolio of AI videos they have made, without asking for academic qualifications or work experience.

But in fact, to do this job well and become a senior card - puller, the threshold is not low. Xiaoyang told Baobian that the most core ability of a card - puller is not the ability to use AI tools, but aesthetics and shot thinking. "Your aesthetics can't be too strange. You can't make ugly things without realizing it. You also need to understand a little bit of shot language. Otherwise, when the director says 'give a push shot' or 'shoot a back view', you won't understand at all."

Xiaolu has a deep understanding of this. He believes that the difference between a senior card - puller and a low - end card - puller lies in whether they have a director's thinking. "Many of the storyboards given by AI are incomplete. There are either too many or too few elements, and they can't express the feeling you want. A good card - puller has a clear picture in mind and knows how to write prompts to make AI generate shots that meet the requirements." For the same script and the same prompt structure, some people can make videos as delicate as game CGs, while others make videos that look like a child's drawing. This is the gap in content perception ability.

However, no matter how capable card - pullers are, they can't avoid a core problem: The cost of card - pulling is too high.

Currently, the computing power cost in the industry is about 1 yuan per second. Producing a 3 - minute video costs 180 yuan, and the computing power cost for a 120 - minute short drama is 7,200 yuan. This is just the basic cost. If you pull the card repeatedly, the cost will increase exponentially.

Xiaoyang's company has a relatively sufficient budget, but most small companies don't have such good conditions. The budget for a drama is only 20,000 yuan, and each 15 - second shot is only allowed to be pulled 3 times. Pulling one more time will get you scolded by the leader.

Xiaoyang said that when contacting other companies, they clearly stated that a shot can be pulled at most 3 times. If you can't get a good result, you have to figure it out on your own.

Xiaolu's company also has strict integral limits. The total integral of each group is fixed. If you spend too many points in the first 10 episodes, you have to save in the later episodes. "As long as the characters don't fly or the shot doesn't have continuity errors, it can pass."

The high computing power cost forces all companies to look for ways to reduce costs, and the automated workflow becomes the optimal solution. Since the beginning of 2026, more and more companies have started to develop or purchase full - process AI Agent tools, trying to replace manual card - pulling with machines.

Xiaoyang learned that some companies have achieved a high degree of automation. "You just need to press a button, and the system will automatically generate character images, storyboards, and videos, and finally automatically edit them. You can produce two or three dramas a day, and only one person is needed to check."

Xiaolu's company is also testing the automated workflow. "One or two groups used it some time ago. For the non - core content later, manual work is basically no longer needed. Only the first 30 episodes need manual polishing."

Xiaohei is even more straightforward: "Now third - party platforms can already achieve one - click generation. From script input to finished video output, no human intervention is needed throughout the process. It's just that the current price is a bit high, 2 - 3 times that of manual generation, and there will be problems with inconsistent painting styles when supplementing shots. But technology is advancing rapidly, and these problems can be solved within a few months."

An AI short drama production studio directly told Baobian that they have applied the card - puller automated workflow to production, and they will also launch an automated workflow for video editors in the future to largely replace the work of editors.

Regarding the time when card - pullers will be replaced, the three interviewees gave surprisingly consistent answers. Xiaoyang predicts that the number of card - puller positions in the industry will decrease by one - third in one year and by one - half in two years. Xiaolu believes that low - end card - pullers are already being phased out, and 80% of card - pullers will be unemployed in the next two years. Xiaohei is even more pessimistic. He believes that at most in half a year, the card - puller position will basically disappear.

Who Is Making Money and Who Is Leaving

While card - pullers are anxious about their future, the profit distribution pattern in the AI short drama industry has quietly changed. Those who really make money are never the lowest - level content producers, but the upstream players who control the core resources. The disappearance of card - pullers is just the most insignificant footnote in this interest restructuring.

"Those who do production subcontracting can't make much money. The real money - makers are those who sell the shovels." Xiaohei's words reveal the truth of the industry.

He calculated an account: Producing two 30 - episode dubbing animation dramas in a week and spending another week on revisions. After the middleman takes a cut, the income is 80 yuan per minute. With a total of 90 minutes, the income is 7,200 yuan. After deducting the computing power cost of more than 1,000 yuan and the half - month salary of 5 online team members, which is equivalent to 1,200 yuan (this is before the increase in computing power cost). If the client asks for repeated revisions or the script is rejected by the platform, you may even lose money.

Those middlemen who don't directly participate in content production are making a fortune. Xiaohei told us that before Jimeng increased the price, some people got the news in advance, stocked 200 membership accounts at 2,599 yuan each, and then resold them at 5,000 yuan each. Some middlemen take orders from clients and subcontract them to small teams, taking a 10% cut. They can earn hundreds of thousands of yuan without doing anything just by taking hundreds of scripts at a time.

Within the industry, the power structure has also undergone a fundamental reversal. In the era of live - action short dramas, the director was the absolute core, but in the era of AI short dramas, the screenwriter's voice has been greatly amplified.

Xiaolu told us that the company now implements a "screenwriter - centered system". Screenwriters not only determine the content of the script but can even veto the director's asset plan. "Some screenwriters write scripts with a live - action shooting mindset and don't consider whether AI can achieve it. For example, they write a large banquet hall with more than a dozen main characters, but Jimeng can only upload a maximum of 9 assets at a time, so it can't be done. But the screenwriter doesn't care. It's your problem if you can't do it."

Directors and video editors are also going through a painful transformation. Directors no longer need to go to the shooting site. Their main work now is to write storyboard forms and tell card - pullers how to shoot each shot in words. Video editors no longer need to do complex special effects. AI can already generate most special effect shots such as fights and car accidents. Their current work is mainly to control the rhythm and emotions and fix the bugs generated by AI. These original core positions are changing from creators to "supervisors" of AI.

And card - pullers have become the most vulnerable and easily dispensable link in the entire industrial chain. They earn the lowest salary, do the most tiring work, and may be replaced by AI at any time. Facing an uncertain future, the three interviewees have made different choices.

Xiaoyang admitted that she doesn't plan to develop in this industry in the long term and only regards it as a transition before graduation.

Xiaolu's goal is to be promoted to an AI director within half a year. "Traditional film and television practitioners have a great advantage in transitioning to AI directors. We understand shots and rhythms, which are things that AI can't learn." He said that if he can't be promoted or can't stand it anymore, he will switch to another industry. "Anyway, I won't be a card - puller forever. It has no future."

Xiaohei is going to fully transform into AI short drama training. He plans to open a training class after the college entrance examination. The online course is priced at 1,999 yuan, and the offline course with accommodation is 2,999 yuan. "Card - pullers will disappear soon, but the demand for training will explode." He said that the profit from training is much higher than that from production subcontracting, and the pressure of computing power cost is not great.

From birth to extinction, the lifecycle of the card - puller profession may not exceed two years. It is a product of the development of AI technology to a specific stage and a transitional position created to make up for the insufficiency of AI capabilities. Its rise and fall profoundly reveals a truth: In the AI era, any simple executive work, no matter how high - tech it may seem, will eventually be eliminated by technology. What can truly resist the impact of AI is always the ability that cannot be standardized or replicated.

(All names in the article are aliases at the request of the interviewees.)

This article is from the WeChat official account “Ba