People in the AI short drama industry at the forefront of the trend are walking on thin ice.

In 2025, the maturity of video generation technology led to an explosion of AI short dramas. In the first quarter of 2026, AI short dramas accounted for 95% of the total micro - short dramas. However, being in the limelight doesn't mean making money is easy. After communicating with many AI short drama practitioners, we realized how hard those in the limelight were working: The day before our meeting, Xie Burou, who is engaged in AI film and television, was busy until four or five o'clock in the morning but still looked energetic; when we met Gao Xiangchen at around three o'clock in the afternoon, he had just found time to have lunch; when communicating with Gong Changhu, it was almost 11 p.m., and he had just returned from a dinner party.

01

The Rise of AI Short Dramas

Finally, Xie Burou got the chance to enter the arena.

One day in October 2025, Xie Burou received a message: "Hey, there's potential. Xiao Xie, come out quickly. Don't stay in a small place. Come and make a fortune."

At that time, Xie Burou had been in the AI short drama industry for several months. Through cooperation with a large company, he had some works and sent them to investors. At first, they didn't pay much attention.

The quantity of short dramas was booming, and change was constant. The "Guidelines for Micro - Short Drama Creation" in the first quarter of 2026 released by the China Audio - Visual Association showed that about 128,000 micro - short dramas were launched in the whole industry in the first quarter of 2026, among which 122,000 were AI short dramas, accounting for 95%.

AI short dramas are squeezing the living space of live - action dramas. Xie Burou told "Caixin Global" that many live - action short drama teams around him have disbanded or switched to the AI short drama track. However, the risks of AI short dramas are also increasing: Le Li, the chief editor of Hongguo Short Dramas, revealed that since April 7th, Hongguo has launched a special governance campaign for low - quality AI short dramas and has reviewed and removed more than 10,000 AI short dramas.

Xie Burou also noticed that more than a dozen short dramas they participated in producing have been removed, including some blockbusters with over 40 million views.

But Xie Burou doesn't feel extremely sad. First, as producers, they don't need to bear the costs of traffic promotion; second, the short drama distributors have already made money; third, the current short drama market is gradually transitioning from a wild state to a regulated one, which is a good trend.

Xie Burou is an optimistic socialite. In the old urban area of Changsha, when we first met, he warmly said that he would take us to his hidden gem of a store.

Xie Burou is also a serial entrepreneur. Before engaging in AI short dramas, he was involved in NFT digital collectibles and accumulated some wealth. His primary motivation for engaging in AI short drama creation is his hobby.

Before officially starting his business, when cooperating with a large company, Xie Burou only had a monthly salary of two or three thousand yuan, but he was often busy until late at night.

The turning point for the explosion of AI short dramas was the launch of Seedance 2.0 by ByteDance on February 12th this year. That night, the landscape of short dramas changed, and countless people began to pour into the AI short drama track.

Xie Burou had been paying attention to AI since he was involved in digital NFTs in 2023. At that time, there was only one AI video generation tool, Runway, on the market, and its capabilities were very limited. "At best, it could only be called AI - adapted videos."

The emergence of Sora caused a stir, followed by the popularization of Keling by Kuaishou. But what really made Xie Burou and people in the short drama industry see opportunities was Seedance 2.0.

Even today, Seedance 2.0 still dominates the text - to - video field, leaving other tools far behind.

"In a one - minute video, there may be about five seconds made by Keling to fill in some establishing shots. But Seedance has a hidden problem that many teams don't even realize," Xie Burou said. "If you look closely at the videos produced by Seedance, stare at a corner, and you'll find screen flickering."

In addition, more challenges are emerging. The most obvious one is the exponential increase in cost. Compared with the initial release of Seedance 2.0, its cost has increased tenfold. According to the current price, the cost of generating a one - minute Seedance video can be as high as 270 yuan. Therefore, Xie Burou chooses to use Seedance as the main framework and considers using other tools for the remaining shots.

What's more troublesome is the copyright issue.

At the beginning of April, "The Peach Blossom Hairpin" was removed from Hongguo Short Dramas because it was suspected of using ordinary people's portraits without authorization and distorting them into villainous characters. Almost at the same time, Jackson Yee's studio issued a statement saying that some AI - generated dramas used his portrait without authorization. Soon, the relevant infringing videos were also taken offline on Hongguo Short Dramas.

To solve this problem, many AI short drama production companies have started to build their own asset libraries. Xie Burou will label the characters he created before. First is the face model. When producing AI short dramas, if it meets the character setting, it will be used.

When doing NFT digital collectibles, Xie Burou created an IP called Prylens. This IP combines cyberpunk and Cthulhu styles.

Its theme is the indescribable fear and the unchangeable status quo. This is also the most fascinating aspect of AI short drama work - there are always new uncertainties.

Compared with the uncertainty of copyright, what is more anticipated and terrifying is that AI generation is inherently a journey full of unknowns.

The generation of AI videos not only depends on prompt words but also requires luck. The results are random and require repeated attempts. In this process, there may be a continuous production of useless videos.

Occasional useless videos may be an interesting thing, but sometimes when useless videos are continuously generated, many people will curse at their workstations. This is a job that requires patience and calmness.

"Those who scold AI are not suitable for this job. What's the use of getting angry with AI?" Xie Burou said. "What we need to do is to improve the utilization rate of useless videos, either through our own editing or by modifying the prompt words."

02

Those Who Bet More Heavily

"The number of useless videos is becoming less and less." Gong Changhu, who has been in the AI short drama industry earlier, showed a rare calmness in the industry towards the uncertainty of video generation.

He said, "Last year, there might have been a little more concern. At that time, the team had less experience. Now, this situation has decreased a lot, and we will become more and more proficient in using it." On the one hand, the technology is constantly being upgraded and iterated; on the other hand, the team already has experience in film and television production.

After graduating from university, Gong Changhu has changed industries several times. He has worked as a product manager at Microsoft, a producer at a game company, a VR entrepreneur, and now he is deeply involved in AI short dramas.

Ten years ago, Gong Changhu started a business in Beijing, focusing on VR and the interaction between movies and games. At that time, Gong Changhu was in charge of the game port, and his partner was in charge of the film and television part. In 2025, after going around, the two returned to their hometown, Chongqing, and hit it off, plunging into the entrepreneurial wave of AI short dramas. At that time, AI short dramas had not yet exploded, and there were only a small number of people doing AI animations in the industry. Gong Changhu and his partner, who had been in the film and television industry for many years, smelled the opportunity of the AI short drama boom in advance.

In March 2025, Gong Changhu entered the AI short drama industry. Different from many of his peers, Gong Changhu didn't directly start producing AI short dramas but started from the production workflow of AI short dramas and devoted himself to researching the production workflow. At that time, Gong Changhu led his team to cooperate with a short drama platform to develop a special AI workflow. A few months later, an AI tool with good capabilities was basically formed.

"Sharpening the axe doesn't delay the work of chopping wood." The results of the AI workflow research, in which a lot of energy was invested in the early stage, soon began to show. In 2025, Gong Changhu's team produced many short dramas, including the industry's first AI cultural and tourism drama, "Start Shooting! My Mysterious Girlfriend."

Gong Changhu told "Caixin Global" that this drama was produced in September 2025. At that time, Xie Burou, a post - 95s young man, also saw the opportunity of AI short dramas but hadn't received an offer from investors yet.

In September 2025, before the release of Seedance 2.0, Gong Changhu's team invested more than a dozen people and took a month to complete "Start Shooting! My Mysterious Girlfriend." Now, to produce a similar drama, only about three or four people need to be invested, and it only takes about ten days.

▲ Image source/Weibo

The maturity of technology has led to the explosion of AI short dramas, and new practitioners are pouring in like a tide. However, where there is a rise, there is a fall. The rise of AI short dramas has squeezed the market of live - action short dramas, and many companies have disappeared in the long river of time. Hengdian, once known as the "Vertical Studio," is no longer bustling.

However, a series of measures such as the increase in computing power costs and the platform's increased investment in live - action dramas are reshuffling the short drama market.

On May 12th, at the Short Drama Industry Conference, the Short Drama Copyright Center of the ByteDance Group announced a series of policies, including an annual guaranteed investment of over 1.5 billion yuan, an increase in the revenue - sharing ratio, special funds to support targeted themes, and incentives for IP serialization. In addition, in response to the rumor of canceling AI - simulated human dramas, Hongguo Short Dramas responded that the statement was false and emphasized that the guaranteed policy still applies to some scripts.

Gong Changhu believes that the refinement of AI short dramas is an inevitable trend. In the entire audio - visual content market, the supply of AI short dramas can reach over 90%, but the benefits they create are less than 10%.

After attending the Audio - Visual Conference and the Short Drama Industry Conference in succession, Gong Changhu made a decision to develop his own independent IP.

Compared with Xie Burou, they have a lot of novel copyrights, IP resources, and second - tier artists in their hands. Upgrading, developing, and monetizing based on these resources is a good opportunity and direction.

Xie Burou also wants to do IP. He wants to use the IP he created when doing NFTs for AI short dramas. "After the AI comic drama track is successful, I'll bring Prylens out again and show the world our capabilities," Xie Burou said, sounding full of youthful ambition.

03

Those Who "Sell Shovels" See Opportunities

Copyrights, IPs, and resource libraries are the "ammunition" that AI short drama practitioners actively stockpile. This is the foundation for survival. But besides them, there is a group of people who see more business opportunities after the explosion of AI short dramas.

In 1848, carpenter James Marshall found gold flakes in Sutter's Mill Creek, and 300,000 people flocked to California. In the end, many people returned empty - handed, but it was those who sold shovels on the shore who made money.

The explosion of AI video generation makes many people think that this is another "shovel - selling" business. Even ByteDance has launched a creative agent like Xiaoyunque. But what Gao Xiangchen sees is far more than that.

"I think there are at least 100 AI creative tools on the market. In the long run, just like the thousand - live - streaming war and the hundred - group war we've experienced, 90% of pure tools will eventually disappear," Gao Xiangchen, the founder of AllFun AI, calmly judged.

In 2026, Gao Xiangchen officially founded AllFun AI. Before that, he participated in the establishment of the Xingtu platform from scratch in the commercialization team of ByteDance. Then, as a co - founder, he developed the overseas short drama platform FlexTV to the top 5 in the overseas market and was finally acquired by the New York Stock Exchange - listed company Mega Matrix.

His rich experience in platform operation and going global made him realize that the real barrier of AI short dramas is by no means the large - scale model itself, but the industrialized production pipeline built on the large - scale model and the creator ecosystem connected to this pipeline.

"Everyone may be using the Seedance large - scale model, but the directly generated videos often have problems such as inconsistent logic and inconsistent characters. What AllFun AI does is to integrate script disassembly, storyboard design, prompt word optimization, video generation, and post - production editing into a standardized 'cloud production line' through engineering capabilities," Gao Xiangchen explained. In this semi - automated workflow, creators can flexibly configure the models and prompt words of each link, thereby greatly improving the quality of the finished video and even surpassing the effect of direct generation by the large - scale model.

But this is only the first step.

The maturity of video generation technology has made the standardization and onlineization of film and television creation possible for the first time. Gao Xiangchen knows well that technology is just a means, and the core of the industry is always "people."

"Our barrier definitely doesn't lie in a single product function but in an ecosystem built by enough excellent creators." To build this ecosystem, Gao Xiangchen is actively looking for and cultivating future creators. The interview with "Caixin Global" was scheduled at Gengdan Institute of Beijing University of Technology in Shunyi, Beijing, at three o'clock in the afternoon. When we met, he had just finished teaching at school and hadn't had time to have lunch yet.

"Schools are a space that hasn't been well explored. Many institutions just come to give a simple lecture and let students figure it out on their own. This is meaningless." Gao Xiangchen's cooperation with universities is much deeper. He not only teaches in person and shares the industrialized process of AllFun AI without reservation but more importantly, he brings real commercial projects into the campus.

"With the development of AI, there will be more and more future creators." This is the point where he and the school can hit it off. Gengdan Institute is a starting point, and Gao Xiangchen hopes to turn it into a teaching case and cultivate a group of somewhat successful creators.

After the supply of AI short dramas has increased significantly, the controversy between AI short dramas and live - action dramas in the market has been heating up. But in the eyes of many AI short drama practitioners, whether it's an AI short drama or a live - action drama doesn't matter.

"It's just that some people have different understandings and even some prejudices about AI now. In fact, in the eyes of users, whether it's AI or not doesn't matter. As long as you tell