Streaming 2.0: How AI and interactivity will shape the future of OTT

In a conversation charged with vision and verve, the panel discussion “OTT Revolution: How AI, Personalization & Interactive Content Are Changing the Streaming Landscape” at WAVES 2025 brought together some of the most influential minds in the streaming industry. Moderated by Rohit Jain, President of Lionsgate Play Asia, the discussion explored how India’s deep storytelling legacy is undergoing a powerful transformation, as artificial intelligence and interactivity reshape how stories are told, delivered, and experienced.

Opening the session, Rohit Jain paid homage to India's storytelling heritage and spoke of the fascinating shift underway and how technology is transforming not just what we watch but how we connect through stories.

Gaurav Gandhi, Vice-President for Asia-Pacific & MENA spoke of personalization as a layered process. “We begin by understanding what viewers want—their moods, their taste patterns. And in a multilingual country like ours, it’s also about enabling linguistic exploration,” he said.

Monika Shergill described today’s content landscape as a first in human history—a convergence of creativity and machine learning. “You may come for crime thrillers, but you also see what’s trending. The goal is to serve the viewer while building a shared cultural pulse,” she said.

For Bharath Ram, viewer behavior leaves a trail. “Most people, like Sherlock Holmes’ suspects, leave clues when they visit a platform. We follow those clues to recommend content -regional, niche, popular, everything that keeps them engaged,” he noted.

The discussion then turned to storytelling itself. Gaurav Banerjee, MD & CEO, Sony Pictures Networks India, invoked the enduring strength of a good story. “When something resonates with the moment, audiences will find it. The belief in blockbusters is about identifying stories and storytellers that meet the cultural moment head-on,” he noted, referencing homegrown cinematic successes that defied larger industry downturns.

Reflecting on the dramatic evolution from linear formats to creator-led ecosystems, Neeraj Roy highlighted the aggregation brought by digital platforms. “From music videos to massive creator universes, platforms like YouTube transformed everything. Now, with generative technologies, we stand at the edge of something even bigger,” he said.