David Ellison wants Paramount Skydance to stand apart. Not just as another Hollywood studio with a streaming service. As a media company that treats artificial intelligence as core infrastructure. Hours of work finished in minutes. Code written faster than ever. Data no longer trapped in one division. This shift comes as the company eyes even bigger moves, including a potential takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Executives inside the merged entity speak openly about the gains. In a recent staff meeting, leaders described how tools such as Anthropic’s Claude handle tasks that once consumed full afternoons. One project that required several hours now wraps in under 10 minutes. Productivity acceleration, they call it. The results appear across streaming operations, from engineering teams to content recommendation systems.
Ellison, who became CEO after Skydance completed its deal with Paramount Global, has pushed this direction since day one. He tells employees the priority is clear. Win on content. Become the most technologically capable media company. That means unifying three separate streaming tech stacks into one. Consolidating cloud services. And deploying AI at every level.
Business Insider obtained recordings and details from internal meetings. Streaming leaders there credit AI with sharp efficiency jumps. Engineers rely on code assistance. Roughly 80 percent of the engineering organization uses these tools, according to earnings transcripts. The outcome shows in faster application development. What once took weeks now reaches testing in days.
But Ellison doesn’t stop at productivity. He elevated Jason Kim, previously EVP of data and insights for the direct-to-consumer business, to oversee data across the entire company. The move, announced by Domenic DiMeglio in a Thursday afternoon session, signals broader ambitions. DiMeglio, who leads marketing and data for streaming, described it as part of transforming into a tech-first operation. No more silos. Data now informs decisions from film production to ad targeting.
And the hires keep coming. Paramount Skydance brought in Barak Turovsky as head of consumer AI. Turovsky spent seven years overseeing Google’s AI language products. Product chief Dane Glasgow told tech staffers the hire would help supercharge growth. The message lands at a moment when the company reports beating earnings estimates while making strides in technology.
Ellison’s father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, casts a long shadow. Some observers tie the family’s cloud and data center investments to the son’s strategy. Yet the younger Ellison frames his approach around entertainment. AI for better storytelling. Faster scripting. Smarter recommendations that keep subscribers watching. In one CNBC interview, he said tools like advanced ChatGPT models will touch every part of the business.
Recent coverage adds context. CIO Dive reported on an internal AI roadshow led by EVP and CIO Lakshman Nathan. Targeted use cases helped win employee support during the merger transition. Nathan emphasized governance, privacy, and practical workflows in legal and compliance teams. Applications built with AI assistance now turn around for testing in two days, he noted. A decisive advantage.
InformationWeek covered similar ground. The publication detailed how Paramount maps AI scalability even as leadership adjusts ahead of the Warner Bros. Discovery bid. Nathan spoke of a learning curve where privacy, legal, and technical teams converged. The company now uses AI to manage workflows across multiple departments. Code generation stands out as an early success story.
So what does this mean for the bottom line? Cost savings matter. Merging tech stacks from Paramount+ , Pluto TV, and other services reduces expenses. Ellison has spoken of cutting billions while doubling film output. Debt reduction becomes possible if AI drives efficiency at scale. Forbes examined this exact calculus in March. The publication outlined plans to pay down tens of billions in obligations through tighter operations and new technology.
Yet risks remain. Media conglomerates carry heavy balance sheets. A combined Paramount and Warner entity could approach $80 billion in net debt, analysts estimate. Success depends on execution. On whether AI delivers sustained gains rather than temporary boosts. On whether audiences respond to content shaped by these tools.
Ellison sounds undeterred. In Bloomberg interviews he repeats the goal. Build platforms. Win with technology as much as with hits. The recent elevation of data leadership and AI-specific hires suggest concrete steps. No longer a studio pretending to understand tech. A company organized around it.
Streaming remains the proving ground. Viewers expect personalization. Advertisers demand precision targeting. AI powers both. Claude and similar models analyze vast libraries to suggest edits, generate metadata, or even assist with promotional copy. Engineers use them to debug faster and ship features quicker. The feedback loop tightens.
Critics wonder if this focus distracts from creative risks. Box office slates face pressure. Some releases underperform. Ellison’s team calls 2026 a rebuild year with better cost management ahead. AI, they argue, supports that discipline without replacing human judgment.
The broader industry watches closely. Other studios experiment with generative tools, but few place them so centrally. Ellison’s vision echoes his father’s enterprise software mindset. Data first. Measurable outcomes. Scalable systems. Applied to Hollywood’s blend of art and commerce.
Recent X discussions reflect the buzz. Posts point back to the same Business Insider reporting. Some highlight the Warner bid’s regulatory hurdles in the UK. Others note Anthropic’s IPO filing, covered on Paramount+ outlets, tying the AI supplier closer to the media giant.
Barak Turovsky’s arrival may prove pivotal. His Google experience spans large-scale language models. At Paramount he will focus on consumer-facing applications. Recommendation engines that feel intuitive. Interfaces that adapt. Features that reduce churn.
Lakshman Nathan’s roadshow approach offers a template. Show employees real wins. Address concerns about job displacement early. Build governance before scaling aggressively. The company appears to follow that playbook.
Results already surface in quarterly updates. Production gains. Faster iteration. Lower costs in certain engineering categories. Executives stop short of promising specific financial targets tied to AI. They prefer to demonstrate progress internally first.
Still, the direction feels unmistakable. Paramount Skydance under Ellison aims to operate like a technology firm that happens to make movies and run a streamer. The bet carries weight. Media margins stay thin. Competition from Netflix, Disney, and YouTube intensifies. AI offers one path to differentiation.
Whether it delivers lasting advantage depends on many factors. Talent retention. Creative output. Regulatory approval for further deals. Integration success. Yet the early signals, from meeting transcripts to new executive roles, show commitment. Hours shrink. Output rises. The old ways give ground.
Ellison keeps moving. Data centralized. AI leadership strengthened. Tech stacks simplified. The next earnings calls will likely bring more examples. More metrics. More evidence that this strategy is taking hold.
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