Cost reduction up to 99%! AI-driven content creation: What else can humans do?

At present, AI has deeply involved itself in every stage of content creation—from short drama production, anime generation, self-media copywriting, and visual creation—bringing disruption to traditional content creators. The creative model that previously relied on labor division and experience accumulation is being reshaped by a coordinated approach of “human + AI tools,” with the barriers to content production dropping rapidly and production efficiency being multiplied several times over.

Which content production stages is AI “taking over”? As it continues to penetrate and reshape the content production landscape, which qualities of content creators remain irreplaceable? In response to the questions above, Caixin interviewed multiple OPC practitioners engaged in AI short dramas, anime, and self-media creation.

AI Reshaping the Short-Drama and Anime Production System

A growing number of content creation models represented by OPC (One Person Company, i.e., “a one-person company”) are emerging. With the help of AI, one person can effectively form “a team,” independently completing content production such as short dramas, anime, and articles.

Image source: official GDPS conference materials

At the 2026 Global Developers Pioneer Conference (GDPS) “Enterprise Innovation in the AI+ Era and OPC Development Forum” held recently, Fei Yuanhua, CEO of Shanghai Zhiling Xinjin Technology Co., Ltd., told Caixin that AI models (such as Seedance2.0) have already acquired capabilities like storyboard generation, camera movement design, and synchronized audio-video output, with a usability rate exceeding 90%, signaling that content production has entered an industrialized stage.

He said that in this process, AI is not only an upgrade at the tool level, but also reshaping the relationship in content production: on one hand, production costs and technical barriers are greatly reduced, so individual creators no longer need to rely on massive teams and high investments to deliver high-quality works; on the other hand, with production costs greatly lowered, in some scenarios, the cost in certain niche areas can be reduced to 1% to 10% of the traditional model.

However, while barriers are lowered, it also brings rapid expansion on the supply side. Content production is shifting from “scarce production” to “scale production.” While it increases creative activity, it may also intensify the spread of homogenized and low-quality content, posing a challenge to the overall industry quality.

From an industry perspective, AI is expected to break the long-standing capital and resource barriers in the traditional film and television industry, enabling more independent creators to enter the market, with a situation where “capital’s control over projects weakens, and creators are more inclined toward autonomous decision-making.” As technology gradually becomes more widely adopted, the core of competition in the industry will shift from “resources and capital” to “content quality and storytelling capability.”

Image source: official GDPS conference materials

For individual creators, the OPC model offers greater flexibility. After it breaks the traditional employment relationship, it allows creators to carry out creative work under lower costs, higher efficiency, and more freedom, and gives them greater autonomy in decision-making.

That said, based on the current reality, AI content creation still faces bottlenecks. For example, issues such as fragmented tools, high operational barriers, and insufficient efficiency in cross-tool collaboration, all to some extent constrain the creative experience and production efficiency.

Against this backdrop, some companies have begun trying integrated solutions such as “chain-based AI systems,” providing end-to-end workflow support from script creation, art design to short film compositing. By encapsulating complex AI technologies in the backend, they reduce the barrier to use.

Reconstructing the Self-Media Production Model with AI

Besides video and film and television content, AI is also reshaping self-media content production models. According to Caixin, with AI tools, stages including topic planning, text generation, image design, and even publishing and distribution can be automated to a certain extent, significantly improving content production efficiency, while also rewriting the way production is done in parallel.

AI content creator and OPC负责人塔塔 told Caixin that AI significantly lowers the technical, funding, and human labor barriers needed to start a business, enabling individuals to validate products and test markets at lower cost. For instance, by quickly publishing a Web Coding Demo, one can obtain feedback from seed users and accelerate product iteration.

However, low barriers do not mean that “everyone can succeed.” Tata believes that the effective operation of the OPC model depends on creators’ strong subjective initiative and market insight capabilities. For people who lack initiative or depend on instruction-driven work, the difficulty of transitioning is much higher.

In addition, in the context of AI accelerating content production and iteration while copyright boundaries are relatively blurry, creators also need to adjust their mindset—shifting the focus from “preventing copying and preventing plagiarism” to “ongoing creation and capability improvement” in order to maintain long-term competitiveness.

Image source: official GDPS conference materials

Aesthetics and Emotion Build Core Competitiveness

Although AI’s capabilities in content production continue to strengthen, the value of “people” has not been weakened—it has undergone a structural shift.

Fei Yuanhua believes that emotion and aesthetics are the core capabilities that AI cannot easily replace today. AI will replace repetitive labor, but it cannot replace creative ideation and deep thinking. In the future, the content industry may see a phenomenon like: “those with higher cognition do 100 people’s worth of work, while those with lower cognition do 0 work.”

He gave examples of capabilities already present in AI in the field of content production, including high-quality image and video generation, imitation of any visual style, automatic storyboarding, automatic background music composition, precise simulation of physical environments, and batch production—along with clear advantages in cost control.

However, at critical stages, humans are still irreplaceable. For example: making judgments and trade-offs about aesthetics, controlling story emotional tension and pacing, eliciting resonance with audiences, understanding cultural context, making strategic decisions about creative direction, and judgment regarding brand positioning and business.

“While the stronger AI gets, the requirements for people are not reduced—they change,” Fei Yuanhua told Caixin. In the future, the content industry will no longer simply need “people who know how to operate tools,” but will instead need creators who “have aesthetics, have ideas, and can make judgments.”

Tata also holds a similar view. While AI can indeed improve production efficiency, an individual’s personal opinions, emotions, and judgment remain key to building connections with users and forming brand stickiness—something that is difficult to be completely replaced in the short term.

She suggested an example: the advantage of art students lies in patience, aesthetic ability, and empathy. In the face of the impact of AI-generated content, AI should be treated as a tool for improving efficiency, while continuing to uphold one’s unique value in art creation and aesthetic judgment. The advantage of liberal arts students lies in clear logical expression and empathy, which is also crucial in jobs like Web Coding, where ideas need to be transformed into products.

(Editor: Guo Jiandong)

     【Disclaimer】This article only represents the author’s personal views and is unrelated to Hexun. The Hexun website maintains neutrality toward the statements and viewpoint judgments made in the text, and provides no express or implied guarantee regarding the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the content included. Readers should treat this as reference only and assume full responsibility themselves. Email: news_center@staff.hexun.com

Report