Prime Video’s Kelly Day on UK investment and AI’s ability to ‘unleash’ creativity

It may be rare to hear media executives speak openly about artificial intelligence, but Prime Video’s international boss, Kelly Day, did not hold back in touting AI’s ability to “unleash” creativity.

Addressing the RTS London Convention, the US-based VP of international for the global streamer, which sponsored this year’s event together with Amazon MGM Studios, stressed that AI is the biggest shift to rock the television industry, but that the new technology won’t “replace imagination” – it will amplify it.

Day listed the ways in which AI is helping the entertainment sector, from allowing first-time film-makers to generate concept art and short films “that bring their pitch to life” to ­enabling small indies to create high-quality animation cheaply and allowing pre-visualisation, sound design and VFX workflows to run simultaneously.

“For a studio like ours, AI enables us to bring down the cost of production while maintaining quality, meaning more stories get made, more creative risks get taken and more diverse voices get heard,” said Day. “That is not a threat to creativity. That’s creativity unleashed. AI doesn’t replace imagination; it amplifies it.”

Day’s remarks come as Amazon goes all in on AI. In July, Reuters reported that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was driving Prime Video – a ­Hollywood-adjacent business division he is particularly close to – to embrace AI and use the tech to optimise the streamer’s home page.

Amazon is believed to be spending around $200 billion this year alone on AI development. The streamer’s former US boss, Albert Cheng, has headed up Amazon’s in-house AI Studios since September 2025, tasked with driving “groundbreaking initiatives that merge artificial intelligence with storytelling”.

But Day stressed that AI should not impede creativity. For example, the streamer isn’t looking for an AI model to come up with the next Fleabag – “I don’t think it could,” said Day – but the tech may help the writer spend less time on time-consuming admin.

Other ways in which AI is changing the Prime Video viewing experience, said the exec, include personalised recommendations, simplified synopses and spoiler-free summaries. It is also being used in audio to lift speech above background noise and create smoother dubbing for international originals, such as German young adult series Maxton Hall, the platform’s most-watched non-US original.

New lip-syncing technology means “you’re not distracted by the fact that you’re watching a dub”, said Day. “You’re just watching the show.”

She also revealed that Prime Video’s UK content investment (including studio infrastructure) now sits at more than £5 billion – up £4 billion in the past four years. More than 90 scripted and unscripted productions have been filmed in the UK over the last decade. Programmes singled out included The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm, The Girlfriend and Last One Laughing.

Day’s emphasis on the streamer’s significant investment in the UK comes at a time when the US is trying to pull film and TV production back from overseas. Legis­lation for a 20% federal tax incentive was recently presented to Congress, and is seen as a potential boon for stateside production if approved.

Reflecting on the Convention’s 2026 theme, “United in change: if not now, when?”, Day demanded that change within the industry “has to be now and it has to be together”.

“The change in front of us is too big for any one broadcaster, streamer or studio to meet alone,” she said, while also noting AI’s ability to hasten progress. “We can spend this moment defending our own corners or we can spend it building something bigger.”

When she was later quizzed by journalist Kamal Ahmed about how the industry will feel change from Prime Video, Day said: “People have different tastes and our goal is to create stories that appeal to different people in different places around the world, and then leverage the technology to be able to find those audiences and bring them what they’re looking for.”

Ahmed also asked how the Prime Video service stays independent of the interests of the Prime retail side of the business, where he said he buys his light bulbs and dog food. “We have a shared membership structure with Prime, where, yes, you get free shipping and access to a streaming service,” said Day, gamely. “But outside of that shared membership programme, we do operate as an independent company, if you will, inside of Amazon, and it’s one that we have been working hard at for a very long time.”

She said that the company gives its creative leaders “the tools, data and the freedom and flexibility to create great film and television”.

Who gives the green light?

Prime Video used its convention session to convey its commitment to the British creative sector, whose producers have, in the past, been puzzled by who ultimately makes international commissioning decisions at the company. Following the departure of Amazon Studios Europe boss Georgia Brown in 2022 – after five years with the company, setting up the streaming platform – the business has perhaps lacked stable international leadership. Until now. 

Kelly Day was joined for the session by London-based international ­originals boss Nicole Clemens – a Paramount Television Studios alumnus who is well-respected by British producers. The American executive, who arrived in the UK in July 2025, was immediately asked about her greenlighting power.

Admitting that there has, ­historically, been ‘confusion’ around the studio’s corporate structure, ­Clemens said operations are now ‘really streamlined’. Former Netflix exec Peter Friedlander is head of global TV at Amazon MGM Studios, which spans tentpole US shows that have performed across the world for Prime Video, such as Fallout and Reacher.

Meanwhile, Courtenay Valenti oversees the theatrical studio and streaming films such as Project Hail Mary and Red, White and Royal Blue. Clemens looks after the international studio and UK originals.

‘The UK budget sits in the UK,’ said Clemens. ‘The decisions are in the UK, so there’s no bureaucracy. I think it’s very clear.’

She said Amazon’s output would be ‘tripling’ over the next several years and highlighted recent commissions such as Boys of ­Tommen, which is shooting in Dublin; crime thriller Dirty, ­currently filming in Manchester with Samantha Morton, Phoebe Dynevor and Toby Kebbell; and Stephen King adaptation Crouch End, a super­natural thriller. ‘But we need a lot more,’ said Clemens. ‘So please call us.’

The producers were Helen Scott and Ffion Williams.