AI and the Vertical Drama Industry
Hudson Vertical’s Thom Woodley affirms that AI does indeed have a role to play in the evolution and expansion of the vertical drama industry, given the data-driven nature of the business and its roots in gaming and interactive fiction, along with its inherent “what you want to watch when you’re drunk at 2 a.m.” nature that makes the prominence and potential future predominance of AI on the creative side and how long vertical drama producers will still be telling human-centric stories an open question. Woodley ponders these issues and more in this lively exchange with Chris Pfaff Tech Media’s Chris Pfaff at Streaming Media Connect 2026.
The Function of Microdramas
Pfaff opens the conversation by asking Woodley how he sees AI playing into both Hudson Vertical’s work and “the industry writ large.”
Woodley notes that he founded that company in the fall and “immediately ended up getting placed working directly with an app. So I don’t want to speak on behalf of any particular app.” But he does say that, as a fellow panelist mentioned, AI is being used for testing and piloting, which makes sense for those data-centric corners of the industry. “Doug Shapiro writes about this, right? About how we the producers overestimate the level of production quality and even story quality that people need to see. There’s also this great Guardian article that compared microdramas to the content being the kind of stuff that you want to watch when you’re drunk at 2:00 a.m.,” Woodley says. He’s not looking for something the caliber of The Criterion Channel in that situation, he adds.
Woodley says the initial run of verticals was focused on mobile gaming, not necessarily storytelling. “What do we put in front of people that will make them buy digital tokens? That is the business. So from that perspective—from a bean-counting perspective—it doesn’t really matter to them if it’s live production or if it’s AI,” he believes. “I think we’re still in the audience backlash phase of AI, but the minute that we cross that hump, as much as I hate to say it, I fear that quite a lot of the attention will shift to purely AI.”
Taking Cues From the Audience
Anecdotally, when providing feedback, superfans of the genre point to the actors as the primary reason for tuning in, Woodley says. “And I think that is part of the fact that this is a soap opera genre primarily, and that’s always driven soap operas. Will they say the same thing about sci-fi and things like that? Maybe not.” He sees AI working for romantasy, fantasy, and sci-fi, “or even straight-up animation a year before it really crosses the line with human-centric stories.
“I would agree, certainly, with animation, but I think it certainly depends on the genre or even the micro-genre,” Pfaff replies. “The way I see AI playing into this is really looking at where you get a mix, what you can use for your creative as much as for throwing things out to the audience. I would think that we’re in such a rapid period of innovation and churn at the same time, but one of the things that’s so fascinating about vertical is just the addiction, the loyalty, the grasp.”
Join us May 12–14, 2026 for more thought leadership, actionable insights, and lively debate at Streaming Media Connect 2026! Registration is open!
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