The AI Prism: Navigating Meaning, Relevance, and Strategic Value in Film Production

Artificial Intelligence (AI) evolves more rapidly than any prior technology, reshaping sectors towards an uncertain future. As one of the most expensive art forms, the established film industry is facing a potentially disruptive transformation. AI is believed to bring cost-efficiency, wide accessibility, and expanded creative boundaries, while it also presents challenges to artistic value, workforce stability, and ethics. This research sheds light on the current and expected implications of AI in film production. Through a practice-theoretical lens, the study explores AI's strategic management and meaning in creative processes from those that shape the industry. As a qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with industry practitioners and experts, from senior vice presidents of agencies to independent filmmakers to AI experts. Attaining a holistic view through the breadth of perspectives, the research aims to situate the deep complexity of a turbulent technology in an already turbulent media environment. The findings reveal that the meaning of AI in film production is an actively constructed negotiation shaped by their operational context, dominant values, and strategic responses. The central contribution of this thesis is the ''Value Fit'' model. This model captures the ongoing process of practitioner context, AI's industrial impact, sensemaking, and strategic enactments negotiating in cyclical form. This leads to varied strategic responses, such as vision-led approaches that can include culture-enforcing methods, offering strategic practices that extend current strategic management research. The study showcases how strategy-as-practice provides a crucial lens from which to understand these emergent strategic ''doings'' in the media environment. The implications of this research are twofold. Theoretically, it contributes to practice-theoretical strategy research by revealing new methods of strategic media management. It further deepens innovation theory by offering nuance to established perspectives on GPTs, doing justice to the ongoing evolution of AI technology. Practically, this research provides actionable insights for stakeholders in the film sector, highlighting how understanding their own sensemaking processes and dominant values can inform more effective context-specific AI strategies, and aid in consciously balancing innovation with artistic and ethical value preservation. Ultimately, the thesis underscores that the future of the film industry in the age of AI will be shaped by this ongoing, dynamic negotiation of meaning, value, and practice.