Vertical microdramas grow fast as AI helps make more shows

FORMAT B - Trend

In short: Short, phone-first dramas are growing quickly, and AI is starting to help make them faster and sometimes with fewer on-screen actors.

What's going on

Microdramas are scripted TV-style stories made for a phone held upright. They often come in dozens of very short episodes, with dramatic plots and frequent cliffhangers. Apps like ReelShort and DramaBox helped make this format popular.

Producers are now adding AI to different parts of the process, but not always in the same way. In some shows, AI helps with practical tasks like dubbing and translation, so the same episode can be released in more languages. In others, AI generates pieces of the show, like backgrounds, short shots, or voices, while people still write, direct, and edit.

Some projects go further and use synthetic characters, meaning computer-made actors instead of real people on camera (like using animated stand-ins, but created by software). A 2025 report on the South Korean platform Vigloo described two microdramas promoted as fully AI-produced. The reporting still said human creators supervised the work, and people handled choices, review, and oversight.

Money and speed are a big reason for the interest. One estimate cited in reporting put live-action microdrama budgets at about $100,000 to $300,000. AI-heavy projects may cost less and take less time, but the numbers vary and promotional claims can be hard to verify.

What to watch

AI is unlikely to remove humans from production in a literal sense. The bigger change may be that some shows need fewer actors, fewer locations, and smaller crews, especially for low-budget projects. It is also worth watching how platforms describe “AI-made” content, since using AI for one task is not the same as generating an entire show.

Source: NYTimes