Replacement or Empowerment?

Will AI take work away from actors? How will audiences react to purely AI-generated films? And who will legislators side with: Big Tech or creatives?

I think about these questions a great deal… As the owner of an AI company servicing working actors, it’s important for me to address them.

Here’s my take: Net-net, AI will empower actors—yet I do foresee AI reducing commercial gigs.

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The Empowerment We Can See Right Now

At Acting Pal our focus has been creating a self-taping tool that lets you record without a human reader by using AI voices.

We aren’t alone:

• Scene Partner AI ~ great quality AI voices, highly sophisticated cue mode, but limited in that it’s only a web app—so you can’t record yourself while self-taping ~ ScenePartner
• Rafy ~ good quality AI voices and a functional cue mode (although less advanced than Scene Partner’s). Has the benefit of allowing you to record self-tapes within the app ~ rafy.app
• coldRead ~ popular app that hasn’t been updated in two years. Outdated cue mode that can leave you stuck mid self-tape ~ coldreadapp.com

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Beyond Self-Tapes: AI Filmmaking Leaps

New updates to AI filmmaking tools are incredible. Veo 3’s recent “image-in” update lets you feed reference stills so the model can keep a character’s look consistent from shot to shot. The video outputs are frankly incredible. And this is only the beginning of AI video generation…

Talented actors waiting for their big break might no longer rely on gatekeepers; in the not-too-distant future an actor could cast themselves as the lead in a partially—or even entirely—AI-generated film.

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The Work That Is Disappearing First

I would be disingenuous to claim AI only brings upside. Users at Acting Pal estimate roughly 20 percent of their income comes from commercial work.

• Brands from BMW to H&M have run campaigns with fully synthetic models or AI-generated visuals, citing speed and cost savings. DataFeedWatchFinancial Times

As more firms choose the inexpensive option, fewer acting jobs exist to populate those ads.

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How Audiences Actually Feel

One often-cited counter argument to displacement of real-actors in adverts is that viewers won’t accept synthetic performers. The data is more nuanced:

• A 2024 Baringa survey found 52 percent of U.S. consumers would rather watch a 7/10 film made by humans than a 9/10 film made entirely by AI, with Gen Z even more pro-human. Baringa

• Yet ON24’s 2025 benchmarks report shows AI-generated webinar content pulling 7× higher engagement year-over-year, suggesting receptiveness when the context is right. ON24

Audiences reward authenticity in narrative film, but appear agnostic in transactional or informational contexts—exactly the distinction that matters for actors chasing ad revenue.

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Our Commitment

At Acting Pal, we’re committed to ensuring that actors are empowered by AI, not replaced by it.

That means:

• Keep refining our self-taping tool.

• Roll out “Projects,” an upcoming feature that lets actors collaborate with AI filmmakers.

• Push for legislation that protects performers during this industry shake-up

AI will inevitably eliminate some acting jobs, just as it reshapes every profession. Yet it also creates new opportunities for actors who adopt it early.