Parvinder Kalra and Vishnu Nair, authors and Thoughtworks experts, joined Christopher Bell, Global Media & Entertainment Strategy & Business Development Leader at AWS, on the Three Big Questions podcast. They discussed significant shifts and opportunities, as well as the work Thoughtworks is undertaking across the entertainment and sports industries.
Key takeaways:
The attention crisis is the major challenge: Viewership and advertising dollars for social media have overtaken linear broadcasting. The modern fan, especially Gen Z, experiences "constant partial attention," forcing traditional companies to fundamentally reimagine their strategies.
AI is the core enabler: The biggest opportunity is creating an intelligent engagement ecosystem, powered by AI, to solve the attention crisis and move beyond traditional personalization and recommendation algorithms.
Fans are becoming active contributors: AI enables hyper-personalized and interactive experiences, transforming passive audiences into active contributors through solutions such as interactive betting experiences and micro-betting.
Convergence is key to the future: New opportunities are emerging at the convergence of broadcasting, betting, and social. These include interactive viewing experiences and the use of Agentic AI to drive personalised fan experiences.
End-to-end transformation for agility: The key to escaping legacy constraints and technological fragmentation is a focus on holistic, end-to-end transformation, which includes technology, capability models, and operating models, ensuring the necessary agility and pace for the future.