Once-bustling short drama production bases such as Hengdian and Zhengzhou are now shrouded in an unprecedented silence. With the rapid advancement of AI technology, the short drama industry is undergoing a harsh "reorganization." According to recent industry observations, several major platforms are actively promoting a new production model featuring "live actors as leads and AI characters as supporting roles." Local actors who once relied on background roles or extra appearances to make a living have become the first "sacrifices" in the face of AI technological impact.

Currently, the once-busy notice groups at short drama production bases have completely gone silent. It's not just mid-level actors and background actors facing mass unemployment; even top-tier short drama actors who previously earned tens of thousands of yuan per day have seen their pay cuts by half. This drastic decline stems from a fundamental shift in the production logic of producers.

Data shows that in January 2026, AI-generated human-like short dramas accounted for 38% of the top 100 short drama lists, up from 7% the previous year.

  • Cost Killer: A traditional high-quality live-action short drama typically costs between 1.5 million and 3 million yuan, while a similarly high-quality AI short drama can be produced for less than 200,000 yuan.

  • Ultra Low Unit Cost: Relying on the latest commercial technologies from ByteDance, the cost per episode of AI short dramas can be reduced to below 500 yuan, just a fraction of the cost of live-action productions.

The cost of live-action short dramas is limited by locations, labor, and high salaries, leaving little room for reduction. In contrast, AI short dramas fully benefit from the declining cost of computing power.

  • Efficiency First: A leading short drama platform expects to produce 150 episodes per month by the end of March 2026, a growth rate that real-world filming-based live-action crews cannot imagine.

  • Blue Ocean Market: It is expected that the market size of AI short dramas will reach 24 billion yuan in 2026, with user scale potentially reaching 280 million.