Amazon’s Prime Video is leveraging generative AI for a new Video Recaps feature that’s rolling out in beta today and is meant to help viewers catch up or get a refresher on past seasons of select TV series before settling in for the newest one.
It marks the next evolution of Prime Video’s X-Ray Recaps, an AI-powered feature that debuted in 2024 and provides text summaries of key cliffhangers, plot points and other recap details of series.
With the latest rollout, Prime Video is making AI-powered recaps audio-visual.
Initially, the Video Recaps feature is available in beta on connected TV devices for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., including Fallout, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Upload, Bosch, and The Rig. The feature will continue to roll out to additional titles.
Per Amazon, it uses AI to identify key plot points and character arcs of a show’s season and summarize them in a theatrical-quality video. AI is used to find the most compelling video clips and then combines those with audio effects, dialog snippets and music from the show for a final visual video recap that also features an AI-generated voiceover narration tying it together.
“Video Recaps marks a groundbreaking application of generative AI for streaming,” said Gérard Medioni, vice president of technology at Prime Video, in a statement. “This first-of-its-kind feature demonstrates Prime Video’s ongoing commitment to innovation and making the viewing experience more accessible and enjoyable for customers.”
Prime Video subscribers can find the recaps when they navigate to the next season of a supported series. There, a recap button is available on the detail page and user can pick from available recaps, including the new video-based or the prior text-based with X-Ray Recaps.
In announcing the new feature, Amazon said that when a new season of a series starts, this helps give viewers a digestible and visual refresher on what happened earlier.
Prime Video in October captured a 3.8% share of monthly TV time in the U.S., per Nielsen’s The Gauge, behind other streaming category leaders YouTube, Netflix and Disney+.
In May the streaming service disclosed more than 130 million customers on its ad-supported tier in the U.S.