Amazon Gives Prime Video an AI Recaps

AI TV

Amazon’s new AI recaps hint at where TV is headed next.

Prime Video quietly rolled out something unusual this month.

AI-generated recap videos for its biggest series.

Full plot summaries, delivered in a clean, narrator-friendly format.

It’s the kind of feature that feels tiny in the moment, until you realize it’s the start of a much bigger shift in how we watch and understand stories.

Streaming has always been about convenience.

But this is the first time a major platform is using generative AI to interpret the shows themselves.

And that raises a deeper question.

When algorithms start summarizing culture for us, what else will we outsource?

Modern TV is a commitment problem.

Franchises sprawl across seasons; storylines go dormant for years.

Amazon’s internal data reportedly shows how often viewers pause to catch up before diving into a new episode.

In that world, a quick, accurate recap is a retention tool.

So, now, attention is the new scarce resource, and platforms are fighting for every minute.

Prime Video now offers AI-crafted recaps for shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty and The Boys.

The system pulls from episode scripts, metadata, and editorial review to produce a smooth, minute-long briefing.

No hallucinated plot twists, and spoilers beyond your watch history.

It’s essentially a personalized previously on, scaled to millions.

This isn’t about convenience alone.

Recaps strengthen binge loops, reduce friction, and make long-running IP easier to re-enter.

Expect other platforms to follow, layering personalization on top.

Tone, detail level, even character-centric summaries.

There’s something fascinating about handing the interpretation of art to a machine.

Not threatening, just telling.

It suggests that in the age of infinite content, the bottleneck isn’t creation anymore; it’s comprehension.

Soon, the story won’t just be what we watch but what we ask the machine to remember for us.