In January 2026, the AI short drama industry will reach a critical turning point. According to the latest research report from Oriental Securities, top IPs and short drama platforms such as Yuewen Group and Chinese Online have successively launched full stack AI short drama production tools, marking a historic leap in AI content creation from semi automation to end-to-end full process automation. A research report predicts that full stack tools will significantly lower the threshold for short drama production, and 2026 is expected to become the year of explosive growth in the supply of AI short comics. TikTok's maximum 20 fold incentive policy will accelerate this industry transformation process.

Full stack tool breakthrough: compressed from 11 steps to 3 steps

In 2025, AI short drama production will still be in the semi automated stage, and the creative team needs to rely on the traditional production chain of "script → storyboarding → animation effects → dubbing → subtitles", frequently switching between different AI tools and adding a large amount of manual intervention to produce finished products. This fragmented workflow is not only inefficient, but also excludes a large number of potential creators.

Entering 2026, the industrial landscape will undergo fundamental changes. Yuewen Group's Manga Assistant recently reached a deep business cooperation with Vidu, a multimodal large model under Shengshu Technology, to deeply embed Vidu's video generation capabilities into the entire creative process, providing AI generation support for platform creators from images to videos. Chinese Online is about to release its full stack product "Dimension Magic Pen", which significantly reduces the production process from 11 to 3 (AI script adaptation → material generation → dynamic synthesis) through the AI anime toolchain. The monthly production capacity has skyrocketed from 300 minutes to 1300 minutes, achieving a perfect balance between large-scale production and personalized customization.

Oriental Securities' research report expects that in the future, more upstream IP companies such as ByteDance and Palm Reading Technology will launch full stack solutions for the AI short drama vertical field, accelerating the conversion efficiency of their IP to short drama. This trend of instrumentalization will completely rewrite the threshold for content production, enabling non professional creators to quickly produce high-quality works.

Double upgrade of consistency and dynamic narrative ability

The biggest pain point facing AI short anime dramas in 2025 is the issue of consistency between characters and styles, as frequent "dressing up" phenomena seriously affect the viewing experience. Entering 2026, from the perspective of the iterative direction of models such as SenseTime SEKO, the industry has found a way to crack it.

Character Consistency Revolution: The latest generation of models uses a combination of "character digital identity binding+multi angle presetting+style locking" technology to completely solve the industry problem of easily matching characters and styles. The Vidu Q2 model from Shengshu Technology supports up to 7 subjects to input simultaneously, and maintains a high degree of consistency in characters, costumes, and scenes in dynamic scenes, meeting the narrative needs of multiple subjects such as short dramas and anime.

The leap in dynamic narrative ability: In 2025, AI short anime dramas generally have a serious problem of "PPT feeling", with a lack of smooth camera movement and dynamic expression in the visuals. By 2026, dynamic storyboarding AI will be able to intelligently generate professional motion effects such as push, pull, and shake based on the script. The frame intelligent interpolation technology for combat and special effects scenes will significantly reduce the proportion of manual corrections. Cases released by platforms such as Vidu show that AI has been able to achieve the ultimate generation of micro expression changes, making characters' acting more delicate and natural.

3D capability improvement: The research report specifically points out that the proportion of 3D animated dramas and live action style short dramas will significantly increase by 2026. The reusability of 3D assets is stronger, and this trend change will significantly enhance the ability of IP serialization, while strengthening the cross-border conversion potential of IP in multiple digital content sectors such as comics and games.

TikTok Heavy Incentives: Up to 20 Times Revenue Promotes Globalization Wave

While the production capacity of domestic AI short plays is getting ready, ByteDance has dropped a heavy bomb on overseas markets. Recently, ByteDance has launched an independent app called PineDrama, and the official TikTok short drama platform has simultaneously opened up cooperation to the outside world, providing special traffic support for early entry partners and high-quality content on both TikTok and PineDrama platforms.

The most attractive policy lies in the level of incentives: in terms of content types, platforms prioritize and cooperate with overseas local dramas, new hot list dramas, and AI anime. For the above-mentioned high-quality content, especially in the form of initial release or exclusive cooperation, the platform will provide up to 20 times the additional incentive coefficient of revenue support. This policy is unprecedented in the industry.

AI assisted localization adaptation: The transformation of production methods from human to AI has made it more convenient, high conversion rate, and low-cost to go global with just one click. During the production process, creators only need to change language packs and fine tune character modeling to generate content that is more suitable for the local market. This flexibility, combined with TikTok's additional incentive coefficient of up to 20 times for the AI anime track, will have a significant growth driving effect on the entire industry chain.

TikTok's strategy reflects its long-term optimism towards the AI short drama market. Through a dual end (TikTok+LineDrama) layout, the platform leverages TikTok's vast user base to attract traffic, while also accumulating vertical users through independent apps, forming a complete short drama ecosystem loop.

Resonance of growth from IP enterprises to platforms, benefiting the entire industry chain

The popularization of full stack AI short drama generation tools will reconstruct the value distribution of the entire IP content industry chain:

Upstream IP companies such as Tencent Holdings, Yuewen Group, Chinese Online, and Zhangyue Technology, which have a massive amount of online cultural IP, will directly benefit. AI tools significantly shorten the IP conversion cycle, compressing the adaptation process that originally required months or even a year into weeks, making it possible to quickly monetize dormant IP assets. Yang Zhan, the head of Yuewen Comic Drama, stated that comic drama will be a very core business for Yuewen Group in the coming years.

Midstream technology suppliers such as Kunlun Wanwei and Shengshu Technology, which provide AI underlying capabilities, are facing huge market opportunities. The commercial application of multimodal large models such as Vidu has officially entered the stage of scale, and technology licensing and cooperation revenue are expected to grow rapidly.

Downstream production and distribution: Huanrui Century and other traditional film and television companies are exploring AI assisted production mode, while short video platforms such as Byte and Kwai obtain traffic value through content distribution. TikTok's 20 fold incentive policy will significantly increase the return on investment for content providers and attract more professional teams to enter.

The research report of Oriental Securities emphasizes that the maturity of AI short drama production tools not only lowers the threshold for content production, but more importantly, opens up a complete commercial loop of "IP reserve → rapid conversion → global distribution". In this ecosystem, IP quality, technological capabilities, and distribution channels are indispensable, and top enterprises will gain excess returns by leveraging their resource integration advantages.

Industry outlook: The first year of true application implementation in 2026

From technology validation in 2025 to large-scale deployment in 2026, the AI short drama industry is undergoing a critical transition from 0 to 1. The launch of full stack tools has solved the problem of production efficiency, breakthroughs in consistency and dynamic narrative technology have solved the problem of content quality, and TikTok's global incentive policy has solved the problem of commercial monetization.

The industry generally believes that 2026 will be the year when AI applications truly "land and explode", and the short drama/anime field is likely to be the first vertical track to run through business models. On the one hand, there is a strong demand for content consumption and a strong willingness to pay; On the other hand, the maturity of AI technology is sufficient to support large-scale production. When both the supply and demand sides are ready, it's only a matter of time before the market explodes.

For content creators, this is the best era - the technological threshold has been flattened, and creative ideas are more important than technical abilities; For investors, there are structural opportunities in both the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, from the IP source to the technology center and distribution channels, with the possibility of leading enterprises emerging at every link.

As more players enter the game, tools continue to iterate, and the imagination space of the AI short drama industry has just opened up.