I’m an Actor and a Producer. Here’s What AI Dramas Mean for Singapore’s Screen Industry.

Singapore’s first AI-hybrid productions have arrived. From where I stand, the real question is who gets to be part of what comes next.

I work as an actor and a producer, and I lecture at MDIS, Curtin and PSB. That means I look at the screen industry from three angles: in front of the camera, behind the budget and in the classroom. The rise of AI dramas has made all three uneasy at once, and a little curious.

It is no longer hypothetical. Singaporean actor Christopher Lee, 54, will star in Crooks, billed as Singapore’s first AI-hybrid drama, which has begun production under local filmmaker Boi Kwong’s B-01 Films. What caught my attention was a detail buried in the coverage: more than 50 crew members are being reskilled to work in AI-enabled environments. To me, that is the most important line in the story. It suggests this production is retraining its people, not replacing them.

Elsewhere the model looks different. Edenstone’s Spore Fall, launched in March 2026, pairs human-written scripts with AI-generated visuals, in episodes under three minutes designed for mobile viewing. It has drawn investment, with plans to take the IP to a theatrical feature in 2028. And then there is the harder test case. Singapore marked its 61st birthday with two films where everything apart from the scripts was AI-generated, with no human actor on screen. Audiences were divided. As one report framed it, supporters say the technology lets anyone tell stories, while others fear losing the industry’s human core.

I understand both camps. I don’t think either is wrong.

Why microdramas are the doorway

If you want to see where this is heading, watch the vertical, bite-sized format. In China, over 95% of the more than 120,000 microdramas released in the first quarter of 2026 were reportedly AI-generated, up from nearly zero a year earlier. That is a very different economic model from a traditional television season, and it will not stay in China.

Singapore’s agencies are paying attention. IMDA has named mini series and AI technology as priority areas, with policy and funding support behind them. Smaller communities are also forming. AI Film Lab 2030 has run workshops and applied R&D for indie filmmakers in Singapore since 2024. Whether you welcome this or not, the infrastructure is being built.

The producer in me sees an opportunity

Small markets are hard to make content for. Budgets are tight and audiences are limited, so many stories simply never get made. If AI lowers the cost of visuals, more Singapore-set stories become possible: Singlish-inflected, Peranakan, multilingual, shaped by the way we actually live. Those stories could be aimed at regional audiences from day one.

There is also a skills advantage. Crew and creatives who learn AI-enabled workflows early will be valuable as the sector grows. That is a large part of why I think reskilling, as seen on Crooks, matters so much.

The actor in me sees the pressure points

I would be dishonest if I only wrote the optimistic half. Singapore’s performers already work with thin margins and project-based income, and many of us already juggle side hustles to stay in the craft. So when an AI drama makes the cast optional, it is a real question about livelihoods.

Where do actors fit when visuals can be generated? What happens to the wardrobe, art, lighting and location teams who fill the end credits of a conventional production? And who owns a face, a voice or a performance once it can be reproduced? Who is credited, and who is paid?

None of these questions has a settled answer yet, and they need one before the technology gets further ahead.

The lecturer in me sees the classroom shifting

Teaching across MDIS, Curtin and PSB, I meet students at different stages and from different disciplines, and they are all walking into industries whose tools are changing underneath them. For those of us who teach, that changes the conversation.

The best response is not to pretend the technology isn’t here, and it is not to chase every new tool either. It is to teach the fundamentals that do not date: story, character, craft and judgement, alongside an honest understanding of what AI can and cannot do. Students who understand how a scene works, why an audience cares and what makes a performance believable will be better placed to use AI well, and to know when not to. In a world of generated images, taste and storytelling become more valuable, not less.

What I’ll be watching

First, whether hybrid productions like Crooks make reskilling the standard rather than the exception. Second, whether audiences embrace AI-generated drama or tire of it. Third, whether clear standards on consent, credit and compensation emerge before the technology outruns them.

Singapore has a chance to build an AI drama sector with the people in it, not around them. I would like to see us take it, and I would like performers, crew and producers all at the table when the rules are written.