Amazon MGM’s AI Studios division, which was set up earlier this year to combine artificial intelligence with human creativity, is starting to take shape with some first hires, including Jessica Fan as head of animation.

Fan was part of the team that got approval from Amazon Studios to form this new AI Studios arm. She was previously Prime Video’s head of new ventures, a role that involved exploring and growing Prime Video’s investment in generative AI.

It’s not clear yet whether AI Studios will make any kids & family projects. But what is obvious is that Amazon—like many major media companies, including BBC Studios and Netflix—is eager to explore how it can use AI to make both live-action and animated film and TV projects.

Though she was tapped to run animation, Fan’s background is more on the adult-skewing live-action side of the biz. Her past work includes developing and licensing programming as head of film at Amazon’s AVOD Freevee. When Freevee closed, she became a development executive on scripted dramas and comedies at Prime Video. And before joining Amazon in 2017, she was an equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs covering major media and entertainment companies.

Amazon has tapped a handful of other bosses to run AI Studios, including head of live action Matt Newman.

Fan and Newman will both report to Albert Cheng, formerly head of Prime Video US and now exclusively focused on exploring AI. Cheng’s goal at AI Studios is to “drive groundbreaking initiatives that merge artificial intelligence with storytelling, revolutionizing how entertainment content is created and produced,” according to info he shared on LinkedIn. A former Disney executive, Cheng also said the content arm will use AI-enabled production tools and workflows while “ensuring that AI amplifies human creativity, rather than replacing it, to build the studio of the future.”

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