United Talent Agency Recruits AI to Surface Real-Time Viewership Metrics

United Talent Agency has started to lean on AI to do market research, optimize dealmaking, and collect the currency that now makes Hollywood go round (real-time, complete viewership metrics) partly by using its own AI-powered app.

The Big Picture: UTA has been investing heavily in its data and analytics division, the Joe Kessler-run UTA IQ. By concentrating that power onto a new app for agents, UTA could have the upper hand in quick-moving negotiations — a reality that could win over prospective clients.

Behind the Data: Hollywood dealmaking is getting a reboot, thanks to AI.

• UTA’s in-testing mobile app uses Microsoft Azure, OpenAI, Meta’s Llama, and other systems to “give its staff real-time information on film and TV viewership or ratings,” per The Information.
• Since most streamers like to keep that data under wraps, being able to aggregate viewership metrics on the fly is a valuable asset because the numbers are often spread across various platforms (like Nielsen, Sensor Tower, Parrot Analytics, etc.).
• Agents can quickly generate that information during negotiations or share the intel with clients right in the middle of a meeting.

Best and Final Offer: UTA also plans to use AI beyond its internal app. The agency is exploring the use of the AI-powered prediction engine Aaru, which creates “psychographic profiles” of unique demographics (voters of a certain policy proposal or dog owners in a specific city) to determine how they may react to a movie or actor, which could help save money on market research and surveys. The agency is also testing the use of platform Glean to surface documents and files across all internal platforms. And it already uses Perplexity for research and to generate reports.

The reputation of agencies as the information superhighway of the entertainment industry sure is leveling up.