Streaming giant Netflix is preparing for a new advertising era — as early as 2026, the platform will launch interactive ads created using generative artificial intelligence. The advertising formats will appear during pauses and directly in the middle of watching content.
Streaming giant Netflix is preparing for a new advertising era — as early as 2026, the platform will launch interactive ads created using generative artificial intelligence. The advertising formats will appear during pauses and directly in the middle of watching content.
Netflix unveiled its plans at its annual presentation for advertisers — the company is preparing new ad formats that integrate generative AI. According to Ars Technica, these are two types of ads: interactive mid-roll ads and pause ads, which will begin appearing in 2026.
Interactive AI ads should personalize the ad experience, engaging the viewer as much as the series or movie itself. «Viewers pay as much attention to ads in the middle of a show as they do to the content itself,» said Amy Reinhard, president of advertising at Netflix.
Netflix began testing pause ads back in July 2024, and launched its own advertising platform in the US in April 2025. It was previously operating in Canada, and plans to scale it globally by June.
The ad-supported plan currently has 94 million users — nearly a third of Netflix’s 300 million subscribers. The company says half of new customers choose the ad-supported plan, which costs $8 per month, while the ad-free plan starts at $18.
According to Netflix’s internal statistics, ad-supported users spend an average of 41 hours per month on the platform. The company plans to double its advertising revenue by 2025, and the pace of development in this direction will only accelerate.
Netflix is not the only player betting on new advertising formats. Amazon has already announced the launch of contextual ads during pause and interactive advertising in Prime Video. And LG is integrating advertising into smart TVs based on the analysis of the viewer’s emotions.
We recently wrote about how Netflix is testing a new search feature that lets you phrase your queries like a conversation — without exact titles or genres. It’s powered by generative AI.
