Walt Disney Co. is rolling out limited AI-powered search and recommendation features that let users find sports information and streaming content using natural language.
- ESPN’s beta search tool lets users ask sports questions in conversational language and receive AI-powered answers and recommendations.
- Disney+ is testing a discovery experience that surfaces content based on a viewer’s immediate intent instead of watch history alone.
- Disney said insights from the tests will help improve navigation, search results, recommendations and content discovery across its platforms.
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) has begun beta testing artificial intelligence-powered search and discovery features across ESPN and Disney+, as the media giant explores new ways to help users find sports information and streaming content through natural language prompts.
The limited tests are meant to gather user feedback and refine search, recommendations, and content discovery over time.
DIS stock edged 0.12% lower in after-hours trading on Thursday at the time of writing, after closing the regular session up 2.87%.
ESPN Tests AI Search, Disney+ Expands Content Discovery
At ESPN, the company is testing ‘ESPN Search,’ an AI-assisted search tool available to a subset of users in beta. The feature allows fans to ask sports-related questions in natural language and receive answers, statistics, related articles, videos and recommendations sourced from ESPN’s sports content and data ecosystem.
According to Disney, the tool draws on published articles and videos, ESPN Research, sports metadata, internal knowledge repositories and structured sports data systems.
On Disney+, the company is testing an AI-powered discovery feature with a small group of subscribers. The tool allows users to describe what they want to watch through natural language, voice input or suggested prompts. The recommendations are based on their immediate viewing intent rather than relying solely on past viewing history.
Disney Joins Broader AI Push In Streaming
Disney’s latest tests come as streaming platforms increasingly adopt generative AI to improve search and content discovery. Companies including Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon (AMZN) have introduced AI-powered features that let users search for movies and shows using natural language instead of traditional keywords.
Disney said insights gathered during the beta tests will help improve navigation, search results, recommendations, and content discovery across ESPN and Disney+ over time.
DIS Stock: What Stocktwits Retail Sentiment Says
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for DIS improved to ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘bullish’ in the past 24 hours, while message volume was ‘high’ at the time of writing.
DIS stock has lost 7.7% year-to-date.
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