A salon exploring artificial intelligence's (AI) role in driving innovation in the micro-drama industry was held on Wednesday in Beijing, as part of the 2025 Beijing Culture Forum.

A group of industry professionals gathered at the event to discuss how to better leverage AI technology throughout the entire micro-drama production and distribution process.

Micro-dramas, or duanju, typically feature episodes from 90 seconds to a few minutes long and are presented in a vertical format. With fast-paced, addictive storylines, micro-dramas appeal to today's mobile-first audience, providing bite-sized entertainment and helping alleviate negative emotions such as stress and anxiety, according to the event.

In recent years, China's micro-drama industry has grown tremendously. According to the salon, the industry reached 50.44 billion yuan ($7.04 billion) in 2024. This marks a 34.9 percent year-on-year increase and surpasses the country's film box office revenue.

"Micro-drama users have grown to make up 52 percent of Chinese netizens, which means now people who watch micro-dramas are more than those who order take-outs," Yu Ke, head of content operations at Baidu Baijiahao, a content creation platform, said.

Yu noted that since its launch just a year and a half ago, Baidu's micro-drama division has achieved a nearly 400 percent year-on-year increase in in-app purchases.

Salon guests agreed that AIGC (artificial intelligence-generated content) plays a significant role in contributing to the industry's rapid growth.

One such contributor is OneStory, an AIGC platform created by Changsha-based Chuangyi Tech, that enables micro-drama creators to generate a coherent script and visual storyboards. The tool maintains story and character consistency, and can cut the storyboarding process from several days to just a few minutes.

Yao Shunyu, chief technology officer of Chuangyi Tech, said that the platform has garnered more than 200,000 users and generated more than a million works since its launch about six months ago.

Yao highlighted that AIGC tools can help increase micro-drama production efficiency by three to four times and significantly slash the cost. "The cost of AI-generated micro-dramas can be as low as a tenth of those made in traditional ways," he said.

Salon participants noted that this is especially true when it comes to producing animated micro-dramas — a fast-growing branch within the sector — and sci-fi micro-dramas, which involve a lot of special effects.

Wang Yan, head of the marketing and public relations department of Dianzhong Tech, a Beijing-based company that focuses on digital content for mobile devices, said that AIGC can empower micro-drama marketing by quickly generating hundreds of short promotional videos to target interested audiences on short-video platforms.

The salon also addressed how to overcome the homogeneity that plagues the micro-drama industry — which is often dominated by recurring themes like revenge, time travel, and love affairs — and discussed strategies for promoting home-grown micro-dramas on the international stage.