Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos has set his sights on Prime Video as a showcase for the company’s massive investment in artificial intelligence, pushing the streaming service to undergo a sweeping AI-focused transformation.
According to four people with direct knowledge of the situation, Bezos pressured Prime Video chief Mike Hopkins to completely rethink the platform so that AI features take center stage. The internal effort has been given the code name Lighthouse, and it is designed to put Amazon’s AI technology in front of the more than 200 million people who use Prime Video.
Amazon declined to offer any comment on the matter.
The overhaul is considered a key part of Amazon’s broader push to improve its standing in the AI race, as rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic continue to advance rapidly. Other AI projects at Amazon, including a lengthy effort to make its Alexa voice assistant more conversational, have produced mixed outcomes and the division continues to operate at a loss, according to people familiar with those efforts.
The Lighthouse initiative traces its origins to an internal presentation that Prime Video executives delivered to Bezos last fall — a meeting that reportedly grew tense. Bezos was unhappy that Hopkins’ proposed updates to Prime Video did not place enough emphasis on AI and personalization capabilities, the sources said. That reaction led the Prime Video team to abandon their earlier plans and launch the Lighthouse project.
Amazon has committed roughly $200 billion in capital spending this year, largely tied to AI development. The company has also invested an initial $23 billion combined in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic, with the possibility of investing an additional $40 billion.
The Lighthouse project involves a wide range of new features that use AI to sharpen film and TV recommendations by learning individual viewing preferences and responding to spoken commands, according to one source familiar with the project who requested anonymity. A redesign of the Prime Video home screen is also part of the effort.
While the final design has not been locked in, one option under discussion involves AI-powered tiles that offer pre-loaded viewing suggestions such as “action movies from the 1980s” or “Christmas rom-coms,” three of the sources said. However, another source noted that a current version does not include text-heavy tiles.
The traditional search function would remain in place, and space at the top of the screen would still be reserved for video highlights promoting new releases or live sporting events, including “Thursday Night Football” — the weekly NFL game broadcast exclusively on Amazon.
Amazon has already begun testing versions of the new design with a small group of users, one source said. The plans remain subject to change based on early tester feedback or financial and other considerations.
Industry analyst Michael Goodman, director of entertainment research for Parks Associates, noted that Prime Video — like other streaming platforms — currently relies on paid placements from studios and software algorithms to determine what appears on the home screen. Any shift toward greater AI-driven personalization could disrupt that arrangement.
“The real estate on the home screen is very valuable to studios, so it would be a big change to take away any of that coveted space,” Goodman said.
Bezos has remained personally involved in the Prime Video overhaul, receiving periodic updates on its progress, the sources said. His hands-on role is notable given that he stepped away from most day-to-day Amazon operations after giving up the CEO title in 2021. He also owns the Washington Post and founded both the spaceflight company Blue Origin and AI startup Prometheus, which has been reported to be valued at around $41 billion.
Prime Video is among Amazon’s most recognized brands and is available in markets where Amazon has little or no e-commerce presence. It is also the most-used benefit included in the Prime subscription, surpassing even free shipping.
As part of Lighthouse, Amazon has discussed weaving the Alexa voice assistant into Prime Video’s search capabilities. Amazon released an updated generative AI version of Alexa in early 2025 and integrated it into its main shopping website in May 2026.
Kam Keshmiri, the global head of Prime Video design, was present at the meeting with Bezos and is now leading the Lighthouse redesign effort, the sources said.
In the United States, Prime Video ranks as the fourth most-watched streaming service. According to April data from Nielsen, Prime Video holds a 4.2% share of U.S. television viewing, well behind YouTube at 13.4%, Netflix at 7.8%, and Walt Disney’s Disney+ at 5%.
Amazon made history as the first streaming service to win an Academy Award in a major category. In 2022, the company deepened its entertainment ambitions by acquiring MGM for $8.5 billion, gaining access to major franchises including James Bond.
The service underwent a notable redesign in July 2024 aimed at helping users more easily identify which content is free versus what requires an additional fee, such as subscriptions to Paramount+ or individual rental charges for certain titles. Amazon’s broader goal is to make Prime Video the central hub for users’ paid streaming subscriptions.
