JioHotstar rolls out ChatGPT integration to help users decide what to watch

JioStar's JioHotstar, a Reliance Industries-controlled joint venture with Disney, has partnered with Sam Altman-led OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT-powered voice and text capabilities into its streaming platform.

The companies said the collaboration will introduce a multilingual, natural-language interface that replaces traditional keyword search and menu navigation with conversational discovery.

The feature, branded “Multilingual Cognitive Search,” is designed to address what the company described as the long-standing “what to watch” dilemma.

With this rollout, JioHotstar is positioning the viewing experience as a two-way interaction. Instead of typing keywords or scrolling through categories, users can express their mood, context or intent in everyday language and receive context-aware recommendations instantly.

The assistant interprets layered prompts and cultural nuance in real time. For instance, viewers can ask for suggestions based on family situations or specific themes and receive recommendations that may include related titles they had not explicitly searched for.

The company said the ChatGPT-powered assistant moves beyond conventional search by suggesting relevant and adjacent content. The integration will extend to live sports. During matches, users will be able to explore key moments, scores, player highlights and contextual insights through conversational queries.

The rollout will begin with select live and on-demand experiences and expand in phases.

Beyond the in-app interface, the partnership will also extend to ChatGPT itself. Users seeking entertainment recommendations within ChatGPT will receive contextual suggestions and streaming links from JioHotstar’s catalogue, creating a two-way discovery layer between the platforms.

Uday Shankar, Vice Chairman of JioStar, said, “AI marks a transformative shift for the media and entertainment industry. It fundamentally disrupts every aspect of the value chain, from conceptualisation and production to discovery and monetisation. As a tech-native, user-first platform, JioStar is embedding AI at the very core of the user experience. Our partnership with OpenAI will allow viewers to discover, engage with, and even curate content simply using their voice. This is a fundamental reimagining of the entertainment experience; one that anticipates culture and feels deeply personal to every viewer.”

Fidji Simo, CEO, Applications, OpenAI, said, “Traditionally, entertainment is a one-way experience where you passively consume content - AI completely changes that dynamic. Through our partnership with JioHotstar, we’re bringing personalised AI directly into entertainment and live sport, turning every moment into an opportunity for deeper engagement. Viewers can move seamlessly from watching to asking, from curiosity to context, and from exploration to recommendation in ways that feel natural, personal and immediately useful.”

JioHotstar, which has over 450 million average monthly users, is among the largest streaming platforms globally. Its library includes more than 300,000 hours of programming across 19 languages, spanning films, originals, live sports and live events.