JioHotstar Launches ChatGPT-Powered Conversational Streaming Experience in India

For more than a decade, digital entertainment has largely been a one-way street: you browse, you click, you watch. Today, JioHotstar and OpenAI have announced a partnership designed to change that dynamic by introducing a ChatGPT-powered conversational discovery experience at the heart of India’s largest streaming destination.

Built using OpenAI APIs, the new voice and text interface enables users to explore JioHotstar’s vast streaming library through natural language conversations in multiple languages. The feature aims to address the persistent “what to watch” dilemma through Multilingual Cognitive Search, replacing scroll fatigue with more meaningful, human-centric discovery.

Audiences can now discover, engage with, and immerse themselves in their favourite stories simply by speaking across languages, genres and moments. Instead of navigating menus or typing keywords, viewers can express their intent, mood or context conversationally and receive context-aware recommendations in real time.

The ChatGPT-branded voice assistant moves beyond restrictive keyword-based discovery, surfacing recommendations not only for what viewers explicitly request but also for what they may not yet know they are looking for, enabling a richer and more intuitive entertainment experience.

Speaking about the partnership, 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.”

“Traditionally, entertainment is a one-way experience where you passively consume content — AI completely changes that dynamic,” said Fidji Simo, CEO, Applications, OpenAI. “Through our partnership with JioHotstar, we’re bringing personalised AI directly into entertainment and live sports, 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.”

The assistant is designed to interpret cultural nuance, situational context and layered prompts. For instance, users can say, “My parents are visiting, suggest something we can all watch together,” or “We are twins and only watch movies about identical twins,” and receive tailored recommendations.

The experience will also extend to live sports on JioHotstar, enabling conversational discovery of key moments, scores, player highlights and other real-time information.

The rollout will span both live and on-demand formats, beginning with select experiences and expanding in phases.

Beyond the in-app experience, JioHotstar and OpenAI plan to introduce new integrations within ChatGPT itself. Users who search for entertainment recommendations on ChatGPT will receive contextual suggestions and relevant streaming links from JioHotstar’s catalogue, creating a two-way discovery ecosystem.

By integrating advanced AI into streaming at scale, JioHotstar is positioning conversational discovery as the next frontier in digital entertainment.