- Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is still a top collective bargaining issue in the entertainment industry.
- The 2026 WGA, SAG-AFTRA and DGA agreements focus on how AI use will be governed as unions continue to push for protections over AI implementation, workforce impacts, transparency, and preservation of human creative work.
- Employers should expect AI governance and emerging technologies to remain central issues in future bargaining.
- Future Script: How Generative AI Is Changing Collective Bargaining in the Entertainment Industry
Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) emerged as a significant labor relations issue in the entertainment industry during the 2023 bargaining cycle. Since then, advances in AI technology have expanded its potential use in script development, digital replication, synthetic performances, and other content creation activities.
As the 2026 bargaining cycle comes to a close for the above-the-line entertainment industry unions, the resulting agreements confirm that GAI remains a central collective bargaining issue and an ongoing concern for studios and production companies.
From Initial Guardrails to Expanded AI Governance
The 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) agreements established the foundational contractual protections addressing AI-related issues, including digital replicas, consent requirements, and the use of writers’ material in connection with GAI systems.
The 2026 negotiations built on that framework, strengthening and refining existing protections and addressing new concerns created by the rapid evolution of technology.
The agreements highlight several common themes:
- More detailed protections for digital replicas and AI-generated performances;
- Expanded notice and consent requirements;
- Greater attention to GAI training and licensing practices;
- Continued emphasis on preservation of human creative contributions; and
- Additional labor management mechanisms for addressing future AI developments.
These developments show how governance of GAI use has become an established collective bargaining issue.
SAG-AFTRA Continues to Tighten Performer Protections
The 2026 SAG-AFTRA Memorandum of Agreement reaffirms the importance of digital replicas as a core bargaining issue. The agreement includes extensive revisions to provisions governing employment-based digital replicas and independently created digital replicas, as well as related consent, payment, transfer, and security obligations.
Among other things, the agreement addresses:
- Creation and use of digital replicas;
- Consent requirements for certain uses;
- Compensation and residual implications;
- Restrictions on the use of minors’ replicas; and
- Security and transfer restrictions for replica assets.
The agreement also addresses the use of AI-generated synthetic performers. Consistent with the parties’ recognition that human performance remains fundamental to motion picture production, the agreement establishes a bargaining process that applies when a producer seeks to use a synthetic performer in a human role that otherwise would be performed by a human performer.
Together, these provisions illustrate the evolution of AI-related bargaining from establishing baseline AI protections to negotiating more comprehensive rules governing AI use, consent, compensation, and oversight.
WGA Keeps Focus on Training Data Transparency
The WGA’s 2026 agreement approaches GAI from a different perspective, emphasizing transparency, notice, and the ability to monitor how companies use it in development and production.
The WGA agreement preserves and strengthens AI-related provisions requiring:
- Regular labor-management meetings regarding GAI developments;
- Discussions concerning company use and intended use of GAI;
- Written notice to the WGA when literary material is licensed to third parties for purposes of training a public-facing commercially available AI system; and
- Opportunities for discussion regarding such license arrangements and related compensation.
Training data remains a key area of focus. Unions increasingly are paying closer attention to how existing creative works may be used to train GAI models, who controls that use, and whether such uses warrant bargaining, notice, or compensation.
AI Bargaining as Part of Broader Labor Strategy
The latest bargaining cycle suggests that unions are no longer treating AI as a narrow, standalone issue. Instead, AI-related issues are being integrated into broader concerns involving:
- Consent and control;
- Compensation for new uses of creative labor; and
- The transparency needed to enforce contractual rights.
That approach is reflected in both agreements. SAG-AFTRA focused on performer likeness, voice, and synthetic performances, whereas the WGA focused on the use of literary material, training practices, and disclosure obligations.
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) likewise expanded AI-related protections in its 2026 agreement. Building on its 2023 AI side letter, the DGA agreement reinforces directors’ creative authority over AI-generated footage, adds transparency obligations regarding the use of GAI and the licensing of covered work to train commercial GAI systems, and establishes an employer-funded skills enhancement program to help directors adapt to evolving AI technologies. Collectively, the agreements underscore that AI has become a workforce-wide issue affecting multiple segments of the entertainment workforce, not just a single bargaining unit.
What Employers Should Expect
The 2026 agreements demonstrate that AI governance is an established collective bargaining issue in the entertainment industry. As GAI capabilities advance, employers can expect unions to continue pursuing contractual protections related to emerging technologies and their impact on creative work.
Based on these agreements, employers can expect continued union focus on:
- AI implementation and training data practices;
- Transparency regarding AI use and streaming performance;
- Compensation for AI-related uses of performances and creative works;
- Consent and control over digital replicas and other GAI-enabled uses; and
- Preserving bargaining unit work and protecting opportunities for human creative employment.
AI planning has evolved from a technology issue into a broader labor relations, business, and contractual compliance issue. Employers evaluating GAI technologies should consider not only current contractual obligations but also the implications implementation decisions may have for future bargaining.
Please contact your Jackson Lewis attorney for support regarding GAI collective bargaining issues in your workplace.
Focused on employment and labor law since 1958, Jackson Lewis P.C.’s 1,100+ attorneys located in major cities nationwide consistently identify and respond to new ways workplace law intersects business. We help employers develop proactive strategies, strong policies and business-oriented solutions to cultivate high-functioning workforces that are engaged and stable, and share our clients’ goals to emphasize belonging and respect for the contributions of every employee. For more information, visit https://www.jacksonlewis.com.
