Comscore's Q1 2026 AI Intelligence Report puts a number on something streaming may be completely unaware of.
AI assistant tools are now the primary search tool for 36% of U.S. desktop users. ChatGPT logged 244 million desktop conversations in March alone — up 55% year over year. Mobile AI assistant usage grew 66% in the same period.
That's where discovery happens now.
And streaming — especially free streaming — is largely missing.
Reelgood tested 100 titles across the two dominant AI assistants in March 2026. ChatGPT returned correct "where to watch" answers 43.76% of the time. Claude hit 50.21%. The errors aren't random. FAST and AVOD services are being systematically omitted. Tubi, Pluto TV, Kanopy — correct answers that AI doesn't return.
Comscore confirmed the structural gap. In entertainment AI overview citations, Netflix only shows up in 2% of those AI-generated summaries. No FAST service appeared in the top 20.
FAST runs on reach. If AI routes a viewer to the wrong answer — or no answer — the opportunity to deliver an impression never happens. Content spend doesn't fix that. Neither does performance marketing. This is an infrastructure problem sitting above everything operators currently control.
The 25-34 cohort is the fastest-growing AI assistant user segment — and the core FAST demographic
AI overviews now appear alongside 33.6% of Google searches — up from 23.4% a year ago
Nobody owns this problem in the streaming ecosystem
Audit immediately — run your top titles through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Know what AI says about your content before your audience finds out
Treat metadata as distribution infrastructure vs. a data ops. afterthought
Loop advertisers in — they have skin in this game too (best before they read this)
The new home screen has your audience looking for your content.
Do you know how you show up?