JioHotstar partners OpenAI to launch ChatGPT-powered conversational streaming in India

JioHotstar has partnered with OpenAI to introduce a ChatGPT-powered voice and text interface, marking a major shift in how Indian audiences discover and experience streaming content.

Billed as a first-of-its-kind innovation in India, the integration replaces traditional keyword search and menu navigation with multilingual, natural-language conversations. The companies say the feature aims to solve the long-standing “what to watch” dilemma through Multilingual Cognitive Search, enabling viewers to explore India’s largest streaming library simply by speaking their intent, mood or context.

For more than a decade, digital entertainment has largely been a one-way experience: browse, click, watch. With this rollout, JioHotstar is positioning streaming as a two-way interaction that interprets nuance, layered prompts and cultural context in real time.


Instead of typing keywords, users can ask conversational queries such as, “My parents are visiting, suggest something we can all watch together,” or “We are twins and only watch films about identical twins.” The AI-powered assistant responds with context-aware recommendations, including options users may not have explicitly searched for, creating a more intuitive and deeply personal discovery experience.

The assistant will also extend to live sport, allowing viewers to conversationally explore key moments, scores, player highlights and contextual insights during matches.

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.”

Echoing the shift from passive consumption to interactive engagement, 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.”

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

Beyond the in-app integration, the companies will also introduce new discovery experiences within ChatGPT itself. Users seeking entertainment recommendations inside ChatGPT will receive contextual suggestions and streaming links from JioHotstar’s catalogue, creating a two-way integration between the platforms.