There’s been no shortage of Hollywood A.I. headlines: Scarlett Johansson’s voice cloned without permission. Studios scrambling to secure their content before it gets scraped by the next foundation model. Celebrities’ likenesses appearing in deepfake videos that spread like wildfire across social platforms. But if you think these challenges are Hollywood’s problems, you’re dangerously mistaken.
The entertainment industry’s A.I. battles are the canary in the coal mine for every business leader who thinks their company operates outside the content economy. Spoiler alert: you don’t. Every company is now both a content company and an IP business. Every CEO is now a media brand. And the same forces reshaping Hollywood are already targeting your boardroom, your proprietary data and your quarterly results. Now it’s up to you to both avoid the landmines and find the goldmines in the new age of A.I.
Everyone’s IP is up for grabs
Consider this: if Google can train Veo3 on movie trailers and OpenAI can crib from leading publishers, what’s stopping powerful A.I. models from ingesting your company’s outcomes, business journals, proprietary research and executives’ name, image and likeness (NIL)? A lot less than you would hope.
Right now, we’re witnessing an unprecedented extraction of IP on a global scale. While most people accept that foreign A.I. firms like DeepSeek could strip-mine creative content to fuel their models, domestic competitors and A.I. companies are already eyeing the valuable data exhaust your business generates daily. Your executive calls, product documentation, customer interactions and strategic communications aren’t just internal assets anymore—they’re training data.
Just look at the financial industry. Fraudsters have made headlines for using A.I. technology to impersonate leading executives and extract large payments. More broadly, Jamie Dimon’s quarterly earnings calls, JPMorgan’s research reports and internal risk assessments represent exactly the kind of high-value, domain-specific content that specialized A.I. models crave. These aren’t just corporate communications, but when in the aggregate, they’re competitive intelligence worth billions. When an A.I. model can analyze and synthesize decades of your strategic thinking, what’s your moat?
Beyond the C-Suite: the hidden vulnerabilities
The risks extend far beyond public executive communications. Pharmaceutical companies are sitting on clinical trial data, regulatory submissions and research methodologies that are potential gold mines for these models. Consumer goods companies have customer insights, market research and brand strategies that competitors would pay millions to access. SaaS companies have usage patterns, customer success playbooks and product development roadmaps that reveal their entire competitive strategy. Yet so many companies don’t recognize that their lucrative data is already being harvested.
While A.I. discussions are hard to avoid in Hollywood, plenty of industries are sleepwalking into an IP crisis. They’re treating A.I. as a productivity tool while their most valuable assets get scraped, trained on and redistributed without their knowledge or consent. It’s not just entertainment—it’s every industry.
Playing defense: securing your data footprint
Every CEO needs an immediate A.I. defense strategy that goes beyond basic cybersecurity. This means conducting a comprehensive audit of your data footprint—not just what you store, but what you share, publish and inadvertently expose. Your investor presentations, patent filings, conference talks and even job postings are all fair game for A.I. training.
Consider your extended digital presence, too. When you partner with influencers or creators, you’re not just sharing your brand, you’re potentially feeding A.I. systems. YouTube’s terms of service, for example, allow the platform to use content from influencer videos featuring your products or executives for A.I. training purposes (a policy updated in December 2024 to give creators and rights holders the option to opt in or out of allowing third-party companies to use their videos for model training).
Start with NIL protection for your executives. If Scarlett Johansson’s voice can be cloned, so can your CEO’s. Implement content authentication protocols for all external communications. Extend these protocols to influencer partnerships by establishing clear contractual terms about data usage and A.I. training rights. Establish clear data governance policies that specify how your information can and cannot be used for A.I. training.
Most importantly, don’t rely on legal contracts or new legislation to save the day. The technology exists to monitor and enforce your data usage policies—you just need to deploy it.
Playing offense: monetizing your data assets
But defense alone isn’t enough. The companies that will thrive in the A.I. era are those that recognize the offensive opportunity hiding in their data exhaust. Your customer service transcripts could train industry-specific A.I. assistants. Your decades of market research could power business intelligence models. Your executive insights could become licensed content for leadership development platforms.
The key is establishing licensing frameworks before someone else decides your data’s value for you. Just as Hollywood studios are now demanding better terms from A.I. companies, every business should explore how to monetize its accumulated data and expertise.
This isn’t just about protecting what you have—it’s about recognizing what you’ve been giving away for free. How many firms could launch A.I.-powered advisory services based on your historical client case studies? How many manufacturers could license their process optimization data to train industrial A.I. systems?
The shifting regulatory landscape
The policy landscape is constantly shifting. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who wants the U.K. to become an A.I. superpower, has proposed relaxing copyright laws to allow A.I. developers to train their models. A slew of laws will hopefully help hold criminals and negligent platforms accountable for fostering deepfakes. But scattered macro-level protections won’t help if you haven’t secured your own house first.
Companies must proactively fight for favorable licensing terms and protection protocols before the window closes. Once the next generation of A.I. models is trained on your unprotected data, critical leverage is lost.
The new reality
The harsh truth is that every business leader must now think like a media executive. Your company’s content, data and IP are valuable assets that require active management and monetization strategies. Your executives’ expertise and insights are media properties that need protection and strategic deployment.
This isn’t a choice—it’s the new reality of doing business in an A.I.-powered economy. The companies that recognize this early and build appropriate defenses and licensing strategies will maintain their optionality and competitive advantages. Those that don’t will find their most valuable assets powering their competitors’ A.I. systems.
Hollywood’s A.I. battle is your battle because the forces reshaping entertainment are reshaping everything. The question isn’t whether A.I. will transform your industry—it’s whether you’ll control that transformation or become its victim.
Dan Neely, CEO of Vermillio, was named to the TIME 100 list of the most influential people in AI.