Shirley Frimpong-Manso, one of Ghana’s most respected filmmakers, has painted a vivid picture of an industry gripped by unease.

According to her, the global film world is in “panic mode” as Artificial Intelligence races ahead, already stripping away jobs and rewriting the rules of production.

Appearing on Channel One TV on Friday, October 30, 2026, Frimpong-Manso described how AI is seeping into almost every corner of filmmaking. Scripts once written by teams of writers are increasingly generated by algorithms; music scores that once required composers and musicians are now produced by software; and production design is being transformed by digital tools that can conjure entire worlds from a handful of props.

She put it plainly: “The film industry around the world, I mean everybody, is all in panic mode because it’s already taking a lot of jobs away. I mean, sometimes when you see the films, some of the films that we’re making now, you can clearly see that these are AI-written scripts that you get, and music is also having the same thing.”

The director illustrated how quickly the technology is changing the physical reality of a film set. Modern digital cameras no longer need operators standing behind them, and AI can instantly transform a modest room into a royal palace.

“We have digital operator cameras now, where you don’t have people standing behind you, and then of course, in a space like this, all you need to probably do is to put chairs in there, and you could change the entire backdrop of this place into a palace, all with AI. So these things are happening, and they’re happening very, very fast,” she said.

Rather than counsel despair, Frimpong-Manso issued a practical challenge to her colleagues. Resistance, she argued, is futile; the only sensible response is to master the new tools and retrain crews.

“Now, so what are you going to do? Are you just going to sit back and cry about it? No, you have to learn, you know, what the dynamics are, train, obviously, the crew. Even I’m learning very much how to use these tools to my benefit,” she said.

She also saw opportunity amid the disruption. Stories that once demanded enormous budgets—particularly historical dramas requiring lavish sets and complex visual effects—could now become feasible.

“So typically, I’m guessing with AI now, we can begin to tell perhaps some of our stories from the past that a few years ago, we were not going to be able to, because it was going to cost us an arm and a leg to tell. Now with AI, you know, it’s possible to go back and tell a Yaa Asantewaa film, but done very well. Emphasis on the done very well,” she said.

Frimpong-Manso concluded by noting that the unease felt in film is mirrored across many other sectors. AI, she suggested, is not merely a creative-industry issue but a wider economic and social shift that demands thoughtful adaptation rather than fear.