Our Research Practices
Find out about Foresight Lab's research approach, methods, and the areas we explore
Image: Creative complexity triptych – Jiarong Yu
The Foresight Lab's research is framed through two primary lenses:
- Foresight – looking ahead to advances in converged media production technologies and practice, their potential impacts on screen, games, performance and digital entertainment, and policy interventions to support a thriving ecosystem. Tracking and anticipating developments in technologies, markets, and behaviours in the global societal, political and economic context.
- Insight – tracking the adoption and use of new technologies and the implementation of relevant policies. Measuring and tracking the impacts of these technologies and policies, including environmental, social and economic impacts.
Our methods include:
- Large-scale primary, secondary and commissioned research tracking adoption, use and impacts
- Two-way engagement with industry and policy stakeholders
- Two-way engagement with the four other CoSTAR Labs, including analysis of datasets.
Through these lenses and methods, a range of cross-cutting research areas permeate the Foresight Lab's work:
The Foresight Lab is foregrounding an approach to AI that is creative-led, centred around creative innovation in AI, underpinned by ethics, safety, accessibility and responsibility to audiences. Across the Lab's activity is an array of work exploring the innovations, tensions and future possibilities at the intersection of AI, convergent technology and the Creative Industries. Read more in our blog post.
Policy
The Foresight Lab’s policy team are coordinating with policy and industry stakeholders to develop proposals, responses and engagement to put the creative industries at the forefront of the Government’s AI ambitions. We regularly engage with teams across the UK Government Departments for Business and Trade, Science, Innovation and Technology and Culture, Media & Sport.
With the Foresight Lab's support, the CoSTAR Network has come together to respond to the Industrial Strategy Green Paper, the AI & Copyright consultation, and the House of Lords AI and creative tech committee inquiry. Our response has been cited extensively across the consultation report.
Machine Learning Futures
Our Introduction to Moments report reflects significant research and engagement with experts on our Foresight Board, establishing areas of complexity in the sector, one of which centres around AI and its new potentials and conflicts.
The report establishes future scenarios around machine learning, exploring possibilities in application and ownership . Underlying developments include openness of the developer ecosystem, culture and ethics, entrepreneurship, regulation and changing audience attitudes. These scenarios were shaped by industry insights from our Foresight Board.
International comparator report
International governments and the private sector are simultaneously embracing and investing in the commercial and creative opportunities AI and convergent technologies provide, while also developing legislation to protect and safeguard against current and potential harmful effects AI may cause.
The first international thematic report, delivered by Olsberg·SPI with the CoSTAR Foresight Lab, focuses on this convergence and tension, in terms of policy, funding and legislation. The report will provide examples of international AI policy and regulation in selected jurisdictions and discusses what the UK can learn from overseas to inform its own approaches. The report will be published in May 2025.
AI in the screen sector
While much attention has been given to AI’s broader societal and industrial implications, its application in film production, a sector that supports more than 195,000 jobs in the UK and generates more than £1.36 billion in revenue (DCMS 2024), has surprisingly received limited focus.
Through research, surveys and interviews with executives, creatives and technologists, we explore current engagements with AI, areas of growth and development, and barriers and concerns – including those around skills, transparency, intellectual property, trust and public perception. Building on an in-depth mapping of the present, the report then focuses attention on the AI futures that the screen sector is preparing for, signposting the steps companies and individuals are taking to build positive and productive partnerships between human creatives and machine intelligence. You can read the report here.
The Foresight Lab has developed a publicly accessible, live framework which captures the key stages of film production, from script to screen, to understand the contexts in which AI tools are applied. It has been developed for knowledge sharing and understanding judicious use of technologies in production, given the ethical and legal challenges circulating advanced machine learning applications. It identifies the diverse range of AI tools currently available in the market, analysing their core functions and capabilities. It then explores the input-output modalities and underlying technologies that power these tools. Finally, the framework will investigate how these tools are adopted and applied in real-world scenarios. By systematically addressing these aspects, the research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how AI is reshaping the film industry.
Note: When following the framework link above, the research description may be hidden. To access it place your mouse on the title 'Advanced Machine Learning in Film Production,' and click 'show description'.
Creative Business Panel
Developed by the CoSTAR Foresight Lab and the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, the Creative Business Panel (CBP) is a landmark survey, supported by the UK government, which will collect comprehensive data from creative businesses over five waves between 2025 and 2028.
Amongst the topics covered by the survey, respondents will be asked to discuss their company’s approach to technology and innovation. This will involve respondents reporting on their usage (or planned usage) of digital media production technologies, including generative tools and deep learning applications, along with what barriers they face when it comes to adopting new technologies.
We will also explore the characteristics of those businesses who are (or are not) utilising generative tools by using context derived from the rest of the survey (e.g., their company’s size, region, level of investment in R&D, sustainability practices, etc.). Through this, the CBP will enable us to provide detailed insight into the UK creative sector’s behaviours around technology adoption, helping to inform decision makers who are seeking to support digital innovation in UK companies.