India – 13 July 2026 – According to a new study by Gracenote, the content intelligence business unit of Nielsen, nearly one in five entertainment titles analyzed featured entirely fabricated metadata when generated by AI models without access to trusted entertainment data, highlighting the growing importance of grounding AI for accurate content discovery.

The report, Plot Holes in AI: Why Ungrounded LLMs Can’t Fix Content Discovery, evaluated 2,600 movies and TV titles across 13 global markets, comparing responses from an ungrounded large language model (LLM) with a grounded model connected to Gracenote’s trusted entertainment metadata.

Key findings from the study include:

• Nearly one in five titles (506 out of 2,600) contained entirely fabricated metadata generated by the ungrounded AI model.
• Less than one-third of responses generated by the ungrounded model were classified as high quality.
• 77%–91% of responses across markets fell into zero-, low- or medium-quality categories.
• Ungrounded AI models frequently struggled with newly released content, often failing to recognize recent movies and television shows because of knowledge cut-offs.
• AI models also confused titles with similar names, producing inaccurate combinations of plots, cast members and genres from different movies and TV shows.
• Hallucination rates were generally higher in markets where non-English content is less represented in AI training data, highlighting the importance of grounding AI models with trusted and localized entertainment metadata.

The findings are particularly relevant for India’s rapidly evolving streaming ecosystem, where audiences consume content across multiple languages and platforms. As media companies increasingly explore AI-powered search, recommendations and conversational content discovery, ensuring AI models are grounded in trusted, comprehensive and continuously updated entertainment metadata will be critical to delivering accurate and engaging viewer experiences.

“As AI becomes central to how audiences discover and engage with entertainment, the quality of the underlying data is becoming just as important as the intelligence of the model itself. Our research demonstrates that AI models grounded in trusted entertainment metadata deliver significantly more accurate and reliable content discovery experiences, helping streaming platforms build consumer trust while improving engagement,” according to Phanimohan Kalagara, Global CTO Gracenote.

The study also reinforces the growing business importance of content discovery. According to Gracenote consumer research:

• 64% of streaming viewers say they know what they want to watch when they turn on their TV.
• 84% say the overall user experience of a streaming service is important.
• 66% believe AI will play an important role in delivering better entertainment experiences in the future.

As streaming catalogs continue to expand and audiences navigate an increasingly fragmented entertainment landscape, the report concludes that trusted, real-time entertainment metadata will be essential to helping AI deliver accurate, personalized and engaging viewing experiences.

About Gracenote

Gracenote is the content intelligence business unit of Nielsen. We standardize the way the global media and entertainment ecosystem indexes content and associated metadata, allowing it to flow between creators, distributors, platforms and advertisers. By providing unmatched depth across 50M+ titles and 80K+ channels and catalogs, we power the modern search, discovery and navigation experiences that connect people to the TV, movies, music and sports they love-in 70+ languages across 80+ countries. For more information, visit Gracenote.com or follow us on LinkedIn.