As AI saturates the digital world with synthetic content, consumers will increasingly seek authentic, tangible experiences. This creates a massive opportunity for businesses focused on physical retail, events, and community spaces, representing the other end of the investment barbell from pure tech.
Within five years, viewers will assume most online video is AI-generated, creating profound distrust. This skepticism creates enormous "counter-opportunities" for businesses and creators who can offer provably authentic, tangible, or in-person experiences, which will be valued at a premium.
Instead of competing in saturated digital channels, create a physical distribution network (e.g., a chain of modern drive-in theaters). Then, leverage AI to produce original IP (like kids' films) to show through this captive, analog channel, creating a powerful, integrated flywheel.
While AI lowers the bar for creating high-quality assets like product photography, it doesn't remove the need for resourcefulness. The "scrappiness" that once found a photographer friend now shifts to mastering creative AI prompting or identifying the next analog competitive edge.
Companies should allocate a significant budget (e.g., 20%) to creating organic mid-funnel social content. Content that performs well organically should then receive media dollars for top-of-funnel (brand) and bottom-of-funnel (performance) campaigns, eliminating guesswork and waste.
Creative work often peaks at two distinct moments. The first piece benefits from a lifetime of pent-up ideas and "fresh eyes" unburdened by industry rules. The last piece benefits from a career's worth of synthesized wisdom. The work in between can sometimes be less potent.