Why the future looking fucked in early 2025 was the best thing that happened to us

The year didn’t begin quietly, it began with a slap.

Across the industry, people whispered the same line with a nervous half-laugh: “If this is the future… we might actually be fucked.”

And honestly, it wasn’t paranoia. The first fully (beta version) AI-generated Porsche commercial by Lazlo Gal dropped, complete with a behind-the-scenes film made without a crew, without a camera, without anything physical at all. No lights, no grips, no weather. Just prompts.

Your job isn’t to fear the future. Your job is to reinvent yourself because of it.

For a surreal moment, it felt like someone had speed-run the apocalypse.

Many in the commercial world suddenly imagined a future without sets, without directors, without the glorious chaos of a real shoot, a world where production becomes “rendering”, where the smell of coffee on set is replaced by the smell of… well, nothing.

But then something beautifully human kicked in: perspective.

Above: Lazlo Gal's AI-generated spec Porsche commercial.

A wise colleague said the one sentence that should be printed on every producer’s fridge: “Your job isn’t to fear the future. Your job is to reinvent yourself because of it.”

And in that moment, a different truth came into focus. AI wasn’t killing creativity. AI was throwing a huge bucket of ice water at it, a wake-up call.

Talking to AI early adopters revealed a twist no one saw coming. The industry’s skeleton, the workflow, the need for real craft, the human touch, wasn’t going anywhere. If anything, AI blew the walls open.

Cheaper tools mean more people making films. More brands creating content. More voices finding a stage.

AI isn’t replacing us. AI is multiplying us.

AI wasn’t killing creativity. AI was throwing a huge bucket of ice water at it.

And here’s the paradox: the more screens fill with synthetic perfection, the more people crave real humans, messy, brilliant, contradictory humans.

Suddenly, panels matter again. Events matter again. Meeting in person feels… revolutionary.

Turns out Madonna was right: the secret to survival is reinvention. She just forgot to add “…and also go to film festivals.”

Directors everywhere are choosing freedom over contracts. They want mobility, independence and global opportunity, not ownership. It’s a new creative migration, a borderless one.

At the same time, AI agencies, real creative ones, not tech bros in hoodies, are emerging as key players. Some of the most exciting are led by women reshaping the visual language of what “AI-made” can be. It’s raw, it’s wild and it isn’t the dystopia we feared. It’s a new palette.

And as productions bounce between locations and LED volumes, one thing becomes clear: the future isn’t on set or in the cloud, it’s both.

Hybrid, holistic, human-centric. A place where values matter: trust, integrity, curiosity, collaboration. The things machines can’t fake, not convincingly anyway.