The AI Bubble Is Real (and That’s a Good Thing)
And what does it mean for brand-building? + My first short film with Marcel.
🫧 We’re in a bubble.
Everyone knows it.
A recent Bank of America survey found that 54% of fund managers believe AI stocks are already in bubble territory.
Yale School of Management called it “a perfect storm of hype, capital, and concentrated power.”
MIT published a report showing that 95% of corporate GenAI pilots are failing to deliver real, measurable value.
Even Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was asked at TED whether we’re in a bubble. His answer was the most nuanced take I’ve heard:
“Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes.” — Sam Altman, TED 2025 (36:15)
Wired called it “the bubble to burst them all.”
But this isn’t just a financial bubble.
It’s a creative one too.
We’ve all been seduced by the spectacle of generative AI — mistaking the glow of the tech for the power of imagination itself.
The dream of automated content, the dream of one-shot ads, the dream of hassle free brand marketing.
I’m not a financial expert, I don’t have equity, but I do wonder: what happens to Marcel? And to this wonderful world of generative branding I’m talking about?
What this means for generative branding
There are a few realities brand builders should focus on right now.
🤑 Compute Cost Will Go Up
The honeymoon is ending.
Running models is expensive. Power, chips, and cloud space are becoming scarce.
When the bubble pops, AI platforms will stop offering compute at a loss to attract users. They’ll have to charge real prices.
Fun fact: OpenAI is reportedly burning around 15 million dollars a day on free Sora generations. That ship has to sink at some point.
For brands, that means discipline and smarter workflows.
You’ll need to be smarter with how you create if you want to leverage the power of Gen-AI without breaking the bank. Because the reality is, if it’s not cheaper then traditional technologies, changes are slim that a lot of brands will invest in it.
But how?
Reuse assets: You need a solid asset management system. Personally, I use Scenario for 99% of my content generation. I can filter by prompts, colors, models, and scenes. Every time I start a new project, I first check if I already made something similar. Half the time, I don’t even need to generate from scratch.
Smart asset management in Scenario
Node-based workflows: Node-based editing is the big leap here. It’s starting to show up everywhere — from Krea to Adobe to Pletor (soon inside Scenario too). It allows you to streamline, visualize, automate big parts of your Gen-AI content generation. Sometimes it’s really hard to see what you are doing if you’re just hitting ‘generate’ every other second, node based changes that.
Cost-efficient models: Most of my work happens inside Seedream 4 (image editing) and Seedance Pro (animation). They’re not the newest or flashiest, but they’re super robust and affordable. I still play with new models for fun, but when it’s time to produce, I stick to my mature stack. Find what works for your use-case and build depth.
Plan ahead: Generative AI lets you jump between pre and post-production faster than ever, but planning still matters. I now spend more time storyboarding than rendering. My ratio flipped from 30/70 to 70/30 — more thinking, less brute-forcing. A strong storyboard saves compute and headaches.
Reduce dependency: Don’t place all your bets on one player. Many models can already run locally through Comfy UI, giving you full control even if the ecosystem shakes. I’m not going fully off-grid, but I’m hedging with smaller, reliable tools and teams that don’t depend on hype cycles (looking at you, Sora) like Scenario. They offer a variety of models so when sh*t hits the fan, you have options.
It’s time to stop seeing content generation as “free” and start treating it like footage: something you plan, shoot, and manage.
🐢 Innovation Is Slowing, But Creativity Isn’t
The difference between version 3 and 3.1 is smaller than it sounds. We’ve seen it with recent model releases:
Kling 2.5 is slightly better than 2.1
Veo 3.1 is slightly better than 3
Seedance Pro and Seedance Fast
Hailou 2.3 is… slightly better
And just look at the last weeks, AI companies are all looking to introduce exciting new things, but basically just copying each other.
It’s not going exponential, it’s ‘incremental’. The wild phase of innovation is slowing down.
We’re getting faster tools and shinier features, but fewer true breakthroughs. The dust is settling. The real creative stacks are forming.
Once the tools stabilize, the frontier shifts from chasing new models every week to mastering the ones that matter.
We’re seeing big brands bet on Gen-AI, from Google to Samsung to Coca-Cola (btw, despite all the online ‘hate’, it got a 5.9 on System 1 scoring). If you want to find more brands building with AI today, check out my latest article below.
![[Classified] Buckle Up Briefing #8: 5 brands making real ads with AI today.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!EN2W!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5ed6a2bc-605c-4349-9ee1-47d49e42d79e_2752x1536.png)
This is the time to define your creative stack — especially if you’re part of a larger team.
Having clear systems for how and where to use AI will bring massive efficiency gains.
In the first phase, everyone was just doing stuff. That’s fine. But that chaos creates lot’s of waste. Maturing your workflow and getting everyone on board can create massive gains.
🧠 Human imagination is the key
Generative AI isn’t replacing creatives anytime soon.
It’s making them more equiped.
The opportunity now is to do more with less — to take creative swings that used to be unaffordable.
The brands that win will use these tools not to flood the internet with sameness,but to express something human.
Yes, I couldn’t have created Marcel without generative AI.
Marcel came from the collision between technology and the randomness inside my head. That’s where creativity happens — not in the model, but in the mind using it.
Btw, if you want to find out exactly how I created Marcel, check out the article below.
![[Classified] The Buckle Up Briefing #1 - Bring your brand to life.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!aydU!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F553dec3b-af1c-439c-9c8e-d0e47eb6b7d8_1392x752.jpeg)
🪡 After the pop
When the bubble bursts, or fizzles, or slowly fades away, what will hopefully remain is not just a new set of tools, but a new mindset. Creativity isn’t locked up anymore. Anyone can tell stories, make movies, create characters, and build worlds.
Generative AI will evolve, shrink, maybe even fragment. But that’s fine.
I’m not waiting for the next model drop.
I’m building smarter, more frugal, more human systems today — with tools that will survive the hype.
That’s hard to take away.
Marcel’s return from the pop isn’t just a happy ending.
It’s a reminder.
The creative spirit doesn’t die when the bubble pops. The creative spirit is within us.
Sorry, I got carried away there.
Want to build your brand universe?
I help companies create distinctive brand universes and characters using Gen-AI. The kind that is actually used (not stuck in a Figma file somewhere). If you’re exploring this for your brand, book a 20-min call or check out some examples here.
And of course, you can subscribe to the newsletter to learn how to build a strong brand powered by Gen-AI.