Technically Creative Newsletter
August 2025
Welcome to the August edition of the Technically Creative newsletter.
Editor's Note from CEO & Founder, Orlando Wood:
The latest thunderclap from MIT proclaims that “95 percent of enterprise AI initiatives fail.” A lovely number – precise, catastrophic, and tailor-made for schadenfreude. It suggests a bonfire of wasted budgets tended by overpaid consultants.
But read beyond the headline – as our Creative Technologist Audrey did last month – and the truth is both less scandalous and more instructive. The number isn’t about failure so much as it is about the meager proportion, roughly five percent, of initiatives that actually produce measurable returns. MIT calls this the GenAI Divide. It’s not a story of doomed technology, but of weak execution.
What distinguishes the few who cross the divide?
- They focus on learning-capable systems. The difference between a useful tool and a novelty act is memory. Systems that adapt and improve over time prosper. Those that forget as quickly as they answer – the intellectual equivalent of a goldfish – do not.
- They integrate AI into workflows. Pilots and proofs-of-concept are the playthings of dilettantes. The serious companies embed AI into the warp and weft of their processes.
- They customize deeply. A bespoke suit may be expensive, but it fits. Off-the-rack software rarely does.
- They partner externally. Here is the point to underline: strategic partnerships are twice as likely to succeed as internal builds. Corporations who believe themselves to be software houses tend to prove otherwise.
- They measure against business outcomes. The only tribunal that matters is the balance sheet. Technical benchmarks and clever demos are for conferences; savings, revenue, and retention are for reality.
The bottom line:
AI is not in question. Execution is. Most organizations rehearse excuses; the few who get it right quietly transform their businesses.
At KoobrikLabs, we prefer to keep company with the latter. Not because it flatters us to be in the minority, but because the minority, in this case, are the only ones worth imitating.
Until next month,
Orlando
AI is moving faster than the guardrails around it.
In the past few weeks alone, we’ve seen stories of unreleased scripts surfacing in the wrong places, concept art appearing in AI datasets, and brand treatments circulating without approval. None of it was malicious – but all of it chipped away at the trust that creative work depends on.
That’s the quiet risk of generative AI. Not just the technology itself, but the speed at which it’s being folded into everyday workflows without oversight. Copy dropped into a chatbot. Voice samples cloned for a rough cut. A draft script run through a summarizer. It all feels minor in the moment, but the consequences accumulate: IP leakage, client mistrust, reputational damage.
The creative industries run on trust. Once that’s compromised, it’s hard to win back. That’s why we’ve been developing CALLM: a creative-first compliance layer designed to help studios, agencies, and production companies bring order to AI use without slowing the work.
I’ll be sharing more about this in a session on Thursday, 25 September at 12:00 PDT: How Creative Teams Are Governing Generative AI. We’ll explore the compliance gaps that matter most, the hidden risks in today’s workflows, and how to put guardrails in place that protect both creativity and credibility.
Join us for the conversation, because governing AI isn’t just a legal necessity; it’s a creative one.
— Orlando
Prompt like a pro: Hollywood’s guide to talking to AI (and keeping it legal)
Audrey Henson came to LA as a writer. Today, as a Creative Technologist, she works with studios to align AI tools with creative intent, legal guardrails, and production realities.
In her latest piece, she tackles one of the industry’s biggest gaps: prompting. With no unified policies, legal teams scrambling, and workflows shifting quarter by quarter, prompting has become the new creative brief. Done well, it protects IP, ensures compliance, and keeps outputs consistent across departments. Done badly, it risks leaks, likeness issues, and brand damage.
TLDR:
- Document every prompt and iteration - your process is your protection
- Never feed protected IP into generative tools
- Treat prompts like creative briefs: clear, intentional, legally aware
- Build AI fluency as a core creative skill, not an afterthought
ChatGPT’s privacy wake-up call
When thousands of private conversations suddenly became searchable on Google, it wasn’t a hack. It was a reminder of how fragile trust is in AI.
Nathaniel Chadwick, KoobrikLabs Chief Data Officer, breaks down why this moment marks a turning point for LLM compliance:
- Why “AI governance debt” is the industry’s next big risk
- How design choices collide with human psychology
- What every creative and enterprise team needs to do now to protect client trust
Why does YouTube dwarf Hollywood by 20,000x?
Doug Shapiro has spent three decades watching media get disrupted, and he's got the scars to prove it. The former Wall Street analyst and author of the upcoming book Infinite Content joins Orlando to break down why the entertainment industry's old playbook is completely dead.
They dive into how digitization killed distribution monopolies, why "creators" have different bargaining power than "creatives," and what happens when infinite content meets finite attention. Doug breaks down Netflix's disruption playbook, why legacy media's last weapon might be trust, and how generative AI could invent entirely new forms of storytelling.
From betting on Adelphia's collapse to predicting media's next wave, it's a conversation about seeing disruption before it hits, and why making movies cheaper isn't the real AI story.
Can AI pass a studio legal test?
Orlando sits down with Bryn Mooser, Oscar-nominated filmmaker and co-founder of MoonValley, to talk about building the world’s first commercially safe, fully licensed AI model for filmmakers. Not another hype-driven tool that promises everything. Not a legal nightmare waiting to happen. Just clean AI that studios can actually use without their lawyers losing sleep.
They dig into how Bryn went from maxing out credit cards to make documentaries to engineering an AI model that could revolutionize film production while keeping artists front and center. It’s about breaking down barriers for new voices, fighting AI-generated “slop,” and why copyright compliance, not flashy features, is the real battleground for Hollywood’s AI future.
From Canon 5Ds to real-time rendering, it’s a conversation about democratizing filmmaking without selling out the filmmakers.
AI agents are the crew you didn’t know you had
Ideas don’t kill momentum. Everything else does. The back-to-back meetings. The sign-offs that crawl. The admin that multiplies when no one’s looking.
That’s where agentic AI sneaks in - less shiny robot, more quiet fixer. It pulls research, nudges approvals, lines up distribution, and keeps the machine running so creatives don’t stall out.
This guide dives into the art of the possible for AI agent use cases across film, TV, advertising, and publishing, and how to spot those friction points in your own workflow where an extra (unseen) collaborator keeps the show moving.
The Messy Middle: Technology trends for creatives 2025
Creativity doesn’t move in straight lines. It moves in fits, starts, and messy transitions - where old systems refuse to die and new ones struggle to break through. That’s the “messy middle.”
In this new blog series, Rachel Duggan (Head of Business Development) tracks the signals shaping creative industries right now: what feels stable, what’s shifting, and what’s just starting to emerge.
The first edition sets the stage for 2025. Inside:
- Why trust is the scarce currency in creative industries
- Why AI adoption is both overhyped and underestimated
- How Horizon 1 (the Now), Horizon 2 (the Transition), and Horizon 3 (the Future) frame the next decade of creative work
- What skills and guardrails creatives actually need to thrive
The point isn’t certainty – it’s making sense of the noise and finding your footing.
From Paris Hilton to the Kardashians: How Jeff Jenkins Built a Reality TV Genre
Orlando sits down with Jeff Jenkins, the producer behind The Simple Life, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, to talk about the instincts that separate reality TV stars from everyone else. Not the scripted drama. Not the manufactured moments. Just the raw ability to be compelling on camera when it matters most.
They dive into how Paris and Nicole created comedy gold, what turned the Kardashians into a billion-dollar brand, and why social media is pushing reality TV back to its unfiltered roots. It's a masterclass in spotting talent, shaping stories without breaking authenticity, and why some people just have "it" — while others don't.
From $200,000 failures to Netflix hits, Jeff breaks down what it really takes to create reality TV that people can't stop watching.
Shadow AI: Creativity's new Wild West
It starts small - a script in ChatGPT, a mock-up in Midjourney - until client IP slips into the wrong hands. Shadow AI is rewriting the rules of trust.
Learn how to shut the side door without shutting down creativity in this article by KoobrikLabs CDO, Nathaniel Chadwick.
Why LA’s creative sector can’t afford to ignore AI compliance
This piece comes from Orlando Wood, CEO at KoobrikLabs. Orlando explores how generative AI is transforming LA’s creative industry – accelerating writing, editing, and campaign work – but also introducing risks around IP, contracts, and client trust.
Studios, agencies, and post-houses are moving faster than regulators, with shadow AI already shaping day-to-day production. In a city where intellectual property is currency, even unintentional overlaps can spark lawsuits, backlash, or reputational damage. The real challenge isn’t the speed of adoption, it’s the lack of structured governance to keep creativity safe.
TL;DR
- Generative AI is accelerating storytelling, editing, and promotion.
- Shadow AI means unsanctioned tools are already embedded in daily work.
- In a city built on IP, even unintentional AI overlaps can trigger lawsuits.
- The challenge isn’t speed - it’s building trust and compliance around it.
Unboxing: YouTube 100k subscribers plaque
We asked our podcast producer, Audrey Henson if she would do us the honor of unboxing our 100k subscriber plaque from YouTube! To everyone who has listened, shared, or joined the dialogue… thank you. What we’ve built together proves that curiosity and imagination are still driving forces in our industry.
Inside Omnicom’s Playbook for Advertising at Scale
Sergio Lopez runs 76 production units across the globe for Omnicom, and he thinks most agencies have it backwards. Instead of treating production as the last step in the creative process, he's putting it at the front of the conversation where brands actually get built.
Orlando and Sergio dig into how the world's largest advertising network is rethinking everything from fragmented supply chains to AI-powered personalization. It's not about making ads faster or cheaper. It's about using production as creative strategy, balancing efficiency with artistic freedom, and why agencies need both "creatives" and "creators" to survive what's coming next.
From consolidating chaos to failing fast, it's a conversation about why the future of advertising isn't just what you make, but how you make it.
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