AI is already disrupting coding, but it might soon come after other professions as well.
Ixigo says it has used AI to create a video ad at 0.1 percent of the cost of a traditional agency. “Hot take: Our best performing AI video ad was the one with a balding middle aged man – incredible to have done it at 0.1% the cost of traditional agency production,” posted Ixigo CEO Aloke Bajpai on X.
The ad shows a man sitting in an airplane showing off Ixigo’s latest offer on his mobile phone. The man recites a poem in Hindi, and has lifelike expressions while doing so. The entire scene, of course, is AI generated. The ad then transitions into graphics which were likely made through traditional editing software. Unless one looked very closely, it’s virtually impossible to tell the man in the plane was made through AI. Bajpai said that the entire ad was developed in-house.
To make an ad like this without an agency was unthinkable until just a few months ago. Had the ad been developed by an agency, they’d have had to either shoot in a real airplane, or create a physical set that mimicked one. They’d have had to hire actors, videographers, lighting experts, sound experts and the like. It would’ve required 10-20 people to come together to make the ad, and it would’ve taken a full day’s shoot to produce. But with AI, the ad can be made through a few simple prompts, and a minimal charge paid to an AI video generation company.
And while AI will undoubtedly impact white-collar roles, AI-generated video ads making it to the real world shows how it can also impact more physical roles as well. Production managers, set designers, and models could see a reduced demand for their services as more and more video generation ends up being done by AI. AI video generation is already making some impressive progress — Google’s Veo3 model, in particular, can create lifelike video clips with audio, speech and correct expressions for a few dollars each. And as AI gets better, it might come after a host of professions that thus far would’ve felt relatively safe from the unrelenting onslaught of AI.