The smart future for AI video
The number of AI, video realted toys increases by the week. But should they?
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 295
There’s a particular quality to the light just before dawn. It’s soft, tentative—everything is visible but not yet shouting for attention.
That’s where we find ourselves with AI video right now.
The market forecasts are impressive, of course. Nearly USD 1.3 billion in 2026, heading toward USD 3.18 billion by 2032.
A Cannes executive predicts fully AI-generated feature films within five years. I think that time line is too long and that it’s more likely to be 18 months from nwo.
YouTube reports over a million channels already using AI creation tools daily.
But I’ve never been one for the “GROW! EXPAND! GO VIRAL!” chorus. So let’s talk about something else entirely.
The quiet corner
The smart future for AI video isn’t about generating more content faster. It’s about generating less—but with greater conviction, focus, content, and intention.
Deloitte’s 2026 report suggests something interesting: AI’s popularity will fade as industries turn to making it usable at scale, with progress sought from fundamentals rather than new models. The hype cycle then may be is peaking. What comes next is the slow, unglamorous work of integration.
This is where the gardeners among us have an advantage.
While the industry obsesses over diffusion models, transformers, and GANs, the real question remains: what are we actually trying to say? A perfectly generated video about nothing is still nothing. It’s just nothing with better production values.
The transparency imperative
Here’s where it gets genuinely interesting.
February 2026 saw India notify its amended Intermediary Rules, introducing the concept of “synthetically generated information”. The European Commission is working on a code of practice for marking AI-generated content, with obligations becoming applicable in August 2026 .
We’re watching a global consensus emerge: synthetic content must be labelled. Permanently. With metadata that can’t be stripped away.
The smart creators won’t fight this. They’ll embrace it.
Imagine a video that carries its own provenance like a watermark of honesty. Not as a burden, but as a gift to the viewer—an invitation to trust while we’re drowning in algorithmic fakery. Then, transparency becomes its own kind of beauty.
The three-hour window
India’s new rules require takedown of unlawful synthetic content within three hours of notification . Three hours. That’s not just a compliance deadline; it’s a philosophical statement about speed and harm.
The platforms that thrive won’t be the ones with the most sophisticated generation models. They’ll be the ones that can distinguish, at speed, between expression and deception. Between art and exploitation.
Tending the garden
YouTube’s approach offers a clue. CEO Neal Mohan emphasizes that AI should “expand creators’ creativity” rather than replace them, with creators retaining full control over their AI avatars . The technology serves the human. Not the other way around.
This is the distinction that matters.
The smart future for AI video belongs to those who treat it as a pruning tool, not a bulldozer. Who use it to remove the weeds of production friction so that the real work—the seeing, the feeling, the wondering—can flourish.
What the light reveals
We’re about to enter a strange season where we won’t be able to trust our eyes. Video will look real but be entirely synthetic. Voices will sound authentic but never existed.
In that season, the only thing that will matter is relationship. Provenance. The quiet consistency of someone who shows up, again and again, not to perform but to tend.
The smart future for AI video isn’t about better algorithms. It’s about better questions. Who made this? Why? And can I afford to believe them?
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.
Next time on Shaking the Tree: Writing your book with AI
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.