In an AI-saturated market, the bottleneck isn’t going to be making content - it’s getting people to care about the content you are making and choose yours. Generative tools are already flattening the production advantage. Pixar and Disney, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Animation, even smaller studios are experimenting with AI to speed up look-dev, previs and story exploration. The result is a world where “pretty good” animation and endless variations become cheap, fast and everywhere.
That pushes value upstream to IP. The studios that win will be the ones who own (or acquire) worlds with built-in demand, the way Disney leans on Marvel/Star Wars, Illumination compounds Minions/Mario and DreamWorks keeps returning to universes like Shrek or How to Train Your Dragon. Familiar engines reduce risk and, more importantly, reduce decision fatigue for audiences. Data backs that up. In 2024, established IP dominated demand and retention, and adaptations consistently outperformed originals because attention is finite.
So the strategy for the next few years is simple. Buying or partnering around great IP with an existing audience is essential. When there are already lifetimes of content out there, AI doesn’t just add more, it accelerates the flood. In that environment people safeguard their time by defaulting to: (A) what they already know, or (B) what trusted curators recommend. IP functions like a cognitive shortcut, a promise of tone, quality and identity.
AI will be the studio’s microscope for testing formats and iterating faster, but IP is the magnet. The differentiator isn’t who can generate the most, it’s who can build, protect and expand story worlds that audiences will repeatedly choose in the noise.
Douglas McGinness is founder and director of the AI creative studio Animated Company (www.animatedcompany.com). His work has received a D&AD Wooden Pencil award and has screened at the Festival de Cannes. Clients include Apple, Nike, Google, Epic Games, BBC and Paramount.