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Have you seen the new Volvo ad made with generative artificial intelligence? Go ahead. Watch it. . . . Ill wait. If you think it looks awful, youre not alone. The physics are all wrong, with hair, sand, and objects going in the wrong direction at the wrong time. The humans look like theyre made of plastic. Their emotions are forced, their expressions deformed, their smiles anything but warm. Instead, they likely fill you with an uncanny Grand Canyon of dread. The lighting is artificial, toono film, digital camera, or grading would produce that unnatural palette. Some people are saying that Volvo made a mistake by not putting a car in the ad, obviously not realizing that currently theres no video generator that can reliably re-create objects. Had the ads creators tried to produce a Volvo, theyd have ended up with a car with morphing proportions and features that change from shot to shot. The ad was made with Midjourney, which is pretty bad, but Sora, Kling, or Luma would have screwed it up too. And while apparently it is fine to create uncanny humans for promotional purposes, Im pretty sure that the Swedish car company wouldnt have accepted a Frankenvolvo.[Image: Volvo Cars KSA]According to Adweek, who spoke to Lion, the Dubai-based creative agency behind the spot, the ad is an effort to reintroduce Volvo to Saudi Arabia after years of pulling back on business in the region. Lions founder and executive creative director, Osama Saddiq, told the publication: The ad is a mélange of technically accurate and culturally resonant renders for Saudi Arabia. AI today is rarely humanizedmost executions are tactical, with little focus on brand storytelling. Our approach was different. We started by crafting a narrative that strategically aligned with Volvos comeback in the region.The issue, of course, is that nothing in the ad feels human, mammalian, or even protozoan. [Image: Volvo Cars KSA]According to Lion, using AI reduced production timelines from months to weeks. That might be enough to sell a business on the technology. And sure, theres a place for AI in current production, but generating entire ads is not itat least not yet. Weve seen this exact issue time and time again with brands that use technology for technologys sake. From Coca-Cola to Toys R Us, brands that use emerging technology as a shorthand for creative innovation usually come to regret it.[Image: Volvo Cars KSA]Im sure some people will protest this ad for its ethical considerations; because they dont like the idea of AI putting people in the creative and film industries out of a job. Thats a real concern. But the reason this ad shouldnt exist is simpler than that: It just looks bad. So heres a piece of advice for ad creators out there: Its time to forget about AI for a few years. Come back to it when its ready, and when you have a good idea for how to actually use it.
Category:
E-Commerce
How are the worlds most creative people using AI to drive their work forward? This was the question at the heart of an in-depth survey Fast Company recently conducted in partnership with Whalar, a leading social agency focused on content creators. We found that, for most, AI has become a routine part of the creative processand a return to an AI-free working life has become almost unfathomable. Yet the survey also found the worlds creative elite are grappling with a technology that gets more powerful and useful every day but remains unwieldy, error-prone, and not entirely trustworthy. I want people to understand how well it can augment and enhance the thinking processnot just the creative and generative thinking process, but the thinking process itself, said one respondent. If AI is used responsibly, it’s a wonderful collaborative partner and needn’t be feared. We sent the detailed (anonymous) survey to a diverse cohort of people who have been honored in Fast Companys Most Creative People in Business list over the years, plus a selection of independent content creators, and got 100 responses. The result offers a close look at how the worlds leading creatives are using this revolutionary technology to shape the future of their industries and the wider world. “The internet first revolutionized the playing field by democratizing publishing and audience access, says Neil Waller, co-CEO of the Whalar Group. Now, AI is creating the next massive rebalancing, this time in creative production capability. What excites me most is watching creators, who are inherently nimble and unburdened by legacy systems, adopt AI tools with remarkable speed. EARLY AND ENTHUSIASTIC ADOPTERS First, here are some key stats on the respondents: Forty-seven percent of those who responded were founders, partners, or principals of their companies, and 65% were 10 C-suite or higher. The top industries were tech (22%), design (16%), and entertainment (14%), and substantial numbers came from healthcare, science and research, and the nonprofit sector. The size of their organizations ranged from global behemoths to solo creators. Twenty-two percent of respondents booked more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024. Twenty percent did less than $1 million. Unsurprisingly, these folks are not new to AI, for the most part. More than a third (39%) have been aware of AI usage in their industry for more than five years, and 19% began using it themselves that long ago. Another third (30%) began using the technology two to three years ago, a timeframe that aligns with the arrival of ChatGPT in November 2022. “Eighty-three percent have incorporated AI into their creative process, and nearly half (48%) rely on it for most or all of their projects. I absolutely use it every single dayprobably five times a day or more, says Joel Bervell, a med-school student and popular influencer known on TikTok and Instagram as the Medical Mythbuster. Text-based software still dominates usage. Three quarters (74%) of the respondents use AI primarily to generate or manipulate words, with only 26% saying they mainly use it for still images or video. Whenever I use AI for writing, I make sure to make it my own, says Amy Merrill, an artist, musician, web designer, and founder of Plan C Pills, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving abortion access nationwide. But sometimes my tired and overstretched brain needs help synthesizing, and I’m grateful for the tool to be able to take a heady, complex question or issue and compress it into a more or less understandable response that I can adapt, correct, personalize, and use. Sometimes it feels like it saves me time in the clumsy human part, while allowing me to preserve the thought leadership part. WHICH TOOLS ARE MOST POPULAR? OpenAIs ChatGPT continues to dominate the LLM market, with 69% citing it as their go-to app, followed by Googles Gemini (28%), Anthropics Claude (19%), and Microsofts Copilot (18%). Google leads in AI search, but its far less dominant than in traditional search. While well over half of respondents (57%) say they primarily use Googles AI summaries, 14% cited Perplexity and 7% Microsofts Bing. Twenty-eight percent said they dont use AI search at all. (For those tallying up the numbers, respondents could select more than one answer.) On the image side, Midjourney came out on top at 28%, followed by Adobe Firefly at 19% and OpenAIs DALL-E at 16%. We use Midjourney to create posters for our shows, says Plan C Pills Merrill. We love the experience of prompting and feeding in inspiration, and in return getting something we never would’ve thought of. Fashion designer Arturo Obegero recently collaborated with an artist to create an ad campaign featuring real models against an AI-generated backdrop. We never would have been able to afford that shoot [IRL], he says. In that vein, notes Waller of Whalar, a creator with passion, vision, and an AI tool kit can now produce content that previously required a 20-person team and a seven-figure budget. Although AI generally saves time and money, its not always smooth sailing. While the AI tools helped generate images quickly, it can be a real struggle to get results that meet our standards, said one respondent, articulating a theme that came up repeatedly in the anonymous responses. We have spent many hours sifting through hundreds of generated images that more or less looked similar. Its [often not] until we manually create more specific visual inputs such as sketches or quick 3D models/ screenshots that were able to direct the images to be more specific and distinctive and reflect our aesthetics and design principles. Despite AIs growing role in image creation, video tools have yet to see widespread adoption outside industries that rely on them, with 76% of respondents saying they dont use them at all. Of those who do, Adobe Premiere Pro was the most popular application (15%), followed by Runway (5%), and Synthesia (3%). Among respondents who use AI to help write code, ChatGPT was most popular at 25%, Github Coplit was second at 10%, and Claude third at 8%. WHERE AI IS HELPING THE MOST (AND THE LEAST) We asked respondents how AI is affecting their creative work and overall business. A plurality of respondents praised production speed (44% very positive) and idea generation (35%), with marketing/promotion (25%) and revenue generation (25%) tying for third. Production speed and idea generation go hand in hand. Many respondents noted that AI allows them to focus on creative ideation by automating tedious tasks and enabling rapid iteration without the need for physical prototypes. This dual transformationamplifying creative potential while streamlining business operationsis why AI represents such a profound accelerator for the creator economy, says Waller. When harnessed the right way, it’s not replacing the creator’s voice. It’s supercharging it, and unlocking the next chapter of growth.” On the flip side, there were grave and consistent concerns about consumer trust. My greatest fear is not about creativity, said one respondent. My greatest fear is that we are entering a dystopian era when people will lose trust in what they see and hear. I now doub every video I see on the internet, said another. Everything is no longer a wow video since it could possibly be AI. We also asked for respondents views on how AI will affect the job market in their industries. Surprisingly, 39% said it would have neither a positive or a negative impact on job creation, and 34% said it would have a somewhat positive or very positive impact. Only 28% predicted the impact would be somewhat negative or very negative impact. But when asked to predict how many jobs in their industry would be replaced by AI, 42% replied that about a fifth of all jobs would be lost to machines. THE PARADOX OF AI That apparent contradiction reflects a macro theme that infused the survey results in a variety of ways: a sense that we are living through a technological shift that is existentially game-changing but ultimately still nascent. Think of it like a young and immensely talented athlete: The potential is indisputable and crystal clear, but the coordination and mastery just arent there yet. It fails all the time in code, but I just test and ask for revisions, said one respondent. I used it to help prep me for a business meeting, said another. The client company had just emerged from Chapter 11, and ChatGPT didn’t think to mention that little fact. Overall, though, most respondents took the rise of AI as an inevitable and ultimately positive thing that nevertheless requires human will to control. Are you gonna let AI take over you, asks Joel Bervell, the Medical Mythbuster, or are you gonna let it enhance your work? In that spirit of optimism, well close with the most utopian anonymous comment in the entire survey: I truly believe we are unlocking new insights into information, understanding, creativity and human potential, including our growing ability to understand the ecosystem we live in and the vast potential to coexist with each other and everything else in it. Let’s do this!!
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E-Commerce
Shop around for a new car and youll come across an array of acronyms. Theres BEVs (battery electric vehicles), HEVs (hybrid electric vehicles), PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles), and of course that’s all in contrast to ICE (internal combustion engine) cars. Soon, American shoppers could see another option on dealership floors: EREVs, or extended-range electric vehicles. EREVs are like a cross between a gas car and an electric vehicle, but different from a hybrid. The technology has been around for years and has seen success in China. Now, automakers across Europe and the United States are showing interest in the technology, hoping it can help more people transition away from gas carsas long as it doesnt cause more customer confusion. EREV vs hybrids An extended-range electric vehicle has an electric motor that uses energy from a battery. But it also has an internal combustion engine that kicks in to generate electricity when the battery loses its charge. EREVs can be plugged into any EV chargereven fast chargers, which take between 20 minutes to an hour to get an EV battery to 80%. Thats different from hybrids in a few ways. Hybrid cars also have a gas engine and an electric motor, but the gas engine directly powers the wheels when driving at higher speeds. HEVs also rely on regenerative braking to recharge the battery, and are never plugged in to charge. Plug-in hybrids have a bigger battery and, as their name says, can be plugged in to chargebut most arent compatible with fast chargers, and tend to charge more slowly. The Mazda EZ-6 [Photo: Mazda] EREVs then are even more of a middle ground between an electric vehicle and a gas car. The technology can extend a cars range, alleviating that range anxiety that still plagues consumers. The Mazda EZ-6, an EREV currently available in China, boasts a total range of more than 800 miles with both its battery and gas engine, for example. But because they dont solely rely on EV charging, they can also ease charging stress, especially in places that still dont have enough EV chargers. EREVS arent newbut do consumers want them? EREVs have been available in China for years, and sales there have been picking up speed. EV sales are strong in China in generalChinese brands account for more than three-quarters of global EV salesand technological advancements have made EVs there ultra affordable. EREV sales more than doubled in China over the prior year, Bloomberg reported in August 2024, accounting for 30% of the countrys plug-in hybrid sales. But EREVs aren’t even that new to the U.S., says Patrick Hertzke, a partner at McKinsey & Company who focuses on the EV and automotive sector. The technology was in GMs Chevy Volt and the Cadillac ELR, though production on those vehicles ended in February 2019 and February 2016, respectively. (The Cadillac ELR saw low sales of just over 3,000 units.) A Chevy Volt [Photo: jetcityimage/Getty Images] No EREVs are currently for sale statesidebut the concept is coming back. Ram has an EREV model in the works, as does Scout Motors, and Ford has hinted at looking into the tech. EREVs are still months or years away for U.S. customers, but the technology is taking hold as automakers look to amid concerns of charging stress and range anxiety, while also capitalizing on lower battery prices. You have an ability to find this different blend that could be interesting to some consumers, Hertzke says. McKinsey surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. drivers about EREVs, and whether theyd be likely to choose one, in late 2024. First, the survey asked what vehicle drivers would be interested in buying next, without listing EREVs as an option. To that, 44% of respondents said theyd pick a gas car, while 27% said a hybrid, 17% a full battery EV, and 10% a plug-in hybrid. When they asked again and added EREVs to the list, and explained that theyd get a combined range of 400 to 500 miles, 18% said theyd pick an EREV. And it wasn’t just people interested in full battery EVs that switched over. [EREVs] stole share from all the others, Hertzke says; the amount of people picking a gas car dropped by 6 points, hybrids by 7, and full battery EVs by 4. It was really across the board exciting consumers as something new that might fit their lifestyle. EREV confusion But getting consumers excited about EREVs means making sure they understand what they are, and that could be a challenge. Consumers are already inundated with multiple terms and lots of EV info, and so automakers need to clarify the differences with EREVs. Adding to that challenge is the fact that carmakers might brand their extended range options differently. Some are saying EREV, some are saying REEV. Some are calling them super hybrids, some are going to call them hyper hybrids, Hertzke says. Companies will have to make a decision about whether to brand these cars their own way or try to use an industry term. When talking to automaker clients, Hertzke says this is a big question they have about EREVs: How do we communicate this appropriately to consumers and with our dealers, which are also now going to be inundated with more choice and more complexity? Carmakers also have to figure out how to price these new models. Because they ould use a smaller battery, the vehicles could potentially cost less than a full EV but more than a gas car. That could help entice more buyers, especially since EREVs could offer benefits that hybrid and gas cars don’t, like bidirectional charging. But automakers have been losing money on full battery EV sales, and so they may end up pricing EREVs a bit higher than necessary, as a way to make up some of those losses. It’ll be very interesting to see how they’re positioned, how they’re priced, how they’re communicated to consumers, and that’s one of the hottest debates raging at automakers today, Hertzke says. What U.S. automakers are doing next U.S. automakers are already working on rolling out some EREV options. Ram may be the closest; its 1500 Ramcharger is an EREV truck (though the Ram site calls it a range-extended electric truck) expected in 2025. Itll come with a range of 690 mileshigher than the current F150 Lightning range that tops out around 320 miles. Ford is also reportedly working on the technology for EREVs, though the company wouldnt speculate about future products to Fast Company. A spokesperson noted that the brand has said that EREVs and other technologies have the potential to offer more when it comes to choices for customers. (Ford CEO Jim Farley has been vocal about drivingand lovingthe Xiaomi SU7, a Chinese EV, and though that isn’t an EREV, Xiaomi has been working on such options, including an EREV SUV.) Scout Motors, a U.S. offshoot of Volkswagen, is also working on an extended range electric truck, called the Terra, as well as an SUV (both with a range of 500 miles), though neither are expected until 2027. We fully expect we’re going to see more [EREV] models in the U.S. and in Europe [in the next two to three years], and were going to see more auto brands adopt these, he says. “It’s going to create some pretty exciting new products. And we do expect to see consumers pretty interested in these once they understand them over time.
Category:
E-Commerce
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