The landscape of video production is undergoing its most significant transformation since the dawn of the internet. By 2026, artificial intelligence will not just be a tool; it will be the engine driving how brands create content, engage audiences, and compete.
Artlist, a creative technology company that empowers creators with the latest AI tools, recently released its AI Trend Report 2026, drawing on insights from over 6,500 creators worldwide and industry leaders including WPP, Meta, Google, and Mondelēz.. The findings reveal that 87% of creative professionals now use AI tools for video creation.
Here are the key takeaways from the report on how AI is reshaping the creative industry.
1. Professional quality is now universal
For decades, high-end video production was gatekept by massive budgets and specialized equipment. AI video generators have dismantled these barriers, democratizing studio-quality visuals and making production speed faster than ever before.
According to Orit Bar Niv, VP of Content at Artlist, "When the barrier to creating polished work is zero, the barrier to being memorable is higher than ever." The report highlights that a creator's strategic vision matters more than their technical skills. Consequently, the industry is facing a crisis of legal viability: 63% of creators now prioritize safe commercial rights and strategic viability over pure production quality.
Artlist is designed to address this shift. Artlist's AI suite is commercially safe by default. This ensures that every image, video, or voiceover generated is ready to be used immediately in a professional context, moving creators beyond basic polish to true business-readiness.
2. The shift from linear to circular workflows
Traditional production followed a linear path from the brief, to strategy, then creative, and finally to production. AI has forced this timeline into an iterative loop, where ideation, generation, and refinement all occur simultaneously.
Elav Horwitz, Chief Innovation Officer at WPP, notes that this shift is fundamentally changing how agencies operate. Teams using AI video tools report producing 5-10x more content with the same resources. The new bottleneck has moved from production capacity to workflow and inefficient decision-making speed.
Artlist addresses this by integrating the entire creative process. The Artlist platform is built as an all-in-one toolkit where AI generation, curated assets, and editing tools exist in a single environment. This seamless integration allows ideas to be tested and executed in hours, fundamentally speeding up the decision-making loop.
3. Prompting is the new production skill
Human value now lives in the creative direction, and taste matters more than ever. "Concept is king," explains Ira Belsky, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Artlist. "It's not just about storytelling, it's about the core concept that guides AI." As hyper-imagination becomes possible, it enables a fusion of styles and elements that were previously inconceivable.
While concept is king, the skill required to translate complex ideas into effective, repeatable AI prompts remains highly specialized. Without precise prompt engineering, creative output becomes inconsistent, and the time saved in production can be lost in endless rounds of generation.
Artlist empowers creators to test multiple ideas, provides prompt examples, tips, and tools that reduce the need for perfect prompt language. Style guides and references give creators a professional starting point to improve prompting, which in turn transforms complex concepts into high-quality, consistent outputs.
4. Authenticity 3.0 and the trust imperative
As this content saturates platforms, audiences ability to differentiate between real and AI-generated This skepticism creates a unique opportunity for brands that prioritize transparency.
The most corrosive form of distrust is legal uncertainty. Brands worry that AI-generated visuals could be unknowingly trained on copyrighted content, exposing them to massive, reputation-damaging risk and eroding consumer trust the moment an asset is challenged.
Artlist directly addresses this fundamental risk by prioritizing ethically sourced and transparently trained AI models. The platform provides safe commercial licensing that legally covers use, giving users the confidence to build campaigns with zero legal hesitation.
5. Moments away from the scroll
The ultimate counter-trend to digital saturation is the "Phygital" era. As content becomes infinite, the scarcest and most meaningful value is real, human, in-person contact that builds connection.
The smartest brands in 2026 are using AI as an ideation engine to design unforgettable physical marketing brand experiences, then amplifying those moments online. The challenge is to ensure that AI-driven ideation remains connected to a vast, commercially cleared media library for seamless online amplification.
Artlist is uniquely positioned to bridge the Phygital gap. By offering both world-class AI generation and a massive, licensed library of music, footage, and sound effects, Artlist ensures that the content created for the physical moment is instantly backed by all the necessary assets for professional, legally safe digital amplification.
Learn more and download the full Artlist AI Trend Report 2026.
This post was created by Artlist with Insider Studios.
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