First there have been XR studios, then it was “metaverse” studios, and even “digital” studios. Regardless of the tech buzzword, there have at all times been a brand new wave of upstart corporations, devoted to being the leaders in creating content material for no matter the brand new medium was at that second.
As we speak the buzzword — and the one that really looks like it’s greater than only a fad — is generative synthetic intelligence. The wave of individuals touting themselves as the brand new studio tastemakers with Gen-AI has been not possible to maintain observe of.
Effectively, somebody lastly did.
A consultancy group and product innovation lab known as FBRC.ai on Friday launched a report that goals to fairly actually map out all of the AI content material creators within the panorama as of March 2025. It will possibly’t profess to be utterly complete (one other AI studio simply launched as you completed studying this sentence), however the group’s inaugural research obtained survey responses from 98 totally different corporations that self-identify as AI studios, even when it’s simply “the tip of the iceberg,” because the report says, of all of the studios that might be on the market.
Of these 98 studios, 65 have launched since 2022, and over 30 have launched in simply 2024 and the primary two months of 2025 alone. The report discovered that many of those corporations have simply 5 or fewer staff and are largely impartial endeavors. It speaks to how quickly the trade round Gen-AI is rising and what number of need to be the primary to really get away within the mainstream.
Along with a broad overview of the area and a world map of the place every of those corporations are based mostly, the complete report contains profiles with 9 totally different studios who’re among the many present leaders within the area: Promise, Asteria, Shy Children, Invisible Universe, Playbook, AI Hub, Pigeon Shrine, Secret Degree, and Mod Tech Labs.
Because the report exhibits, not all of those corporations are created equal, and so they exist on a spectrum by way of how they make the most of AI. Some are work-for-hire companies that just about solely usher in purchasers, whereas others co-produce, and a few are working to develop totally their very own content material they’ll create and distribute.
What’s extra, some corporations are thought of “AI Native” studios, in that they use “closed supply” fashions like OpenAI’s Sora, Runway, or Luma’s Dream Machine and can create textual content, photos, and video totally by way of AI prompts going direct from script to display screen. Others will use an open supply mannequin like ComfyUI that offers creators just a little extra management over the creation instruments. And others nonetheless are merely utilizing AI to reinforce conventional manufacturing pipelines, making both live-action/AI hybrids or simply utilizing AI to be extra environment friendly.
“A part of the best way that the dialog round AI in media and leisure has progressed positively is that the voices talking within the area now have expertise with truly telling tales,” the report by Rachel Pleasure Victor reads. “Whereas all have experimented with know-how all through their careers and thus have been drawn to AI as the following frontier, all of them had years of expertise with storytelling. Almost each founder attests that they nonetheless consider probably the most substantial moat will not be technical however moderately about who can do the work of crafting a great story.”
Making these distinctions within the AI area is vital for individuals who have a slim or pigeon-holed thought of what generative AI manufacturing is or what it seems like. However the report acknowledges that, over time and because the fashions enhance, many of those traces will begin to blur, with studios experimenting with hybrid initiatives and fully-blown AI motion pictures.
Aside from Asteria, which simply launched their very own “clear mannequin” known as Marey, a lot of the corporations profiled aren’t constructing their very own AI fashions and can depart that work to the tech giants like OpenAI and Runway. However they’re differentiating themselves by creating their very own datasets on which these fashions are educated (assume Lionsgate’s latest partnership with Runway), in addition to creating their very own distinctive workflows or interfaces about how they need to use the instruments. Based on Playbook’s Skylar Thomas by way of the report, that’s as a result of savvy viewers are beginning to discover that particular person AI fashions every have their very own look to them, and utilizing them by way of your personal dataset is a technique to stand aside.
So are all these corporations working to take everybody’s jobs? Not essentially, the report concludes. Whereas some are dabbling in shorts, characteristic movies, and TV exhibits, others are invested in VR, gaming, advertisements, and music movies, amongst different new codecs of content material. And whereas it could be cheaper and sooner to provide content material, not all of those small corporations have the infrastructure essential to help elaborate fashions and create sustained enterprise fashions.
Take a look at the complete report from FBRC.ai right here.