Can AI creator tools live up to their hype in 2025?

Generative AI dominated discussions about the entertainment industry’s future in 2024. Whether it is music, video, games, audio, or social, both the immediate and long-term impacts of this technological revolution have been hard to ignore. At MIDiA, we have devoted a significant amount of time analysing the future of creator software and unpacking how generative AI will recalibrate entertainment in the years to come. And 2025 is poised to bring its fair share of AI-related reports as well. 

Like all emerging technologies, it can take time to demystify the advantages and limitations before it is possible to fully grasp how revolutionary an innovation like generative AI might be. In some cases, generative AI has already recalibrated what is possible within the creator economy. And in others, it has fallen well short of expectations.

The challenge AI developers face is that generative AI has a habit of over promising and under delivering. This is not so much the case among more premium AI products delivered by long-standing creator tools companies (although there is still a question as to whether some are good enough to be monetised) but budget AI apps being offered at the very top of the funnel. 

The reason these low grade AI creator apps are flourishing is because they are harvesting an engagement opportunity. Consumers are AI curious: nearly half (46%) liked the idea of being exposed to AI content on social media in Q1 2023, according to MIDiA’s consumer survey. MIDiA has also written at length about how generative AI widens the creator economy funnel to those who may have never been able to create before. 

When done right, generative AI can be highly engaging because it trades the slow-burn pleasure of honing a video or song with the excitement of racing to the finish line. However, the process of putting a prompt into an AI generator and waiting for the outcome can feel more like a random game of chance. This has been cited by Fable Studio – the developers behind the AI generated South Park episodes – as The Slot Machine Effect. And like a slot machine, the process of prompting and re-prompting the generator to see if it cashes out with premium content matching one’s creative vision can be addictive. 

For those seeking long-term engagement, there is a need to optimise the AI model so the consumer gets an optimal reward more times than not. If done effectively, this provides a double dopamine rush for consumer creators via the generative AI creation process (the satisfaction of seeing a creative idea materialised) and the social platform publication process (the satisfaction of seeing positive audience engagement to the creative output). The problem is with those developers who are using AI creator apps as a short-term cash grab. They are zoning in on the consumer’s AI content curiosity, farming the engagement and prompting for in-app purchases. It has given rise to a flurry of creator apps offering AI tools that want consumer cash in exchange for disappointing results. 

This is problematic for those trying to deliver a premium AI creation experience. Such cash-grab apps sully the reputation of the AI creation process and its potential. Consumers left disillusioned after dabbling with AI tools could prove twice as hard to convince that a positive AI creator experience actually exists. Secondly – and as The Vergepoints out – the more the market becomes saturated with bogus AI creator apps, the harder it will be for consumers to find the ones that are truly effective. Add this to the growing cost of AI tools and the landscape for delivering premium AI creator tools in 2025 looks tough. No matter how cliched it may sound, the answer for AI tools is ‘less is more’. Rather than spreading themselves too thinly with vast array of eye-catching but underperforming AI apps, premium creator tools providers must focus on delivering tools that truly match creator pain points – from freeing up creator time and tackling laborious tasks to optimising content reach and managing audience engagement. Creators will only be willing to pay for AI tools when they prove better than the process that existed before. While 2024 may have been the year that AI creator tools captured the public’s attention, 2025 could reveal whether tools providers can realise the hype proceeding AI or if they will leave consumers wanting.