One of AI’s main use-cases today is turning one media format into another. The ability to turn one media format into another, almost instantly, with AI has aligned with the general direction of travel of media in recent years, where it’s become increasingly common to see podcasts as videos, and books as audio clips. To get some insight into how AI is accelerating this cross pollination of media formats, FutureWeek caught up with leaders across the industry.
Phil Rowley, Head of Futures, Omnicom Media Group UK
“AI means that the transformation from one type of content form to another is so much easier. It becomes almost instantaneous – speech-to-text, text-to-speech, text-to-video, image-to-video, image-to-game. Media is becoming ‘fuzzy’ and almost like a kaleidoscopic of different formats, rather than those siloes of media that we’ve traditionally seen. That means that when brands and storytellers come to the table, they don’t necessarily have to think in terms of creating a podcast, a video, or a game etc.
“They can think in terms of a mini multi-channel franchise. It means that you have the potential to reach greater audiences or target your audience better, because there’s some media that resonates better with certain demographics or certain target markets, for instance. A brand might be able to engage different target audiences and demographics with that have differing behaviours, without having to go through the effort and the friction of physically transforming content.”
Nick Tong, Managing Partner, Mediaplus UK
“AI is accelerating a fundamental shift toward multimodal media – where audio, video, text and commerce converge into seamless, measurable experiences. We see this not just as a creative evolution, but as a planning challenge. Recent developments, including Google’s integration of AI across YouTube and search and Global’s new Dax ID graph using AI to link listening behaviour across devices, both point to a future where consumer attention flows naturally between modes, but attribution must keep pace.
“For planners, that means redefining how we measure and connect these moments – using AI to model paths and journeys, not just impression delivery. Media becomes an ecosystem of touchpoints, each feeding the next, demanding both creativity and data fluency. True advantage will come from turning these multimodal signals into one story; a single, intelligent system of measurement that links what people see, hear and do across every platform.”
Nicole DiNicola, Global VP of Marketing at Smartcat
“We’re seeing a complete rewiring of media production, and AI is at the centre of it. Historically, text, visuals, audio, and video lived in their own silos, with weeks and months of hand-offs, reviews, and revisions. But now, AI enables creators to generate content that cuts across all those modalities, not one by one but all together, at the same time.
“With a single input, you can now generate a blog post, a social graphic, a short-form video, and a voiceover, with localised versions of each, in minutes. Your content isn’t simply multi-modal anymore. It’s multi-market. And it’s redefining what speed and scale even mean in content production. This shift is crucial because today’s marketing teams aren’t just asked to “do more.” They’re asked to do more everywhere — more languages, more channels, more campaigns — all with fewer resources.”
Greg Glenday, CEO, Acast
“AI’s value lies in its ability to handle the heavy lifting of multimodality. For example, it can take a long-form audio-first podcast and automatically generate a transcript (text), pull out the most engaging moments for short-form video clips (video), and create a visually compelling audiogram (audio and image) for social promotion. This allows creators to effortlessly span a fragmented media landscape, capturing even more potential ears and eyes for their shows. We know AI eliminates most of the obstacles standing in the way of deeper advertiser support for the medium.
“This multimodal expansion is incredibly valuable for advertisers. They are no longer confined to just buying an audio impression – they have the ability to buy an omni-channel campaign that travels with the creator’s story. It moves brands toward long-term, ROI-focused collaborations by allowing a single partnership to maximise impact across a creator’s entire omni-channel footprint – from the core audio show, to video episodes, social shorts, live events and beyond. This transforms media buying from transactional one-offs into strategic, integrated partnerships – and we’re seeing massive demand for this from brands including Dunkin’, eBay, and many more.”
Jacob Jankel, CTO of i-media
“AI is making media more multimodal by lowering the barrier between formats. Text can generate voiceovers. Voice prompts and images can generate video. Video can be enriched with interactive prompts, and long-form content can be automatically cut up into a folder of marketing clips. It’s incredible how much this has empowered creators and brands to produce engaging content quickly and affordably. The trade-off is authenticity and trust: floods of low-quality content look and sound tonally similar as creators lean on the same set of tools. Interestingly, we’re starting to see similar experimentation in digital-out-of-home.
“3D holographic brand reps powered by LLMs, AR posters that spring to life when scanned, and other creative formats that only recently sat in the ‘too difficult’ pile have become feasible with AI. Even new ideas are being trialled in i-Media’s environment. Real breakthroughs for this new tech will likely come when multimodal AI meets real-time personalisation and interoperable data, allowing campaigns to flow seamlessly between physical and digital worlds. It’s key that media owners and tech businesses invest in removing the barriers to the compliant flow of data and making different media channels as interoperable as possible to facilitate the implementation of new creative ideas, which is still a clear limiting factor.”
