At CES this year, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on a topic that feels less theoretical by the day: how AI is fundamentally reshaping post-production.
The conversation brought together creators and platform leaders who are building and using AI-powered tools to streamline workflows, boost creativity, and rethink how content moves from idea to distribution. But what became clear during the discussion is that this shift isn’t about one breakthrough tool or a handful of clever automations.
It’s an end-to-end transformation of how modern production operates.
And it’s already happening.
Shrinking the Gap Between Idea and First Cut
For decades, creative production followed a familiar ratio: roughly 20% of the time spent on ideation and 80% spent on execution (editing, formatting, revisions, versioning, distribution, etc).
AI is flipping that ratio.
Today, creative teams can move from concept to viable first cut faster than ever. That doesn’t mean AI is telling the story. It means teams can explore more directions earlier, test more variations, and bring human judgment into the process sooner.
At Edelman, we’re embedding AI across research, development, and distribution workflows to reduce friction where it slows creativity. Not to automate for automation’s sake, but to create more space for thinking, refinement, and craft.
The earlier you can see something tangible, the earlier your taste and expertise can shape it.
And taste is the one thing that doesn’t scale.
Storytelling at Scale
Efficiency is often the headline when people talk about AI in production. But what I’m seeing, and what we discussed at CES, is something bigger.
AI isn’t just reducing production time. It’s enabling:
- Faster experimentation across formats
- Rapid iteration based on performance data
- Seamless adaptation for different platforms and audiences
When repetitive tasks are automated, creative professionals can spend more time on strategy, structure, and narrative precision. Instead of manually versioning assets across platforms, they can focus on refining the idea itself.
This matters because modern culture demands production speed. But speed alone isn’t valuable. Speed that protects quality and deepens creative thinking is.
Trust, Disclosure, and Governance as Production Quality
As AI-assisted content scales, so does scrutiny.
Audiences are increasingly attuned to authenticity, provenance, and transparency. At Edelman, we’ve built what I think of as “trust checkpoints” directly into the production pipeline. That includes:
- Rights and IP review
- Disclosure guidance
- Bias and fairness checks
- Factuality validation
Governance ensures that human creative input remains central. It protects brand integrity. It safeguards reputation. And it allows innovation to scale responsibly.
The more powerful these tools become, the more essential thoughtful guardrails are.
Trust is no longer adjacent to production. It’s embedded within it.
Tools Matter. Workflow Design Matters More.
At CES, we talked about everything from rapid clipping and voice tools to automation systems that can transform one piece of content into multiple outputs across formats.
But the real difference between a “cool demo” and reliable production isn’t the tool.
It’s workflow design.
Automation itself is a form of creativity. Designing the system—deciding where human input is essential, where iteration should happen, and where automation can responsibly accelerate output—is strategic work.
Prompting is already becoming less central as software layers create predictability and control. The future is less about crafting the perfect sentence for a model and more about building integrated systems that allow creative teams to operate with clarity and precision.
In our studios, we treat generative tools as collaborators, not replacements. They accelerate options. They surface possibilities. But humans remain responsible for story, taste, nuance, and brand alignment.
Interestingly, the more we operationalize workflows, the more creativity we unlock. When friction drops, exploration increases.
The Expanding Role of Producers and Editors
If there’s one takeaway from CES, it’s this: the role of the producer and editor is expanding, not shrinking. The future creative professional is:
- An orchestrator of systems
- A curator of options
- A creative director across human and machine collaborators
At Edelman, we’re preparing for that future by:
- Embedding AI across production workflows to accelerate prototyping and iteration
- Scaling localization and multimodal distribution
- Building quality guardrails to ensure outputs are compliant, consistent, and brand-aligned
- Developing an AI-native team with sustained investment in tools and training
AI is not replacing creativity. It’s redistributing effort away from repetitive execution and toward judgment, taste, and strategy.
And in a world where culture moves faster than ever, that shift isn’t optional.
It’s foundational.
You can watch the full recording of Gabe’s panel at CES here.
Gabe Michael is SVP, Group Executive Producer - AI.