Generative AI is the media industry’s biggest buzzword, but not everything being said is true. Karim Sarkis cuts through the noise to expose four persistent myths clouding the conversation, and what media professionals, companies and governments must do next.
The promise of generative AI is energising boardrooms while simultaneously creating uncertainty across the media sector. Initial studies expect significant benefits including cost reduction (+20%), higher productivity (+40%), improved operating margin (+60%), boost in customer engagement (50%) and more content creation (+58%). Yet the journey toward those results is littered with half-truths that can derail progress. Four stubborn myths need to be debunked so that individuals, companies and governments can navigate the transformative impact of this technology.
Myth #1: GenAI will not take your job, but someone with AI skills will
This is a comforting thought that masks a harsher reality. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 forecasts 170m new jobs by 2030. It also estimates 92m jobs will disappear and 39% of today’s skills will become outdated. Upskilling is therefore essential; complacency is fatal. One cannot assume one’s job is safe by simply learning to use GenAI tools.
Evidence surfaces daily. Floral, a professional ‘spec-ad’ for Adidas, was generated by a single creator over days without the need for actors, crews, locations, equipment or weeks of work. In Sydney, radio listeners spent months listening to a host named Thy, created using tools from ElevenLabs, before realising she wasn’t human. Human influencers now compete with virtual influencers created through self-serve tools such as Creatify. Even the deceased are re-entering the labour pool: BBC Maestro offers a writing course fronted by Agatha Christie, complete with her own voice and cadence.
Music exhibits the same pattern, with platforms like Suno and Udio allowing the generation of songs without the need for human singers, musicians or studios. The less glamorous aspects of media, such as dubbing, voiceovers, subtitling and audio book narration, are also being impacted.
If none of this strikes a chord, how about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg putting the entire advertising industry on notice by saying Meta’s AI technology will redefine advertising as an AI-agent?
Myth #2: There will always be a human in the loop
This is a comforting thought that implies GenAI-powered workflows will always require human involvement. This outcome is not guaranteed given the shift to agentic AI replacing employees and automating workflows. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2025 predicts organisations will evolve from humans having assistants to humans working alongside agents. It is not a stretch of the imagination to think of agents managing humans within that context.
Artisan, a startup selling AI sales agents, plastered San Francisco with “Stop Hiring Humans” billboards, touting that AI agents don’t need work-life balance. This PR stunt may also be an indicator of things to come. It is not only employees that may become AI agents. Your customers might do the same. For example, Visa and Mastercard have both announced autonomous shopping and payment agents.
Myth #3: GenAI is only for short-form video
Don’t feel safe because you work in professional long-form video. The technology is evolving rapidly. Staircase Studios, the first of many AI-first film studios, plans to release AI-generated feature films with budgets below half a million dollars. Runway’s Gen:48 short film competition increases participation and quality every year. Google’s Veo 3 now includes sound in generated video.
Game development shows similar acceleration. NVIDIA’s ACE toolkit lets developers spawn non-player characters that perceive, plan and speak in real time, opening the door to game worlds that adapt to every player. The developers of Assassin’s Creed and Candy Crush have touted the use of AI for world and level development.
Beyond music generation, Google’s NotebookLM can generate podcasts in minutes from document and video inputs. In publishing, companies such as Publishing.ai aim to flood digital shelves with hundreds of AI-authored books each year, prompting heated debate about discovery and quality control.
The common thread is clear: once AI models master structure and consistency, duration is a variable, not a barrier.
Myth #4: GenAI is only a threat
Given this ominous introduction, it may surprise you that I believe GenAI can be an opportunity for the Middle East, not a threat. Creating better films and series, more advanced games, more local music and multi-language output can turn the region from a content consumer to an exporter; reducing operating costs for publishing, lowering development costs for video games and improving operating margins for media companies can shift us from value destruction to value creation.
As with any new technology, the region can build on its inherent strengths: a digitally native workforce that adopts new tools quickly, sovereign capital that funds large bets while investing in its people, and regulators prepared to trial new business models ahead of slower jurisdictions.
How to stay ahead of the GenAI transformation?
If you are a professional, take control of your destiny. Be the first to understand the impact of AI and apply it to your own job. Objectively assess your role and skills and determine if you are likely to be entirely replaced by AI. If so, analyse what the new roles that replace yours will be, and start repositioning and upskilling accordingly. Your company will always be slower than you to adapt training programmes.
If you are a professional, take control of your destiny. Be the first to understand the impact of AI and apply it to your own job. Objectively assess your role and skills and determine if you are likely to be entirely replaced by AI. If so, analyse what the new roles that replace yours will be, and start repositioning and upskilling accordingly. Your company will always be slower than you to adapt training programmes.
If you are a company, embrace the technology and understand where it can generate the most impact. Start with familiarising not only staff but also senior leadership with the capabilities of the tools. Examine your business to understand where AI can not only increase efficiency but also reinvent business models and outmanoeuvre competitors. Experiment across the organisation, with the business leading and IT supporting. Collaborate with AI startups, with your suppliers and with academia to broaden your perspective.
If you are a government, your role is to incentivise and adapt at scale. Invest in attracting and scaling talent. Incentivise the private sector to build compute infrastructure. Encourage research, development and entrepreneurship. Balance regulatory control with speed of innovation. Manage impending risks in ethical deployment of AI and the threat to intellectual property. Collaborate with other governments to manage a potentially society-level transition that will increase jobs but may leave many behind. Partner and collaborate, as you cannot deal with this scale of change alone.
Some of you may still think GenAI is all hype. The jury is still out on how widespread its impact will be. If you ignore it and do nothing, you may be left behind. If you embrace it and it doesn’t deliver, you will have gained new skills. If it does turn out to be a transformative technology, you will have secured your future. The choice is yours.
Karim Sarkis is a Partner with Strategy& and the leader of the firm’s Media and Entertainment sector in the Middle East.
