What AI actually changed in our studio (and what it didn't)
Two years of using AI daily across strategy, design, and production. The honest ledger of what got faster, what got worse, and what stayed untouched.
The production layer transformed first. Research synthesis, copy variations, image exploration, code scaffolding — tasks that took days now take hours. Our juniors ship work that would have needed a senior's week.
What didn't change: taste, strategy, and accountability. AI generates options; it doesn't know which one is right for a specific founder in a specific market with a specific budget. That judgment is still the product.
The uncomfortable middle is quality control. Faster output means more output to review, and review doesn't compress the way generation does. Studios that don't rebuild their review process around this will ship more mediocre work faster — which is not a business model.