Philipp Tsipman

But for now, it's a market that others deserve to win more than I do.

So, net net, we are in this transitional moment where video AI is much more alchemy than automation. And much more creator economy than marketing.

I believe that will change in the future.

And I’m still very hopeful on how video AI evolves.

So, the more valuable brands — brands where I have a sales advantage after working in marketing in New York for many years — are the ones most hesitant to be associated with AI.

But, however you think of it, when marketing has visible AI artifacts — it does remind people of arrogance, fears of job loss, and of Dead Internet theory.

Not good enough to create outstanding ads yet.

Market
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But tech is not the only thing. To get here, the AI labs have run roughshod over all sorts of ethical and social norms. One can point to Chinese AI labs respecting copyright even less so.

That’s 12x-150x faster than humans can read. It often feels instant! Good video is much slower and clunkier.

So, three years into this gen AI revolution — with video we are still at the very early stages. It's both here and not here yet! Good enough to fill your social feeds.

To stitch together and edit a video well, however, you have to pick the exact frame and exact right position within it. If AI is a great wench, video automation really requires a scalpel.

c) Time and cost

Not least is time & cost. AI can now generate world-class code at 50 - 700 words a second.

b) AI can follow some directions much better than others

LLMs have made huge leaps in 12 months in using tools, working like an agent, and reducing hallucinations. So, when you do research or code, AI can now run for 20+ minutes without making mistakes.

I think it's the training data. AI visual art often blows me away. But most AI copy sounds like slop. AI-generated websites are very meh. And AI is really good at generating videos in the style of Pixar, memes, and UGC — but not great at cinema using humans yet.

And at the same time, not be able to tell that if a person morphs into a tennis ball, there is something really wrong here. Human visual perception is so basic and yet incredible.

It’s also amazing how AI can create *images* with such better taste than it does text, design, or video.

The most important missing parts still are that:

a) AI doesn't reason well visually or have good taste

It’s wild to see AI acing tests that are really hard for humans — programming, law, medicine.

Tech
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My aha moment for gen AI was first seeing Midjourney in 2022. You could tell even in those first, janky images that, within a very short time, this tech would be transformative to human creation.

It's been fascinating, however, to see how uneven AI’s progress has been.

As I shift focus within AI for marketing, I just wanted to look back at why AI for video marketing hasn’t panned out the way I thought it would. (Or, at least, hasn’t panned out yet!)

I think it’s two things — 

1. Tech 
2. Market

In fact, I'm so bullish that I'm founding a new company for it.

More on this very soon. 🙂

No matter how badly your ads are doing, Meta will show up to tell you to spend more! Oh great.

I’m bullish on a new set of AI platforms that can play on the side of the advertiser.

Not just DSPs — but platforms that can act across walled gardens, making sense of the entire marketing spend.

There is a huge opportunity to add on top of what the curated platforms will do. If you look at Meta’s AI recommendations — firstly, they’re badly executed... struggling with basics like brand voice and pacing. And secondly, to be real, they’re built to lie.

It's less about arcane ad auction knowledge. And more about the true nature of marketing -- who, what, where, why.

This new world is... also great for marketing tech.

For the last 10 years, ad tech was confined to the shrinking open web. It no longer is.

In a world that's ever more complex, we crave things that feel trusted, new, and meaningful.

Shopify sales are up 30% in a year. Unique products and storytelling are more important than ever.

And, for marketing teams at smaller companies, the curated web is actually easier to navigate.

Some are saying that ads are dead — that our robot butlers will order everything for us, no storytelling required. And, that Meta will just auto-generate ones you need. Let's go home.

My bet is the opposite.

But the “open web” IS disappearing before our eyes. Traffic to top news sites is down up to 50% this year. The curated, "AOL 2.0" Internet vibes are very very strong.

So what does that mean for ads and commerce?

Picture 2027, the open internet is dead.

The only forms of entertainment are watching brainrot videos and chatting with your AI companion -- who really gets you. Screeeeech. Bump. No, screw that. The world is much richer and more interesting than that.

RIP digital ads. Long live AI agentic advertising.

So AI is about to change marketing. It's been bubbling up for 2 years. It's here now. And I'm shifting focus to fully bet on it. It's a bit of a wild bet. Here's why: :)

I’m about to hit 43. It feels very different now. Health is now a big focus. I work out 5 days a week. Shifting my diet to plant-based proteins (fun!)

Gotta outcompete all the 20-year-olds. 🫡😃

Gorgeous fall day in NYC. Come visit! 🍁😁

It's gonna be wiiild month.😅

Luckily, startups aren't built in a month. Excited for this sprint and for what's ahead!

Onwards.

Thank you for being a part of this. 🙏

😎

4. 💸 Money:

The finest VC is your revenue. :)

Microsoft was our first giant win -- it flipped the game.

But in AI, VC is the 🚀 fuel. So much ahead here.

3. 💪 Team:

I was lucky to get Justin to join as co-founder 1 year ago -- the stars aligned.
I was lucky to meet Pavel through Twitter.
I was lucky to bring Lewis, who I worked with 10 years ago, to pitch in.

We're hiring for growth marketing, AI eng & frontend. Small team, big impact, join us. :)

This flipped our product. It's now video intelligence as much as creation. We built the best on the market Deep Search for video -- our benchmarks are off the charts. Next up: a marketing agent that can think, plan, and use hundreds of tools.

“Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore!”

So stoked 😎

2. 🚢 Product/Eng:

Video AI is now in overdrive. :)

When RunwayML launched 2 years ago, this felt imminent. But it took until 2 months ago for the big leap: agents turned real and video gen got finally good.

What’s next on sales?
• Focus on mid‑tier for the rest of the year and own it.
• Then go for even smaller, local shops.
• Finally, swing back up -- and get Target, Nike, MLB, HBO Max, Comcast over the finish.