As production and post-production tech – from real-time rendering to the rise of generative AI – the conversation around creativity, timelines and cost has taken a new turn. Has innovation made production smoother or simply set new, unrealistic expectations?
We asked regional experts: Have advancements in production and post-production tech, and the dawn of generative AI led to unreasonably tight budgets and deadlines?
Industry voices seem divided. While some argue that advanced tools have streamlined workflows without disrupting budgets, others believe the push for “faster and cheaper” has come at the cost of craft and realism.
Here’s what each of them had to say.
Lisa King
Co-Founder, Tales & Heads
NO
I think this part of the world has always thrived on the ability to make things happen quickly, so we aren’t seeing any tighter deadlines than usual. In terms of budget, while there may be some impact on social content for larger-scale production, there is an understanding that it’s the experience of the people that brings both authenticity and the highest quality.
Mohammad Irfan Dar
Founder & CEO, Red Stone Films
YES
Advances in production tech – cloud collaboration, real-time rendering and AI-driven workflows – create the illusion that projects can be done faster and cheaper. This fuels unrealistic client expectations: more creative output, tighter deadlines and instant revisions, often devaluing skilled labour. Timelines shrink as tasks such as grading are assumed to be done in days, ignoring the human oversight required. Quality suffers under pressure to deliver speed over meaning. Added costs of upskilling and licensing AI tools are overlooked, especially in small-scale projects. While scale can absorb costs, inflated expectations strain teams, disregarding the evolving nature of these technologies. It’s not a one-tool-fixes-all situation yet.
Léa Cremesty
Business Partner, Kurve Studios
YES
There’s a perception that new tech and AI lead to faster and cheaper production, but in reality, all tools still require a lot of experimentation and quality control. We’ve seen this pattern before when people used to think that producing content for social media was faster and cheaper than TV. But today, social media attracts bigger investments. In a nutshell, AI should be used to enhance creativity and quality, not to justify cuts in budgets and deadlines. But, who knows, my answer might change since AI is evolving as we speak.
Rayan Ahmed
Director of Action Studios and Social Media, Action UAE
NO
We’ve entered a faster, more flexible production era. But speed doesn’t cancel the fundamentals. Generative AI and advanced production tools have expanded creative possibilities and truly supercharged what’s possible creatively. While they increase efficiency, they haven’t inherently caused unreasonably tight budgets or deadlines – those pressures are often driven by client expectations, industry norms and planning practices. AI and advanced tools make tasks faster and more flexible, but creative work still requires planning, iteration and human judgment. Budgets and deadlines only become unreasonable when expectations don’t match effort. We are in a new era of change, and while technology expands possibilities, realistic budgets and timelines still remain a human responsibility.
Drona Antony
Head of Production, Amber Communications
YES
I used to believe the old film school saying, “It takes a village to make a film”. But today, that feels outdated. Technology has reshaped the craft. Compact cameras and lightweight gimbals rival rigs that once needed trucks. LED walls make location shoots optional. AI now churns out storyboards, accelerates rotoscoping and cleans chroma keys in seconds.
In pre-production, Unreal Engine lets us walk through sets before a brick is laid. On set, smaller cameras and LED fixtures mean fewer hands and faster setups. In post, AI slashes man hours into minutes. What once required an army can sometimes be achieved by one filmmaker with a powerful laptop. Yet, the flip side is troubling. Tech has become an excuse for tighter deadlines, squeezed budgets and the dreaded phrase, “just fix it in post”. It may not take a village anymore, but it still takes a few strong homes to make a film worth watching.
Mohamed Hesham
Head of Production & Creative Services, Horizon FCB Dubai
YES
New production tech and generative AI have undeniably transformed the way we work, delivering efficiencies and expanding creative opportunities. Yet, these same advancements have heightened client expectations, often pushing for tighter timelines and reduced budgets. While technology streamlines certain processes, it cannot replace the strategic thinking, collaboration and craftsmanship that remain essential to meaningful content. My priority is to strike the right balance – leveraging innovation to enhance creativity and delivery while safeguarding the quality and value of the work. The real challenge lies not in speed alone, but in sustaining excellence under increasing pressure.
Shweta Sandeep
Executive Producer, Liwa Content.Driven
YES
A new layer in filmmaking has emerged. Between CGI and VFX, the gap is filled by AI. Scale and spectacle, which once demanded vast sets and weeks of compositing, can now be achieved with new tools and smarter workflows. It’s no longer about AI films versus shoot-based films; it’s the fertile overlap where worlds grow richer and more restless than ever. And this shift straddles the entire funnel of communication. It’s not just about the big films anymore; every image is now potentially a video, every asset alive with motion. Yet, as the canvas expands, budgets shrink. Clients expect more magic for less money, asking producers to stretch imagination and technology in equal measure. The only way forward is by creatively finding solutions, constantly upskilling, exploring global collaborations and building stronger in-house capabilities. Through it all, one truth endures: creative production thrives.
Dany Azzi
Regional Executive Creative Director, AGA-ADK
NO
Tight budgets and deadlines have always been the reality of agency life, especially in production. They’re not new pressures, just constants. What really changed is the landscape of possibility. Advances in production, post-production, and generative AI don’t make demands unreasonable; they shift expectations. With AI, clients are expecting things to be done faster and cheaper, so the bar moves. The challenge now isn’t just speed or budget, it’s identifying the right agents, platforms and partners to deliver without sacrificing craft. Our role is to harness AI as an amplifier, optimise process, meet budget requirement, elevating efficiency, and still ensure the work remains relevant and beautifully crafted.
Chamath Samarasinghe
Production Lead, Eye Studio
NO
AI and new production tech haven’t pushed us into tighter deadlines; they’ve actually opened things up. Most industry software is AI-equipped now, which makes post-production faster and more capable. We run daily experiments with new tools that update almost every day. But here’s the real part: anyone who’s actually prompting knows it’s never one click and done. Sure, you can generate a single output fast, but building a full campaign with a consistent, cohesive look still takes time. AI speeds up and expands possibilities, but it’s not a magic shortcut. Good work still needs craft, not just prompts.
Buraq Basam
Production Director, Netizency
YES
AI has certainly raised the floor, not the ceiling. For those with weaker ideas or execution, generative AI has significantly improved their output. For teams already strong in creativity and craft, AI is more of an add-on. It makes some tasks quicker and unlocks new possibilities that were once too difficult or costly. But it doesn’t replace the fundamentals: strategy, ideation and production still require people. So, while budgets and timelines are tighter, they’re not unreasonable; they’re simply adapting to what’s now achievable.
George Sharrock
Senior Creative, JWI
YES
It’s all about expectation. This isn’t new; the same thinking surfaced when CGI became mainstream, with the misconception that it was cheaper and faster, removing the need for sets or crew. Because ‘the computer does it’, people assume AI works the same way.
AI may ease workflows, speed up pitches and create creative solutions, but the craft behind a polished result hasn’t changed. Every leap in production tech follows the same cycle: hype, inflated expectations, budget squeeze, then rebalancing, as quality still requires time and money. It’s not the clients’ fault; they don’t see the process behind the work. Our role is to reset expectations.
