SXSW: AI Transforms Creative Industries

A Turning Point for AI at SXSW

At the 40th edition of South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, a major shift was observed: artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just a topic of debate for cultural industries, but a genuine ongoing project. Bpifrance, accompanied by the teams from La French Touch, identified three key transformations that are redefining the creation and distribution of value in this sector.

Since 1987, Austin has hosted SXSW every March, a festival that blends music, film, and interactive technologies. This event has become a reliable indicator of global cultural and technological trends. This year, Bpifrance participated with a delegation of around twenty French entrepreneurs and the teams from La French Touch.

Julie Momas, Principal at French Touch Capital, noted that the debate for or against AI has largely disappeared. "There is almost no ideological opposition left. We are seeing selective, pragmatic, and operational adoption," she stated. Perle Bagot, co-founder of the Hub Institute and trend analyst, has been following the festival since 2018. She observed the arrival of major tech platforms, the peak of data, and the frenzy around the metaverse. However, according to her, everything changed in March 2023, shortly after the launch of ChatGPT. "We jumped headfirst into generative AI. There was euphoria, along with many fears and questions about what it means to be creative," she recalled. Three years later, the tone has evolved. "We are less focused on philosophical questions. We have entered the concrete: AI is here, and we need to embrace it. This is something quite serious in the noble sense of the term. Less utopian, less futuristic, and more concrete," she commented.

Technological Acceleration and Its Challenges

The first transformation identified by La French Touch is technological convergence. Amy Webb, whose annual report on emerging trends is a highlight of the festival, introduced this concept. Technologies are no longer developing in isolation but are mutually reinforcing and accelerating, creating realities that society struggles to adapt to.

Examples include human augmentation through exoskeletons and smart glasses, unlimited work enabled by autonomous agents and automated factories, and emotional outsourcing to AI for therapy or romantic relationships. Already, between 25% and 50% of Americans are reportedly using AI for therapeutic purposes.

However, consensus is eroding regarding organizations' actual capacity to absorb this acceleration. "This shift is not effective today. Technology is advancing so quickly that it surpasses our capacity for adaptation and integration," asserts Perle Bagot. She refers to the concept of "future shock," theorized in the 1960s, which describes a moment of tension where the technological curve exceeds that of human adaptability. "This is a profound transformation. It is painful, and it will continue to be," she insists.

Putting Humans at the Heart of Strategy

The second transformation identified by La French Touch is the return to humanity. As AI progresses, human qualities such as imagination, emotion, intuition, taste, and storytelling are becoming more valuable. "We are moving from execution roles to decision-making, coordination, and orchestration roles, with radically different postures, skills, and corporate structures," comments Julie Momas.

In the French cultural industries, the adoption of AI remains selective. In music, for example, it can accelerate pre-production and allow for deeper creative exploration, but "the creation and final selection remain fundamentally human, always guided by artistic intent," insists Julie Momas. In the video game sector, studios use AI as a production tool to speed up iteration on prototypes, automate testing and debugging, and optimize development pipelines, but they avoid applying it to the creative assets present in the final game. "From a creative standpoint, artistic teams are often faster and produce higher quality. It is also much safer in terms of copyright and artistic identity," she continues.

Rana el Kaliouby, a computer scientist, reminded attendees that 93% of human communication is non-verbal. "We will need to find a way to quantify and capture this contextual and emotional dimension to integrate it into models," emphasizes Perle Bagot.

Community and Experience at the Center of Value Creation

The third transformation identified by La French Touch is that content alone is no longer sufficient. It is the experience surrounding the content that creates value, and the community that brings it to life. "We have been observing this trend for some time: creating not just content, but an IP conceived as an open narrative ecosystem, capable of deploying across formats, experiences, and communities," notes Julie Momas.

She cites Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, which has become a cultural platform in its own right with films, immersive exhibitions, comics, novels, and even a symbolic presence at the opening of the Olympics. She also mentions Clair-Obscur: Expedition 33, from the French studio Sandfall Interactive, which sold 5 million copies in 2025, with concerts of their original music selling out. "This is not just a playful product. It is an aesthetic and emotional world," she notes.

In contrast to the American model of total vertical integration, embodied by players like Universal, Live Nation, or Disney, the French ecosystem offers something different. "These are more distributed, more hybrid models, with independent players cooperating on a project basis rather than through industrial standardization," describes Julie Momas. The example of Bureau des Légendes is telling: produced, financed, and distributed by a plurality of actors, then sold in over 100 countries and adapted in the United States, the series illustrates a logic of IP circulation rather than control by a single platform. This is what La French Touch calls the "archipelago model": not a system based on concentration, control, and scale, but on circulation, agility, and cultural resonance.

There was no panel on climate or ESG this year. For Julie Momas, at La French Touch, these topics remain essential and must continue to be brought to the forefront as they are foundational. She was surprised to see the subject almost forgotten at SXSW, whereas it had been a central topic in previous years. "It may be a shift from display to integration. For us, these topics are no longer differentiating elements; they have become prerequisites," she confides. In French companies, these issues are no longer treated separately: they are now integrated into all discussions and decisions, at the heart of models. This edition also politically diverged from previous ones, with explicit stances against the Trump administration on several stages.

The central message remains: the winning organizations will be those that manage to stay deeply human while integrating AI where it creates value.