What Happened: A Brief, a Reference, and an AI Agent Did the Rest
Ilan Bouni, AI director and VFX supervisor, has never touched After Effects. Throughout his career he worked with people: he explained what he wanted, provided a reference, and received a deliverable. This time he did exactly the same with an AI agent named Astra.
The agent connected to After Effects and built from scratch an animation Ilan describes as beautiful. In his words, it is mind-blowing in a way that is hard to put into words, and an entire studio just waiting to be unleashed on the world.
Why This Is Different From the AI Tools You Already Know
Until now, most AI tools in the creative field produced a single output: an image, a clip, a voice track. The moment Ilan describes is different. The agent did not generate a video; it operated professional software, executed a sequence of actions and built the deliverable inside the same environment professionals use every day.
This is the shift from Generative AI to Agentic AI. Instead of a tool that answers a prompt, there is a digital worker that takes a task and completes it end to end, including the use of software that until now required years of training.
What This Means for the Role of the Director and the Manager
The most interesting detail in the story is that the working method did not change. Ilan gave the agent exactly what he gives a human team: a clear explanation and a reference. What changed is who executes and how fast.
The takeaway for leaders is clear: the ability to write a good brief, choose the right reference and judge quality becomes the core advantage. Technical execution becomes cheap and accessible, and the value moves to whoever can direct.
How to Prepare for the Change in the Production Chain
Organizations that produce visual content should start mapping today where AI agents can enter the process, from simple animations to multiple versions of the same creative. Not to cut people, but to increase output and free teams for work that requires taste and judgment.
In his talks and workshops, Ilan Bouni shows how hybrid production, combining real footage, VFX and AI agents, already works in practice, and what next step teams should be planning.