Wes Walker has a golden rule about the use of artificial intelligence in his creative process — one that speaks volumes about how quickly the technology has morphed from curiosity to everyday tool.

“Already we are at the stage where the thinking is that if it’s AI-detectable, you’ve failed,” says Walker of a technology that has only been in serious use since around 2023.

As co-founder of Obsidian Studio alongside Louis Gheysens, Walker has been at the forefront of both exploring and integrating AI alongside live action and CGI in content creation. The studio has offices in five cities across the globe, including New York, Paris and Brussels. It has worked on campaigns for the likes of French luxury giants Longchamp and a campaign for the Beyond Noise multimedia brand with the agency Baron & Baron. And it has already expanded the notion of what’s possible with the technology — precisely, Walker argues, because AI is being used as a tool rather than a replacement.

It’s a philosophy captured in one of the studio’s own banners: “Humans over Hype.”

“It’s starting with the artists and doing what we already do at a world-class level before we come to AI, and then using AI as an extension of our abilities, not as any kind of shortcut, essentially,” he says. “We truly believe that AI won’t be a one-man show in the future. We still need those different talents that join forces because they have specific strengths, specific talents. Teams are very different from what they used to be, but by bringing their talent together on those tools, that’s how you create the best pieces out there.”

The traditions of cinematic craft — including storyboarding with noted artists such as Marc Vena (Logan) and Tani Kunitake (Black Panther) — remain central to the process, helping the team “understand the intelligence of the scene” before exploring what AI can contribute under the guidance of creative partners.

“AI is a wild thing,” Walker says. “So more than control, how do you get it to reflect the spirit of the director, the spirit of the production designer, the spirit of the cinematographer?”

Since its founding in 2025, Obsidian Studio has worked closely with Chinese technology company Kling AI, while a partnership with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment has further expanded its creative landscape. For co-founder Gheysens, the alliance reflects shared ambitions.

“The very first elements that stood up when we launched the company was that we’re going to we want to understand what exists in the minds of the directors and use those [AI] tools at the service of the directors, not the other way around,” says Gheysens.

Those ideas will get a wider airing at Cannes on May 18, when Kling AI hosts a panel titled From Creative Possibility to Production Reality: Kling AI in Cinematic Workflow. Joining the conversation will be Wonder Project’s Jon Erwin, the filmmaker behind Netflix’s AI-driven series House of David; China’s Li Wei, associate director on the animated feature Big Fish and Begonia (2016); and South Korea’s Yang Eekjun, director of Mateo AI Studio/MBC C&I (the AI feature-length film Raphael).

“What we are bringing is our most updated native 4K model capabilities,” explains Zeng Yushen, head of operations at Kling AI. “We will showcase how this hybrid model is working for Hollywood, and that’s basically through live action plus AI, as well as AI-generated animation, and then we have fully AI-generated film. We really want to show how AI is able to enable content creators to really test the boundaries of their creativity.”

Major studios and platforms that once held reservations are now exploring the technology’s possibilities. Netflix has been linked to a reported $600 million deal targeting Ben Affleck’s production house InterPositive, while Amazon is said to be building its own internal AI departments with film and TV production in mind.

“AI adoption has been really increasing, people are starting to understand it, they test it, and then they start to see how best to incorporate it in their workflow,” says Zeng. “People are learning to understand how to use the tool, then just to really how to test and explore how it can help them to create the content they want to have. You can use zero percent, you can use 10 per cent, you can use up to 100 percent. It really depends on how you want to tell the story.”

Underpinning the confidence of companies like Kling AI are some striking industry figures. China’s State Council Information Office has claimed more than 6,000 companies are now working across an industry estimated to be worth over $172 billion domestically, while global projections put AI’s value at $14.1 billion by 2033.

For Obsidian Studio, the arrival of AI’s 4K model capabilities represents another leap forward. The technology was rolled out globally last month via Kling Video 3.0 series, with Kling AI claiming the new product “meets rigorous production standards required for high-end use cases such as broadcast television, theatrical cinema and high-end advertising.”

It’s an advance Gheysens says Obsidian will move quickly to explore — without abandoning the process they’ve built.”

“I think on every piece of work, every job that we do, we always take the time to revise our pipeline, understand those new functions,” he says. “We ask ourselves how do we need to adapt, how do we need to understand better, and go to the next step, and we’re inventing new roles along the way.”

The feeling, says Walker, is one of liberation rather than disruption: “For us as directors, it helps us actually feel quite free to dream. And I think that’s what we’re really jazzed by. But the work speaks for itself — little by little, we’re just like, just let the work talk.”