The future of interactive and immersive video

It has been quite a year for video.  As Vimeo ’s acquisition by Bending Spoons challenges businesses to decide whether and how they want their video solution to use and exploit their data, the leading video editors like Adobe Express are trying to hold their ground against new gen AI video creators from Sora to Chat GPT and with Canva now entering the video space for business, the race for genAI dominance is definitely on!  

But as we reach the time of year where everything else in the natural world around us is slowing down, it is ever more apparent that speed should not be our only guide for success.  Particularly when it comes to communication.

Video is our primary language online.  As we predicted at the start of the year, this language is now being adopted by businesses with LinkedIn for Marketing video posts leading over text.  

Social media created a generation of video creators and that generation has entered the workplace. It's understandable that with all these tools at our fingertips, and this tech savvy generation now working in comms and learning, business owners are excited about speeding up workflows, cutting out production time and delivering more video content, quicker, to everyone. For marketing and learning and training. 

And it's not just businesses who have understood the shift.  Both Netflix and Disney have had to pivot from being IP rich giants broadcasting to a passive audience at home to enabling user generated content on their and other platforms. Netflix 's acquisition of Warner Brothers last week will surely fast forward this.

As audiences clearly want not just to watch but play, interact with and create their own media so the playground for interactive content expands.

Which is a good moment for interactive and immersive video. 

Because whilst video production can be sped up and videos generated at the speed of a sentence, AI cannot yet make this a two way dynamic conversation.  It cannot predict what the viewer feels when they see the content they see, nor what they will do in response :  switch off, engage, change their behaviour, mood or actions.  

The success of that depends on a conversation between audiences and creator.

For this reason, we have seen B2B video tools like Synthesia and other LMS’ solutions trying to enter the learning market with text to video solutions to make video more useful for business : avatars speaking multi-languages, personalised content served up according to learner’s needs. 

This has brought a version of what’s needed to the market but it misses the magic of the form itself.  

Because the reason video makes up 90+% of all internet traffic internet is because it is so rich. Video storytelling is about layers - not just faces and voice but animation, graphics, sound, music :  an alchemy of audio, visual, and time-based media that reaches us in ways that single form mediums can’t do.  

Bring interactivity into that form and you have something totally unique.  

In 2026, we will see more people moving out of the ‘wow’ factor of just creating a 5 second clip with a prompt into useful interactive data led video experiences for sales and learning. And those that stand out will be because of the creators in charge of the technology not the other way round. 

You may have seen that Zuckerburg has just slashed his budget for VR having lost $70 billion on games-focused VR headsets. The real potential for VR and AR has always been much more than fighting games and the demand for immersive experiences that let you explore places and situations otherwise unavailable is huge.  But the workflow for making and distributing this kind of content has been prohibitively hard and expensive.

We have some very exciting news in the new year to finally make the creation and delivery of immersive and interactive experiences affordable and creatively achievable for producers and creative teams as well as satisfying for the viewer. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!