Video has become the dominant language of digital communication, and generative artificial intelligence is opening up creative possibilities that were unthinkable until recently. But if anyone can produce spectacular images, what truly makes a story original? We discuss this with Giuliano Ambrosio, founder of ThinkingHat, partner at Orange Media Group for generative artificial intelligence and creative partners of Runway. A discussion on new visual languages, the opportunities and limitations of AI, and the risk of increasing homogenization. With a special focus on food and wine tourism, where the challenge is to move beyond clichés and reinvent the narrative without losing the authenticity of the places. A preview of the Toolkit that Giuliano will present at BTO 2026.
1. Video has become one of the dominant forms of digital communication, from social media to brand campaigns to tourism promotion. Why is it so important today, and how is it changing the way we tell stories and engage audiences?
Video has become the native language of attention. It’s not just a matter of algorithms favoring it: it’s the format that most closely mirrors how we experience the world—with movement, sound, rhythm, and presence. In tourism, this is crucial, because a trip is first and foremost a sensory experience, and video is the only medium that can give a preview of it.
What’s changing, however, isn’t so much the format as it is the grammar. We’ve moved from video as a “showcase”—the glossy commercial that simply shows—to video as a connection: short, vertical, first-person content that doesn’t ask to be watched but to be experienced. The audience no longer wants just to see a place; it wants to understand what it would feel like to be there. And this shifts the focus of communicators from producing beautiful images to building recognizable, consistent emotions that resonate over time.
2. Generative artificial intelligence is transforming audiovisual production, and Runway is one of the leading platforms driving this evolution. For those who aren’t yet familiar with it, what is it, and what can it do? What opportunities does it offer compared to traditional production, and what are its limitations?
Runway is a generative AI platform for creating images and videos. Essentially, it allows you to generate clips based on text, an image, or an existing video; transform their style; animate characters; and extend or modify scenes. It has evolved significantly in recent months: its latest video model has outperformed offerings from Google and OpenAI in several benchmarks, and with Runway Characters It is possible to create persistent characters that maintain a consistent appearance and behavior across generations—one of the long-standing challenges in video AI. In addition, the platform also integrates third-party models such as Kling, Sora 2 Pro, and WAN, making it a true workspace rather than just a single tool.
The greatest benefit isn’t just saving time and money, but the opportunity to explore. You can test ten creative directions before choosing one, visualize an idea before shooting it, and tell stories that would be impossible or too expensive to produce with a film crew.
There are limitations, and they must be clearly stated: fine-tuning the outcome requires expertise; maintaining consistency in long narratives remains challenging; and there is an ongoing issue of transparency and authenticity, especially when depicting real places. Runway does not replace the storyteller’s perspective—it amplifies it, for better or for worse.
3. In a recent article for BTO, “The Paradox of Tourism”, we reflected on how the growing ease of producing content risks generating increasingly similar narratives. If today (almost) anyone can create stunning images and videos, aren’t we at risk of a new form of homogenization? And why, paradoxically, might human creativity become even more important in the age of AI?
The risk is real. When everyone has access to the same tools—and perhaps even the same prompts—the result tends to be average: technically perfect images that are all remarkably similar. Because of the way it works, AI is good at producing what is statistically likely. And what is likely is rarely memorable.
But this is precisely where the paradox lies: when technology becomes abundant, value shifts to what remains scarce. And what remains scarce is one’s point of view, one’s own experience, and one’s own thoughts derived from everything we have lived through. The ability to ask an original question, to choose what to show—and above all, what not to show—and to recognize a true idea among a hundred plausible variations.
That’s why I believe human creativity is becoming more important, not less. Its focus is shifting: less execution, more direction. The creative person becomes a sort of director and curator rolled into one. Those who use AI to do the same things faster than before will produce noise; those who use it to do things they couldn’t have imagined before will make a difference.
4. Tourism—and food and wine tourism in particular—often relies on recurring visual motifs. Can generative AI help us move beyond these clichés and create new visual narratives? How can we balance this creative freedom with the identity and authenticity of these places?
Food and wine culture is perhaps the sector most bound by its own conventions: the table set at sunset, the wine glass silhouetted against the light, Grandma’s hands kneading dough, the drone hovering over the vineyards. Beautiful images, but now so commonplace that they’ve become invisible.
AI can be a great help in breaking these patterns, because it lowers the cost of experimentation. We can ask ourselves what happens if we describe a wine from the perspective of the soil, a recipe as a journey through time, or a region through its atmosphere rather than its landscape. We can experiment with different visual styles—from illustration to the surreal—without having to stake our entire budget on a single idea.
The key to maintaining authenticity is to always start with something real: a story, a gesture, a producer, or a detail that belongs only to that place. AI should be used to reinterpret reality, not to invent it. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether the people who live in that area would recognize themselves in the story. And then there’s transparency: disclosing when content is generated doesn’t weaken the story—in fact, it makes it more credible.
5. In addition to making production faster and more cost-effective, AI can change the very way we conceive of a story. What new forms of storytelling are emerging? Is there a project that particularly impressed you with its originality?
Yes, and that’s the most interesting part. So far, we’ve mainly used AI to do what we already knew how to do, but more cost-effectively. But new languages are emerging that simply wouldn’t exist without these tools.
The first is the narrative of transformation: no longer a sequence of shots, but a continuous flow in which one image becomes another. A bunch of grapes that becomes a landscape, then a bottle, then a memory. It is a form of storytelling closer to dreams and memory than to classical cinema.
The second is the open-ended, customizable story: the same story adapted into dozens of versions for different audiences, languages, and seasons, while maintaining consistency in the characters and atmosphere.
The third, and perhaps the most radical, is interactive, real-time storytelling, with worlds and characters that respond to the viewer. We’re still in the early stages here, but the direction is clear: from video as a finished product to video as an experience.
Among the projects that impressed me, I’d like to mention Jacob Adler’s *Total Pixel Space*, which won an award at the Runway AI Film Festival. It doesn’t use AI to simulate reality, but rather places it at the heart of the narrative: an almost philosophical reflection on all possible images. It struck me because it demonstrates that the value lies not in the effect, but in the idea. It’s a film that could only have been created with this tool—and at the same time, could only have come from that mind.
6. At BTO, you’ll lead a Toolkit dedicated to generative storytelling for Food & Wine Tourism, featuring examples and experiments using Runway. What exactly will we see? And what would you like tourism and communications professionals to take away from your presentation?
I’d like this to be a very practical session. We’ll start with what’s happening today and the various opportunities available to us: from the initial idea to choosing a perspective, from reference images to the first videos we create. We’ll explore how to create coherent objects, settings, contexts, and characters; how to move from a cliché to a fresh perspective on the same subject; and how to use existing photos and materials to maintain a connection to the product and location. And we’ll also highlight the mistakes, because you learn much more from a flawed creation than from a perfect one.
I’d like the participants to take three things home with them.
The first is a method: AI works when there’s a clear idea behind it, and the real work is done before you even open the tool.
The second is a bit of courage: experimenting today costs very little, and those who work in tourism have extraordinary stories at their disposal that deserve less predictable ways of telling them.
The third is a simple ethical principle: start with the truth, be transparent, and always ask yourself whether the people who live in that area would recognize themselves in the story.
If people leave feeling inspired to give it a try, with new ideas, and a few more questions than when they came in, we’ll have done a good job.
The interview was conducted by Roberta Milano for the topic “Food & Wine Tourism.”
For those who aren’t familiar with it, Runway is one of the leading international platforms for AI-generated video, used in film and advertising and at the heart of an international community of filmmakers, artists, and creatives who are experimenting with new audiovisual languages.
The event with Giuliano Ambrosio will consist of two parts:
- TheNovember 11 at 10:00 a.m., in Hall #4, he will lead the Toolbox titled “THE NEXT ERA OF GENERATIVE AI STORYTELLING. Creative Communication in Food & Wine Tourism”, dedicated to the new frontiers of creativity, video production, and storytelling in the era of generative AI, featuring practical examples and experiments using Runway.
- In addition, on November 10 at 3:00 p.m., in the exhibition area, you’ll have the chance to meet Giuliano during the 1-on-1 training session for Humans Train AI, an opportunity for direct interaction to explore the potential of generative AI and its creative applications.
Choose here the BTO 2026 ticket that best suits your needs.
We look forward to seeing you in Florence!
