And so, after months of generative frenzy and faced with an endless flood of images, videos, and new AI tools, a central question arises: what if we're not just consuming images but also marveling at feats? The enthusiastic, global, and extraordinary reception to Intermarché's Christmas ad(1), animated traditionally, in contrast to the massive rejection of AI-generated campaigns by Coca-Cola or McDonald’s(2), suggests something: in this voracious abundance, perhaps it's the trace of human effort we're seeking to rediscover.

From image-object to image-stream.

When discussing the topic of images and their transformations, it's hard not to invoke Walter Benjamin, who almost a century ago questioned the status of images in the age of their technical reproducibility and theorized, among other things, the concept of aura—this unique presence of an authentic work, its "hic et nunc" (here and now), in essence, its singular spatial-temporal anchorage carrying within it the history of its genesis, the creator's gesture, the moment, the context, and the intention(3).

However, with generative AI, we cross an unprecedented threshold in the long history of images because, in this new paradigm, they radically change regime, reconfiguring the workshop for the flow, the "here and now" for "everywhere and now" and the aura for speed. The generated image no longer arises from a creative "hic et nunc" but from a delocalized algorithmic process, floating in an indescribable temporal and geographical space.

The erosion of attention.

We've long evolved in an image-saturated environment, and our attention dwindles increasingly in the face of this unending stream, a sensation greatly amplified since the advent of artificially generated images. This erosion perhaps reveals something essential, buried beneath the flow—that a part of our aesthetic pleasure comes from the awareness of the human gesture hidden behind the images, from the uniqueness, the effort expended, the cultivated obsession, and the time invested in the service of a vision. Surely, we all need to admire the effort as much as the result, as we are craving behind-the-scenes, works-in-progress, studio visits, making-of—all that transforms a work into a human epic, thus revealing a sum of conscious decisions and limits transcended by the strength of a conviction.

Then we realize that our desire is not solely aesthetic but also evidential. We don't go to museums to witness miracles but to encounter proof of commitment.

The absence of witness.

Generative AI produces spectacle but not achievement; it shows us the result without the saga, the effect without the cause, the magic without the illusionist, thus altering an essential dimension in creating a work: its testimonial dimension.

By "absence of witness," we must understand that an AI-generated work does not bear the trace of a lived human journey, it bears witness neither to a personal history nor a long learning process, nor does it truly testify to overcoming failures or cultivated obsessions. An AI work is merely a story without stories where, in its primary sense, a work remains a witness to a specific human adventure, a conviction forged in experience, invisible to the naked eye yet felt as an invisible signature, even if many artists and creatives put their experiences, visions, and experiences in the service of AI to invent or confront new forms of visual writing. In the emergence of these new disciplines, the testimonial dimension shifts from the isolated image to the coherence of an approach, requiring contextualization to be fully perceived and recognized. The challenge then becomes making the journey visible, the stubborn choice of prompts, the curation among thousands of variations, the construction of a personal grammar in dialogue with the machine. Some creators are already on this path, treating AI not as a solution but as a productive constraint, and when the process is told, the image regains weight.

The ambitions of the image.

There is nothing condemnable in this mutation; we must simply admit that two value regimes now coexist in the image-making system—not two degrees of quality but two usage regimes with their own legitimacies, where one narrates while the other optimizes. And if AI logically excels in throughput, the image-object itself becomes rare, regaining its symbolic value precisely through this rarity.

Because not all images bear the same ambition nor meet the same need, and in the Communication professions notably, these two regimes coexist depending on the stakes: when it comes to rapidly producing multiple iterations, format adaptations, or variations on already established visual codes, AI finds its natural legitimacy by freeing creative teams from repetitive tasks and allowing them to explore more widely; but when a campaign has to carry a singular vision, embody brand conviction, or create an emotional rupture, it's the regime of the image-object that imposes itself, where the testimonial dimension becomes central, where the sum of creative choices, strategic decisions, and art direction builds that depth that makes an image not just inform but leave a mark.

Art direction itself evolves in this environment by arbitrating between the speed of systems and the slowness of convictions, deciding when the efficiency of throughput suffices and when proof of commitment needs to be built. Thus, AI allows for freeing up time on high-volume productions to invest more in projects where the testimonial dimension becomes a strategic issue, transforming this redistribution of creative time into a genuine stance, in which AI can also play a different role—not as an end but as a research material, an exploration space, or a productive constraint.

Towards an economy of admiration?

Because when everything shines, nothing really shines, and when everything becomes possible, nothing really astonishes, we discover that abundance without effort ends up losing its appeal and that our attention economy is not infinite, growing weary and becoming selective in the face of the incessant flow of generated content.

And if generative AI amazes in its ability to simulate, reproduce, and combine, it astonishes less and less as the effect of amazement diminishes, no longer impressing—not because it lacks power, but because it cannot convey conviction, it feels nothing and proves nothing.

We may then be entering an era of an economy of admiration, not out of reactionary nostalgia but due to aesthetic necessity, where the desire shifts from rendering to expenditure, from the spectacular to the feat, for if the spectacular captures attention, only the feat builds trust, and in a world saturated with signs, trust becomes the true rarity.

Located imperfection, assumed constraint, visible renunciation become as many indicators of a human trace left behind, confirmed by the trend of Naive Design, and this is where difficulty becomes distinction again, not as fetish but as a condition for the emergence of meaning that surpasses mere pleasure, where specialists embody what AI cannot simulate, this intentionality forged in effort and driven by personal conviction.

We perhaps seek less to see than to believe.

AI doesn't remove intention, it removes proof by default, exploring, accelerating, multiplying, making it a formidable ally, but it neither lives constraint nor failure, bears no obsession, revealing the paradox of an innocent power that compels us to reconsider what we really seek in images.

The image doesn't collapse, it changes its center of gravity: the flow prospers while the object becomes rare, the spectacular wears out when the evidential becomes more valued, and AI acts as a magnifying glass revealing that we seek less to see than to believe, less to consume than to admire.

Thus, admiration, so particularly human, can only arise from the recognition of a journey replete with deep convictions because what truly matters is not generating but witnessing, for when everything becomes possible, only "the human impossible" retains the power to surprise us.

Franck Luminier, Creative Director, Insign.

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This viewpoint deliberately focuses on the aesthetic and testimonial value of images. It leaves aside the broadly documented debate on the "reality" of images (deepfakes, accuracy, authentication, traceability), so as not to confuse the question of meaning with that of mistrust.

(1) Romance Agency and Illogic Studios for Intermarché, 2025.

(2) In face of general uproar, McDonald's Netherlands withdrew its 2025 Christmas ad. 

(3) Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935).