AI-R Studio won Higgsfield's inaugural Adathon competition, a month-long contest that challenged agencies to produce a finished ad using AI tools. The winner was announced Wednesday at Brandweek 2026 in Atlanta, where the Mexico-based studio received $50,000 in credits to the Higgsfield AI media platform.
The competition, launched in July in partnership with ADWEEK, asked creative teams to "skip the deck" and move directly from concept to a completed spot. Teams had four weeks to write and produce their work. Judges scored submissions equally on creative idea, brand storytelling and effectiveness, craft elements like camerawork and sound design, and realism.
The winning spot
AI-R Studio's ad opens with AI-generated footage of a toucan and a gorilla in a jungle. A director then yells cut, telling the actors that the client no longer wants AI. The AI gorilla is replaced by a human in a gorilla suit who complains, "Bro, are you for real? I can't breathe in this thing!"
A rendition of The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" plays as a series of AI-generated images follow - a fish pleading for its life in a sushi restaurant, animated mechs stopping mid-battle to ask if they're still shooting. The spot closes with the tag: "Don't kill the AI stars. They're just trying to improve your video."
Behind the studio
AI-R Studio is the AI and hybrid production arm of Pico.Love OS, a creative operating system built by creative tech agency Pico.Love. The studio describes the people combining human creative judgment with generative video tools as "prompt artists." The winning spot credited one creative prompt artist and five prompt artists.
A Higgsfield spokesperson said the competition was designed to show what happens when creative teams skip the usual pre-production hurdles. "Anyone who has worked in agency new business knows how much has to happen before a single frame gets made: the deck, the approvals, the sign-offs, the rounds of refinement before anything ever ships," they said. "We wanted to see what becomes possible when creative teams can move directly from an idea to a finished, publishable spot."
The judging panel
The panel included Zoë Ruderman, CCO of ADWEEK; AJ Coyne, CMO of Monzo; Elav Horwitz, global chief innovation officer of WPP; Michael Ventura, strategic advisor of Higgsfield; and Linda Bethea, CMO and board member of Higgsfield. The Higgsfield platform, which provides access to multiple generative AI tools, has been used by musicians including Snoop Dogg, Madonna, and Will Smith.
Why this matters for creatives
The Adathon format signals a shift in how agencies might pitch and produce work. Rather than spending weeks on decks and approvals before a single frame is made, the competition proved that a small team with AI for creatives can deliver a finished, broadcast-quality spot in under a month. For creative professionals, the takeaway is practical: the barrier between an idea and a publishable asset is shrinking. The skill that matters now is knowing how to direct AI output - what AI-R Studio calls prompt artistry - rather than just managing production pipelines.
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