Next-Gen Experience Innovation
Human-first AI innovation with Gen Zs for global entertainment business
Multi-month strategic design engagement pioneering Gen Z co-design at scale; using AI to amplify human insight and rapidly develop new category propositions for a business experiencing generational disruption.
The challenge
A global business operating across multiple markets faced a rapid generational shift. Despite market leadership, their core business was increasingly disconnected from younger audiences who represented an entirely different paradigm of entertainment consumption. The brief: create new categories of experience that drew on existing brand DNA but were sufficiently untethered to appeal to a new generation. These concepts needed genuine potential to drive significant growth. The company needed tangible, testable futures, not strategy decks.
Our approach
We positioned Gen Z as co-designers, not research subjects. Deep primary research—interviews, ethnographic studies, co-creative workshops—established how Gen Z actually live and seek entertainment. These human insights grounded everything that followed.
AI research platforms then delivered the depth of qualitative insight with the scale of quantitative validation. AI-enabled interviews reached hundreds of Gen Z participants across global markets. AI-powered testing tools enabled continuous iteration: test, learn, refine, test again. Concepts evolved through constant dialogue with the target audience.
AI design and prototyping tools compressed timelines from months to days. We created high-fidelity product experiences that stakeholders could experience directly. Co-creative workshops brought Gen Z into design sessions alongside client teams, generating better concepts while building organizational empathy.
The impact
We delivered multiple high-fidelity product concepts demonstrating new entertainment categories—working prototypes showing experience, visual language, and core interactions. Each came with evidence from testing with hundreds of young people across global markets.
The work identified genuine white space that could open new revenue streams while remaining anchored in brand DNA and operational capabilities. We provided commercial assessment, technology strategy, go-to-market frameworks, and delivery roadmaps. Exploration cycles compressed from months to weeks, allowing leadership to make strategic choices with high-fidelity evidence.
What makes this work
The gap between prediction and testing has collapsed. We built functioning demonstrations that could be tested immediately rather than planning solutions that might never resonate.
Generational insights cannot be extracted—they must be co-created. Working with Gen Z shaped concepts at a fundamental level. AI amplified human insight rather than replacing it, creating research both more insightful and more efficient than traditional methods.
The making-first difference
This work exemplifies Made by Many's philosophy: stop talking about it, start making it. High-fidelity prototypes generated better decisions than strategic documentation. Making abstract ideas concrete surfaced critical questions immediately. Moving faster forced clearer thinking and continuous validation.
We helped a major entertainment business identify genuine growth opportunities that resonate with a previously unreachable generation. The concepts are investable, buildable, and validated for commercial commitment. They represent a bridge between legacy business and the next generation, built through collaboration rather than assumption. We don't theorize about the future. We make it tangible, test it, and help our clients decide if it's worth pursuing.
Explore more
