The next creator economy won’t be built around entertainment

Everyone is talking about how AI will help creators produce more content. I think that is only half the story. The bigger shift is that AI will not just make today’s creators more productive. It will give rise to an entirely new generation of creators.

Over the past decade, the creator economy has enabled writers, streamers, educators and entertainers to build audiences and turn them into businesses. Platforms such as YouTube, Substack, Patreon and Twitch did not simply help creators reach more people. They created entirely new business models around individuals rather than organisations.

That economy is now entering a new phase. Earlier this year, MrBeast assembled a dedicated team to build AI-powered infrastructure for creators rather than simply expanding his media business. That is an important signal. It suggests that the creator economy is maturing. As creators become businesses, infrastructure becomes increasingly valuable.

Investors should pay attention.

AI is about to accelerate that evolution even further. Not simply by making today’s creators more productive, but by enabling an entirely new wave of creators.

A different kind of creator

When people think about AI-powered creators, they usually imagine writers, designers, developers or filmmakers producing more with fewer resources. They are missing a much bigger opportunity.

The first creator economy proved that individuals could build businesses around attention. Many of those businesses sell entertainment, cosmetics or energy drinks.

The next generation of creators may build something very different. They will build communities capable of solving complex real-world problems.

Think about a doctor not simply raising awareness about patient safety, but leading a community capable of changing healthcare policy. A journalist not simply reporting on threats to press freedom, but organising a movement that defends it.

A scientist not simply communicating research, but mobilising public support for evidence-based policies. Or local residents not simply discussing housing, but building a community capable of transforming their neighbourhood.

Throughout history, humanity’s greatest advances have rarely been achieved by individuals acting alone. Civil rights, universal education and environmental protection all advanced because communities organised around a shared purpose.

Until recently, building and sustaining those communities required significant time, specialised skills and operational resources. Most people simply could not do it. AI is rapidly lowering those barriers.

Creating content is becoming easier. Communication can increasingly be personalised at scale. Community management can be automated. Research, planning and administration that once required teams can increasingly be handled by individuals.

Just as AI is creating a new generation of solo entrepreneurs, it is also creating a new generation of impact entrepreneurs. Their goal is not simply to attract attention. It is to mobilise people around a shared purpose. And history suggests that collective action is one of humanity’s most powerful engines of progress.

Every generation of creators spurs new infrastructure opportunities

The creator economy did not become a multi-billion-dollar market simply because creators appeared. It became one because some platforms dramatically expanded what creators could achieve. By lowering barriers and providing purpose-built infrastructure, they enabled far more people to become successful creators and businesses.

Substack enabled far more people to become writers. Shopify did the same for merchants. YouTube, Patreon and creator-focused software did it for video creators.

The companies that built the infrastructure for creators often captured as much value as the creators themselves. Recent events suggest the same pattern could emerge again.

As AI enables millions more people to build impact communities, they are facing remarkably similar challenges: attracting members, communicating effectively, coordinating participation, building trust and creating sustainable business models.

Today, most of them rely on a patchwork of tools designed for completely different purposes. Social media for amplification. Messaging apps for coordination. Spreadsheets for operations. Separate tools for payments, newsletters and community management.

That works while communities remain small and becomes much harder when they begin to scale.

Why investors should pay attention

The biggest software opportunities rarely emerge because someone invents a new technology. They emerge because technology changes human behaviour. The internet created a new wave of merchants. Smartphones created a new generation of developers. AI is now giving birth to a new era of impact builders.

One benchmark illustrates why this matters.

Within the creator economy, reaching 1,000 subscribers is widely regarded as the point at which a creator can begin building a sustainable business. Reaching that milestone on Substack takes creators an average of around 425 days.

Now imagine a vertical where communities can reach that scale dramatically faster because causes spread far more virally than most other types of content.

The number of people capable of building profitable communities could increase dramatically. And so could demand for the infrastructure they depend on.

Looking beyond the AI race

Most conversations about AI investment focus on foundation models, copilots or vertical AI applications. Those are important opportunities. But history suggests that some of the biggest companies are built not around the technology itself, but around the new behaviours that technology enables.

The creator economy was not simply created by better publishing tools. It emerged because millions of individuals suddenly became entrepreneurs.

AI appears ready to trigger another shift.

The next creator economy may not be defined by those who capture the most attention, but by those who solve more complex problems by bringing people together. Not because people suddenly care more about solving problems, but because AI is removing the barriers that once prevented them from becoming creators in the first place.

If history teaches us anything, it is that societies change when communities organise around a shared purpose. AI could dramatically increase the number of people capable of making that happen.

That is why investors should pay close attention.

The companies that build the infrastructure these communities depend on will become some of Europe’s most valuable startups. The next European unicorn will not come from another AI model. It will come from capturing the opportunity that those models make possible.