AGBO Executives Tell Tokyo Market That AI Should Serve Storytellers
AI should help artists tell stories rather than replace them, two executives from the Los Angeles production company AGBO told a keynote audience in Tokyo on Thursday, 29 October. Variety reported that Chris Brearton and Dominic Hughes spoke at TIFFCOM, the film market that runs alongside the Tokyo International Film Festival.
TIFFCOM is a trade event where sellers and buyers of films and TV shows meet to discuss projects and deals. This year's edition runs from 28 to 30 October, and The Hollywood Reporter reported that AI was added as a keynote topic for 2026.
Brearton is a partner and business leader at AGBO, which develops entertainment across several platforms. Hughes is the company's chief scientific officer and technology leader. AGBO has been involved in films including Extraction, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Gray Man, Extraction 2 and The Electric State.
Brearton pointed to the company's founders, Anthony and Joe Russo, who started out early in their careers on the television comedy Arrested Development. He said they used digital cameras and editing to shape a script that would otherwise have been too long and too expensive to film. Brearton argued that humans are uniquely placed to tell stories, and that AGBO uses technology to put artists first.
Hughes raised the example of Pixar, which he said developed the technology behind 3D rendering. Technology alone was not enough for the studio, he said, and it played a supporting role in telling stories. He said AGBO thinks about its own tools the same way.
Looking ahead, Brearton said AI will matter most in the middle term through efficiencies in production, such as fixing problems and taking on tasks that slow the creative process. Hughes put it more simply: AI is making artists better storytellers, not replacing them.
TIFFCOM's official announcement described the keynote as a chance for the two speakers to explore how emerging technologies can act as creative partners. The conference programme lists the session as "Technology and Storytelling."
For anyone curious about how films get made, the talk offers a look at how one production company describes its place in that process. The session focused on the company's own view of AI, not on any particular project.
