# What is neumorphic media? November 9, 2026 · Status: public Tags: neumorphic, neumorphic media, AI on the Lot > Generative AI presents two categories of change to creative work: doing the same thing faster, and doing something altogether new. ![What is neumorphic media?](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/hfvc9d2x/production/3736755394983c9a420f5e6de333539e38a23f7b-1920x1080.jpg) Generative AI presents two categories of change to creative work. It allows you to do the same things as before, but faster and cheaper. You can write a report, or code a website, or create a still image, or create edit a 30-second video faster than before. It also allows you to do previously unimaginable things. You can create a video avatar that responds to you in real-time. The difference between these two categories is the difference between **skeuomorphic** and **neumorphic** applications of AI. And it’s a topic worth considering for anyone interested in the future of the creative arts. ## Skeuomorphic vs Neumorphic Media The term '**Skeuomorphic**' refers to features inherited from an older format where they served a real purpose. Computers use a trash can icon to convey deleting files, an electric fireplace has fake logs, iPhones use a notepad for to indicate a text editor, and electric light fixtures often mimic a lit candle or open flame. The term skeuomorphic originates from design thinking. Skeuomorphic design takes old analogs and uses them in newer technology because they’re familiar, even though they are no longer necessary. The term '**Neumorphic**' refers to novel features enabled by a new format or technology. These features are impossible in any older format because they depend on a property only the new technology has. If you're thinking neumorphically, you are thinking natively to the medium and format in which you're working. For filmmakers and artists, the terms are especially interesting when applied to media. Skeuomorphic then refers to using generative AI to create media within the inherited forms and restraints of old technologies. The invention of motion pictures are a great example. Early cinema resembled radio plays, and for many decades camera direction and cinematography took their cues from theater. Films like Citizen Kane are so seminal precisely because they make innovations that would have been impossible in a stage play like montage. Famously, after seeing _Jaws_ Alfred Hitchcock remarked “Young Spielberg is the first one of us who doesn't see the proscenium arch”. Hitchcock meant Spielberg was the first director to see cinema with fresh eyes as a new medium, not a photographed stage play. In other words, Hitchcock was calling Spielberg "neumorphic". ## What is Neumorphic Media? In our case, neumorphic media refers to media whose very format depends on generative AI’s unique properties. A familiar format like a 90-minute movie, even if made completely with AI would, not qualify as neumorphic. It still reproduces an old form that's possible without AI. A decent working test is as follows: if you removed generative AI from a project, would it be impossible to create it or would it just be more expensive? If it merely costs more money, time, or labor, then it’s not probably neumorphic. If you literally couldn’t create it without generative AI, it’s probably neumorphic. AI on the Lot co-founder Mike Gioia [coined the term](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adaOEuaSQUA) to describe the experimental applications of AI that didn't fit into traditional media types he expects to emerge over the next few years. Doug Shapiro improved upon the term significantly in his piece “[Are you a skeuomorph or a neumorph?](https://dougshapiro.substack.com/p/are-you-a-skeuromorph-or-a-neumorph)”. Here Shapiro wrote “_The first applications of a new medium are usually mere imitations of the prior medium, also called skeuomorphism. Over time, however, creatives learn to leverage the new properties of the medium to do new things, or what we’ll call neumorphism._”. if you find this concept interesting, we recommend you read Shapiro's piece in full. ## Neumorphic Media Represents All the Growth in the Industry At AI on the Lot, we’re very interested in neumorphic applications of generative AI. These project represent a massive expansion of market size for the media & entertainment industry. While there’s much hemming and hawing about generative AI’s impact on media & entertainment's economic model, it is our strongly held conviction that generative AI will greatly expand the footprint of media in people's lives, and hence the revenue, jobs, and activity in the space. Most industry experts and pundits overlook this outcome because their forecasts focus on what generative AI will make cheaper instead of considering what it will make possible. The oversight is understandable because new formats are hard to see from inside a legacy industry. The onset of social media provides a very recent lesson in the same vein. The Creator Economy (creators using Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, and other digital video platforms) has added about $300 billion to the media industry, almost out of thin air. It's difficult to predict how exactly generative AI will expand the entertainment industry, but we can be confident the growth will come largely from neumorphic applications of the technology. --- Source: https://www.aionthelot.com/news/what-is-neumorphic-media Publisher: AI on the Lot (https://www.aionthelot.com)