Chaitanya Chinchlikar, vice-president and business head, chief technology officer and head of emerging media at Whistling Woods International, and chief executive of India’s National Centre of Excellence for animation, visual effects, gaming, comics and extended reality, said AI is a turbocharger, not a wrecking ball, for the AVGC industry. A chartered accountant by training who received the SMPTE Excellence in Education Medal in 2024 and was invited into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2025, he said that after two decades in media and entertainment education, technology has changed the tools used many times, but he sees this as evolution rather than a threat. The industry will move from asking who can operate software to who has the best idea, and with everyone accessing the same AI tools, the differentiator will be taste, storytelling, imagination and original creative choices. Education must prepare students to adapt to tools, producing professionals comfortable as both artist and technologist. GenAI was already speeding up ideation, pre-visualisation, design, compositing and post-production, and roles involving repetitive execution would evolve, but strong artists, storytellers and directors would still be needed, with the nature of jobs changing more than the need for them. AI should be taught as a tool, not a substitute for thinking.