Over the past few weeks, the a16z speedrun campaign has sparked an exciting wave of conversation across LinkedIn and X - a series of future-forward prompts exploring how AI will transform everything from entertainment to utility apps, simulations, and creative tools.

We’ve been following along with genuine interest—not just because these posts are insightful, but because they echo many of the same themes, intuitions, and cultural shifts we’ve been betting on over the last few years at Genies, along with our investments and philosophies with Humans. These ideas highlight a strong signal for where the industry is headed and how we can expect to see this next era of technology evolve.

We wanted to reflect and memorialize our thoughts on the campaign and the conversation happening at large, so this blog was intended to connect the dots between where the industry conversation is heading and where we’ve been investing our own mindshare and tech across Genies and Humans. 

1. "AI Companions in Cozy Simulations"

We've always believed your digital self should learn and evolve alongside you. With the rise of AI agents and AI companions, we believe these simple chatbots experiences shouldn’t live in just a sterile chat UI forever. They should come to life in games and experiences (in our case Party apps) - acting as a friend that evolves with you based on your interactions. Whether these are cozy experiences or chaotic ones, they should be experiences where emotional and social connection is core to the interactions between humans and AI.

We’ve spent the last few years developing LLM-powered avatars that can think, learn, express, play and interact with you and other avatars in real-time in a way that makes them feel truly alive in digital spaces. The key to our Smart Avatars is that they are game-ready assets. Our Avatar Framework transforms AI companions into playable and interoperable avatars, allowing you to bring your intelligent, persistent identity across different experiences and apps. We see avatars not as static profile pictures or chatbots, but as the new interface for your AI.

2. "Vibe Creation Platforms"

It’s no question that the rise of AIGC has made content creation more accessible and more seamless - vibe creation is happening everywhere these days.

At Genies, our guiding mantras that have informed our UGC tech are:

1. Anyone can create anything: Our technology stack includes a suite of UGC tools that allow anyone to create any type of AI avatar (including fashion, props, behaviors, and personalities) and AI avatar experiences.

2. Everything works with everything: Our Avatar Framework which uses machine learning and computer graphics to ensure interoperability and compatibility across all user generated AI Avatars and AI Avatar experiences - providing limitless utility for all creations.

Our entire platform and tools have been designed for intuitive creativity, especially for non-technical users. From auto generating your game-ready avatars with photos, to customizing your wardrobe and props with our AIGC tools, our tech stack empowers anyone to become a creator.

And because Smart Avatars can interpret intent, personality, mood, and context, they become collaborators in the creation process—not just tools. 

We’ve brought this philosophy into Humans where we look for founders that are revolutionizing the way we work, play, socialize, spend, create, and live. We believe that agentic AI represents a fundamental progression in technology that allows humans to be infinitely more creative and efficient. Pika and Hamming AI, two companies we’ve backed, are both paving the way for creation with video and audio creation, respectively. These kinds of emerging platforms are unlocking opportunities for creators, ultimately expanding the scope of human ambition. 

3. "AI Agents for Creative Storytelling"

This speedrun prompt captures a vision we deeply align with: UGC platforms that put narrative, identity, and creativity at the center.

Party Apps are exactly that. They’re not just games—they’re next-gen UGC ecosystems built around Smart Avatars, branded IP, and UGC tools. Every Party app is developed around unique IP - anchored by the IP's Smart Avatars, lore, and themes, which makes the experiences inherently narrative-driven from day one.

But it’s what users can do with that framework that makes the model truly unique. With our AIGC-powered creation tools, anyone can create fashion, props, avatars and gameplay inside a Party—no technical experience required. That means the power to expand or even reshape the lore and brand isn’t just in the hands of developers or IP holders—it’s open to all fans and users.

A user might generate their own Smart Avatar character, design custom props, and add a new game experience inside an existing Party. As more users contribute content, the ecosystem becomes richer and more dynamic as its shaped by the community.

We believe the next big franchises won’t come from a single studio—they’ll emerge from platforms where AI unlocks creativity and fans help build the world or experiences they want to engage with.

4. "A New Generation of Rule-Breaking Gamemakers"

The latest speedrun post invites developers (or really any game creator) to challenge the long-standing rules of game design. We couldn’t agree more.

With Parties, every user generates their own unique Smart Avatar, which becomes a hyper-customized AI companion that can be used as a game-ready asset for dynamic play within Party experiences, along with personalized conversations. Because each Smart Avatar is fully unique to each user—reflecting their mood, memory, and behavior—you can imagine how adaptive world-building, reactive characters, and AI-assisted content generation can unlock highly personalized game experiences. Players don’t just enter an experience to play—their avatar helps shape it, influence it, and leave their mark.

Imagine a multiplayer rhythm game inside a Party where each player’s Smart Avatar influences the speed, difficulty, and style of gameplay. A player with a highly energetic, competitive avatar personality might experience faster beats, more aggressive rival encounters, and intense performance challenges. Meanwhile, a more relaxed or collaborative avatar might trigger slower tempos, cooperative objectives, or meditative visuals. The gameplay dynamically adapts based on how the avatar has evolved over time—what it remembers, it interacts with other avatars, and what it values—making every play-through feel personalized and emotionally attuned to the user behind the avatar.

And as AI tools continue to lower the barrier to creation, our UGC tools allow individual creators to launch meaningful, fun games or assets that would’ve previously required larger teams and more technical expertise. This shift favors vision and storytelling as much as scale and production.

Beyond "breaking the rules", AI redefines what’s possible—unlocking a catalyst for limitless creativity.

5. "Delightful Utility Apps"

Personalization is at the core of how we think about delightful utility. Tailoring an experience to each user, so it truly feels personal and limitless to them is key, and is what can create those “aha” moments with every touchpoint.

With Genies, users can easily become creators through tools like no-code game builders, avatar autogeneration, and AIGC-powered fashion and prop editors. Whether you're crafting digital fashion, building experiences, or launching an interactive Smart Avatar avatar through Parties, you can shape your experience through your creations. These creations also aren’t siloed—they’re interoperable across Parties, carrying value and utility into other experiences and platforms.

This is also where IP comes to life within Parties. Smart Avatars, built around beloved talent or brand characters, aren’t just decorative—they’re dynamic, AI-powered entities that fans can interact with, learn from, and play alongside. Since 2018, we’ve helped celebrities bring their identities into digital experiences—and now, with LLMs, IP-driven identities can evolve into fully interactive Smart Avatars.

Whether you're remixing digital fashion, designing game elements, or engaging with iconic characters, every moment is a blend of utility and expression.

This also ties into one of the core philosophies we share with Humans: products should maximize human potential and connectivity. It’s why at Humans we’ve been excited about companies like Omi (an AI wearable for productivity that blends delight with personalized knowledge) and Coverd (personal finance, but gamified).

Delightful utility isn't about novelty. It's about unlocking new value through creativity and shared experiences. And when you lower the barrier to entry while also making an experience feel more personalized, it can inspire a whole new realm of possibilities for creation and engagement.

Final Thought 

The a16z speedrun campaign has highlighted some incredibly promising directions and hypotheses in consumer AI —and we’re excited to see the broader industry spotlight turning towards similar concepts we’ve been nurturing over the years.

We see the path towards making digital identity and AI accessible to all - and most importantly, making it creative, intuitive, and humanized. We're excited to see how this next era unfolds.

Ps - good luck to all speedrun applicants ✌️