【Kai】Two weeks ago, OpenAI launched Sora2, their AI video generation platform. 627,000 downloads in the first week. Number one on the App Store. Everyone's talking about it. But here's what most people are missing: this isn't just another AI tool. This is the beginning of the end for content creation as we know it. And if you're working in consumer apps, especially social media, you need to understand what's happening right now - because the companies that get this wrong are going to be extinct within two years. I spent the last two weeks diving deep into this phenomenon. I analyzed the download data, interviewed early adopters, talked to marketing professionals who are already using it, and studied how it compares to TikTok and Instagram's early days. What I discovered will change how you think about the future of social media forever. Let me start with the most important finding: Sora2 isn't competing with TikTok and Instagram on their terms. It's changing the rules of the game entirely. Traditional social media is built on capturing reality - you film something that happened, edit it, and share it. Sora2 is built on generating imagination - you think of something, type it, and it exists. That's not an incremental improvement. That's a paradigm shift. Here's why this matters to you specifically. I interviewed Sarah, a content strategist who's been experimenting with Sora2 for brand campaigns. She told me something that stopped me cold: "We used to spend weeks planning a single video shoot. Now I can generate 50 different concepts in an afternoon and test them all." Think about what that means for your business model if you're in content creation, advertising, or social media. But let me give you the real numbers that prove this isn't just hype. I talked to Marcus, who runs a marketing agency. He's already using Sora2 to create ads for clients at $1 per video instead of the $200 they used to pay for user-generated content. That's a 200x efficiency gain. He's not talking about replacing high-end production - he's talking about creating an entirely new category of content that was previously impossible. Now, you might be thinking, "This sounds too good to be true. What's the catch?" I thought the same thing. So I dug deeper into the user experience and found the real story. The platform has a 2.8-star rating on the App Store. Users are frustrated by the invite-only system, technical glitches, and inconsistent quality. I interviewed Jake, an aspiring creator who downloaded the app hoping to start a "faceless" YouTube channel. He couldn't even get access after two weeks of trying. The promise is there, but the execution is still rough. But here's what everyone's missing while they focus on these short-term problems: the Jobs-to-be-Done analysis reveals something profound. I identified three core jobs that users are hiring Sora2 to perform, and understanding these jobs is crucial for predicting the future. Job one: "Instantly manifest my imaginative vision." This is what creators like Alex, a digital artist I interviewed, are using it for. He told me, "I can create scenes that would be utterly impossible or prohibitively expensive with traditional filming." This isn't about replacing phone cameras - it's about creating content categories that never existed before. Job two: "Achieve scalable, cost-effective content production." This is the business use case that's already disrupting the advertising industry. Companies are using Sora2 to generate hundreds of ad variations for A/B testing at a fraction of traditional costs. Job three: "Generate monetizable content with minimal effort." This is the most interesting one because it's creating an entirely new population of content creators - people who were previously blocked by the technical barriers of video production. Based on this analysis, I can tell you exactly what's going to happen next. There are three possible scenarios, and I'll tell you which one is most likely. Scenario one: Sora2 becomes a niche tool for professionals. This is the least likely outcome because the user interest is too broad and the use cases too diverse. Scenario two: The technology gets absorbed by existing platforms as a new feature. This is already happening. Meta launched "Vibes" for Instagram, Google has Veo 3. The incumbents are moving fast to co-opt this technology. Scenario three: Sora2 builds its own social ecosystem and becomes the next TikTok. This is OpenAI's dream, but it's the hardest path because building a social platform requires different skills than building AI models. Here's my conclusion: the most likely future is a hybrid. Sora2 will succeed as an "engine" powering content creation across the internet through APIs, while simultaneously trying to build its own destination app. The former is almost guaranteed to succeed. The latter is a high-risk, high-reward bet. But here's what this means for you practically. If you're working on a consumer app that involves user-generated content, you have about six months to make a critical decision: build, buy, or partner with AI video generation technology. Waiting is not an option. If you're at an incumbent platform like TikTok or Instagram, you need to integrate AI video creation into your app immediately. Don't think of it as a separate feature - make it as natural as applying a filter. Your goal is to prevent users from needing to leave your platform to access this technology. If you're at an adjacent company - maybe you make creative software or run an e-commerce platform - you should be exploring API partnerships with Sora2 or similar services right now. The market for tools that support AI creators is about to explode. Here's the key insight that will determine who wins and loses: this isn't about the technology being better or worse than human-created content. It's about enabling entirely new categories of creation and dramatically lowering the barriers to entry for content production. The companies that understand this will use AI to expand their creator base and give existing creators superpowers. The companies that treat it as a threat to "authentic" content will find themselves defending a shrinking market. I've already changed my own content strategy based on this research. I'm experimenting with AI-generated B-roll for my videos and using it for rapid prototyping of visual concepts. Not to replace human creativity, but to augment it and move faster than my competitors. My recommendation for you: start experimenting now, even if the technology isn't perfect. The learning curve is real, and the companies that master these tools first will have an insurmountable advantage when the technology inevitably improves. The content creation revolution has already begun. The question isn't whether AI will transform how we make and consume media - it's whether you'll be leading that transformation or getting left behind by it.