Generation got cheap. Judgment did not.

Digiday reports that AI agents at S4 Capital's Monks can now produce 50 on-brief ideas in about ten minutes. The same piece says finding the few good ones can take long enough that the effort is not worth it. Monks leans on subject matter experts to choose, and it is debating whether to add friction back into its own process on purpose.

That is the useful detail in an otherwise familiar story about speed. Making options is no longer the expensive part. Choosing is.

Choosing well depends on knowing what an idea does once it meets people. In live work, that knowledge comes from watching rooms: which moment pulled a crowd forward, and which looked strong in the deck and died on the floor. That record is built one event at a time.

The two-week sprint can become two days. Judging which idea deserves the room still takes years.