As artificial intelligence accelerates the creation of photorealistic images and videos, Adam Mosseri says the next competitive frontier for creators will not be technical quality, but authenticity. In a Dec. 31 post outlining its outlook for 2026, Instagram’s chief argued that the expansion of AI-generated content will fundamentally change how viewers evaluate what feels real online.
Mr. Mosseri saw this change as a problem of abundance. Tools that can generate compelling photos, videos, and even audio are rapidly improving, reducing the cost of content creation across the Internet. As a result, he said, the qualities that once distinguished creators — relatable, personal, visually authentic — are now increasingly reproducible by anyone with access to the right software.
“Authenticity is rapidly becoming a scarce resource,” Mosseri wrote, noting that feeds are already beginning to be filled with synthetic content that is difficult to distinguish from traditional captured media. Early AI output often includes visible information such as overly smooth skin or stylized lighting, but he suggested that these flaws are temporary and will disappear as the tool matures.
The importance of creators is even more important
Rather than predicting a decline in creator relevance, Mosseri argued for the opposite. As AI-generated content expands, individual creators will become even more valuable as trust shifts from organizations to people, he said.
Mr. Mosseri pointed to long-term structural changes in media distribution. The Internet has reduced the cost of reaching an audience to nearly zero, allowing individuals to bypass traditional gatekeepers such as newspapers, broadcasters, and publishers. Over time, this phenomenon has produced athletes whose personal followings rival those of their teams, journalists whose credibility exceeds that of news organizations, and creators who attract larger audiences than many media brands.
At the same time, trust in institutions such as governments, businesses and legacy media has been in decline for decades, he noted. This decline fostered the rise of creator-driven content, as audiences turned to media produced by people they admired rather than highly produced, institutional artifacts.
AI complicates that dynamic by introducing an authorless scale. Mosseri said that in the coming years, there will likely be more machine-generated content than content acquired through traditional means. He argued that even high-quality AI output tends to feel “somehow fabricated,” but acknowledged that as realism increases, it becomes harder to rely on this perception.
In such an environment, Mosseri suggested that the critical question for creators will shift from whether they can create content at all to whether they can make something recognizable their own. “New doors,” he wrote, are whether creators can create works that only they can create.
From polished feeds to raw shares
Mosseri also outlined how these changes are reshaping the aesthetic of Instagram itself. He said the platform’s historical association with polished images (carefully lit photos, heavy makeup, professional compositions) no longer reflects the way most people share content.
Mosseri said users largely stopped posting personal moments on the main feed a few years ago. Instead, informal sharing has shifted to Stories and direct messages are on the rise. The content circulating in these spaces is often unfiltered and technically incomplete. That means blurry photos, shaky videos, casual snapshots, and candid moments.
This trend runs counter to the direction taken by much of the camera and smartphone industry, which continues to emphasize higher megapixels, advanced image processing, and artificial depth-of-field effects designed to reproduce professional photography, he argued. While these tools have made it easier to create compelling images, Mosseri suggested that their ubiquity has lessened their impact.
In his view, AI and mobile cameras have made Polish language cheaper, and viewers are gravitating towards content that feels clearly unproduced. Mosseri predicted there would be a “huge acceleration” toward raw aesthetics, with creators deliberately leaning into imperfection to signal authenticity. In a landscape where everything can be optimized, rough edges serve as evidence rather than blemishes.
Platform signals reinforce change
Some of Instagram’s recent product and policy decisions reflect this focus. The platform continues to de-prioritize content that appears to be overly templated or automated, including reposted material without clear translation and content that generally appears to be generated by AI. While Instagram allows creators to use AI tools, it emphasizes the importance of visible creative intent rather than mass-produced artifacts.
At the same time, Instagram’s December 2025 algorithm update reveals that the platform places greater emphasis on topical clarity, early engagement signals, and originality. Accounts that publish across unrelated topics will have less circulation, while content that feels derivative or formulaic will be less likely to be recommended.
These changes are consistent with Mosseri’s broader argument that scale alone is no longer enough. As AI usage increases, platforms are forced to differentiate between content that just fills feeds and content that maintains trust.
fall into skepticism
Mr. Mosseri warned that even a raw aesthetic will eventually be imitated. As AI tools expand, creators and consumers alike will be able to generate imperfect, spontaneous, and authentic-looking content on command, he said. Visual cues then lose much of their signaling power.
In response, Mosseri said viewers need to shift their focus from not what is being shown to who is showing it. For most of his life, he writes, people assumed that photos and videos were almost accurate representations of real-life moments. That assumption is already crumbling, and it will take time to adapt to that reality.
For creators, it doesn’t mean avoiding new technology, but using it without erasing authorship. The challenge for platforms is managing large amounts of synthetic content without compromising user trust. Mosseri predicts that over the next few years, identity, continuity and reputation will be more important than technological perfection.
As AI enriches realism, Mosseri’s prediction suggests that what we know as human – imperfect, consistent, and accountable – could become the most valuable signal left on our social media feeds.
