🎅 Mcdonald's AI Christmas

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Hi AI Futurists,

McDonald’s sparked debate this week after releasing an AI-generated Christmas ad that viewers found strange, glitchy, and unsettling, forcing the company to pull it and rethink how it uses generative media. It’s a snapshot of how fast brands are embracing AI while still learning its limits. Let’s take a look.

Here’s our agenda.

Best,
Lex Sokolin

In 2005, a college student had one goal: work at Google.

By 2009, Mukund Jha was there, absorbing lessons on engineering discipline that would define his career.

Then he built Emergent, an AI platform that generates production-ready apps, not prototypes. While competitors rushed demos, he built infrastructure: native backends, real mobile apps, built-in scaling.

The numbers don’t lie : 2.5M+ builders, $25M ARR in 5 months, 3M+ apps shipped.

And today, the story closes perfectly: Google's AI Futures Fund just invested in Emergent, the platform built on the foundations Mukund learned at Google.

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McDonald’s pulled its AI-generated Christmas ad after viewers slammed the uncanny visuals and stitched-together feel of the 45-second spot. The ad was built from many generative AI clips, a method that struggles with longer sequences, producing strange distortions that people quickly called “creepy” and “poorly edited.” As public comments rolled in, McDonald’s Netherlands said the moment was “an important learning” while exploring “the effective use of AI.” Melanie Bridge of The Sweetshop defended the craft, saying the team produced “thousands of takes” over seven weeks, adding, “This wasn’t an AI trick. It was a film.”

Brands have been experimenting more aggressively with AI for holiday campaigns, following moves by companies like Coca-Cola. Some succeed: analytics firm Social Sprout reported a 61% “positive sentiment rating” for Coca-Cola’s second AI Christmas ad. Others fail with audiences who interpret AI-heavy production as “cheap” or “lazy,” as seen with Valentino’s recent campaign. The industry is wrestling with how fast AI tools are improving, how uneven the results can be, and how consumers perceive authenticity when creative work feels stitched together.

Underneath the debate is a tension between efficiency and emotional quality. AI promises fast, inexpensive production but risks breaking the human connection viewers expect from seasonal storytelling. As one commenter put it, “No actors, no camera team… welcome to the future.” The question is whether that future feels magical or hollow. For anyone navigating their career or creative life, this is a reminder that the tools may accelerate, but taste, judgment, and human resonance still set the floor for value.

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That’s all for today, folks!