A whole week of people begging for a Sora invite. I’m guilty of it, too. The hype was real, a clever use of scarcity by OpenAI.

And what did we find when the gates finally opened? A chaotic, scrollable feed of AI-generated vertigo. Hyper-realistic animals doing impossible things, uncanny valley characters in grainy footage, and endless remixes of the prompt-of-the-day.

It’s a platform optimized for novelty, where the commoditization of creativity isn't just acceptable, it's the main form of entertainment.

This is where most people will form their opinion of Sora. They'll see it as a bizarre toy for creating memes, a firehose of digital curiosities fenced in by a moving watermark. And they will move on to the next thing.

But that perception creates the single biggest strategic advantage for anyone paying attention.

Because behind this public spectacle lies a completely different tool. Last week, I ignored the craziness of the feed and gave the engine a focused, commercial prompt: "Create an ad for a loreal professional, Absolute Repair hair shampoo, show before and after on a beautiful model with gorgeous long hair. Product has these qualities: L'Oréal Professionnel Absolut Repair Shampoo, Hydrating Shampoo, For Dry and Damaged Hair, Adds Shine and Repairs Damage, with Omega-9 and Proteins, Professional"

And I intentionally chose landscape, not portrait.

The result was a quiet revelation. It produced near-perfect advertising imagery, almost indistinguishable from a million dollar shoot, embodying the exact qualities of an expensive brief. It was a focused, powerful, and strategically valuable tool.

This is the Sora paradox: its identity as a social platform is a massive distraction from its power as a professional one. The mistake is confusing the feed for the engine.

• The Feed is an Echo Chamber: The public platform is designed for TikTok style engagement and entertainment. It rewards speed, imitation, and remixes, creating a "Sora-core" aesthetic. Chasing trends in this echo chamber is a race to the bottom for any serious brand.

• The Engine is a Strategy Lab: Used privately, the underlying engine is a powerful tool for de-risking creative bets. It’s for testing a dozen campaign moods, visualizing a product in an ideal setting, and closing the "imagination gap" between a brief and a tangible asset.

The cute little dynamic watermark plays a crucial role here. It’s a constant reminder that the content generated is native to this new ecosystem. It keeps the viral memes contained while forcing serious users to treat the output not as a final product, but as what it truly is: a strategic blueprint of what is to come.

The traditional photo studio isn't obsolete, but its purpose is being redefined. It’s no longer just for capturing a baseline reality; it’s for executing a highly-refined vision that was first perfected in a private, AI-powered lab.

The real opportunity with Sora isn’t to create the next viral clip that gets lost in the feed. It’s to use its engine to develop a vision so clear and powerful that it wins everywhere else. Ignore the noise. Focus on the signal.

For you geeks out there, OpenAI announced an API to access Sora 2 at the Dev summit today.

Have you tried Sora for your own brand yet?

I've been obsessed with Gemini lately. The platform is a beast, and it has unlocked the freedom to create micro-tools that solve real workflow problems for creative teams.

So, I built one to tackle a universal pain point: cleanly separating a subject from their background.

Meet the Foreground/Background Separator.

You give it any image, and it instantly splits it into two perfect layers: the isolated subject on a transparent background, and the isolated background with the subject intelligently removed.

Why do I need ANOTHER background separator?
Because it’s FREE. Read on..

• Instant Cutouts: Create clean assets for thumbnails, presentations, and social graphics in seconds.

• Generate Clean Plates: Never worry about forgetting to shoot an empty background again. The tool creates a perfect "clean plate" for you.

• Effortless Compositing: Easily place text, logos, or graphics behind your subject for that professional, layered look.

• No Green Screen Needed: Swap out a messy office background for something clean and simple, on the fly.

This is the kind of practical magic that eases workflows and unlocks new creative avenues. It's one of the 20+ tools I've built with Gemini last week, and it won't be the last. You know me ;)

PPC Ninja helps brands future proof their listings for AI, helping you build stunning images and videos with AI. Reach out to [email protected] to explore how we can scale your content production across Social media, Amazon ads, Amazon Posts efficiently and affordably.

If you missed this Monthly Crusher with Ritu Java and Kevin King in BDSC, you can now watch the replay!

(Note: You will need to be a member of the circle to access)

But this is where I pulled back the curtain on my eco-system for building AI tools in-house. If I can do it, you can do it too.

For months, we've talked about "conversational e-commerce" as a future concept, but a post from Andrew Bell shows it’s happening right now within Rufus.

Amazon's AI assistant is no longer just an Amazon-first tool. It's now acting as a "Buy for Me" agent, occasionally including external products and direct "Shop" buttons that lead off-platform.

Let's be clear: this isn't Amazon testing a small feature. This is a calculated power play.

It seems counterintuitive. Why would the ultimate walled garden build a gate and point customers to the exit? Because Amazon isn't trying to win the transaction anymore. They're orchestrating a movement to own the entire starting point of commerce.

This is a strategy to become the indispensable AI layer for all of retail:

• Own the Interface: By becoming the default starting point for every shopping journey, even for things they don't sell, they make the Amazon app the universal gateway to commerce.

• Master the Data: This position gives them priceless data on consumer intent, pricing, and competitors across the web. They learn what you want, even if you ultimately buy it elsewhere.

• Manufacture Trust: By occasionally linking out, Rufus appears objective. It builds trust not in Amazon the store, but in Rufus the agent. That loyalty is far more valuable in the long run.

• Build the Moat: Ultimately, this is a defensive strike to ensure a Google or Apple agent doesn't become the AI layer on top of their business. Amazon is building its own moat for the age of AI.

They are willingly sacrificing the battle for a single sale to win the war for the entire shopping interface. Thoughts?

Scale Summit - AdCelerate Every Stage

Oct 6, 2025, 10:00 AM - Oct 8, 2025, 12:00 PM PST
Sign up: https://www.linkedin.com/events/scalesummit-adcelerateeverystag7373360802478727168/

I am representing Amazon Business at the Small Business Summit in Toronto this month. If you need a FREE ticket to attend in person, hit reply and I will send it across.

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