Has AI Reached Its Ozempic Moment? Insights with Joaquín Cuenca

 Magnific CEO Joaquín Cuenca on deepfakes, copyright, creativity and the rise of the no-collar economy

Like the weight-loss drug, AI has moved from niche curiosity to mainstream obsession. Everyone has an opinion. Some people embrace it enthusiastically, while others regard it with suspicion or outright hostility. Love it or loathe it, it dominates conversation.

Insights with Joaquín Cuenca

Joaquín Cuenca, CEO of Magnific, formerly Freepik, believes the comparison only goes so far.

“I think it’s going to be a bit like computers and then the internet,” he says. “At the very beginning it’s novel. Some people are doing it, some people are not doing it. At some point we’ll not even talk about it.”

Speaking at Upscale Conf in San Francisco, Cuenca cuts an unusual figure among AI leaders. Trained in both fundamental physics and computer science, he is neither a technological evangelist nor a prophet of doom. Instead, he sees AI as another stage in a long continuum of innovation, one that will ultimately become invisible because it will be everywhere.

His own company is a case study in adaptation. Founded fifteen years ago as Freepik, a search engine for free images, the business has transformed into Magnific, a platform for creating images, videos and creative workflows. Today it serves more than one million subscribers and employs around 400 people.

The shift was driven entirely by AI. “Without AI, this would not exist,” he says.

Yet what is striking about Cuenca is how little he talks about technology itself. Instead, he talks about people. At Upscale, one phrase surfaced repeatedly: finding joy.

For Cuenca, the greatest promise of AI is not efficiency but creativity. He describes using the technology to build comic strips, develop story ideas and create short films that would previously have remained unrealised.

Cuenca has little interest in handing creativity over to a machine. He sees AI as a collaborator rather than an author, helping him refine ideas rather than generating them wholesale.

He uses AI much as a writer might use an editor: to identify weaknesses, suggest improvements and strengthen the narrative. This philosophy runs through Magnific’s product design. While many AI companies pursue one-click generation, Cuenca believes creators must remain in control. During his keynote he argued that fear of AI stems largely from a loss of agency.

“Control converts fear into curiosity,” he told the audience.

It is a deceptively simple observation. Much of the anxiety surrounding AI comes from the perception that technology is taking decisions away from people. Cuenca’s view is the opposite. AI should expand options, not narrow them.

That belief also informs his response to accusations that AI-generated content is little more than digital slop.

“I do not believe in one-click solutions,” he said during a panel discussion. “When something becomes super abundant, it becomes worthless.”

The real value, he argues, still lies with the creator. AI may accelerate execution, but it cannot replace lived experience, judgment or taste.

AI is a poet

Cuenca also challenges the way critics talk about AI hallucinations. While inaccurate outputs are often treated as failures, he suggests that creative work operates differently. Referring to a phrase he has heard used about generative AI, he suggests “AI is a poet.” A poet is not judged on factual precision but on the ability to create connections, images and ideas. In creative fields, some of AI’s most interesting outputs emerge from those unexpected leaps.

“Be interesting,” he says. “Live your life. Make love. Have parties. Have experiences. Have your own opinions.”

DeepFakes

Not surprisingly, AI’s darker side also featured prominently in our conversation. Deepfakes and image manipulation have become major concerns, particularly as generative tools become more sophisticated. Cuenca is under no illusion that the problem can simply be solved through regulation or technology.

“It’s going to be difficult to defeat deepfakes worldwide because we do not control all the tools,” he says.

His argument is pragmatic. The technology exists and it is now easier to create convincing fake content than ever before. The challenge is learning how to manage the risks while preserving the benefits.

“There has been a technological improvement that brings many, many good things and some bad things,” he says.

Magnific attempts to address the issue through provenance, permissions and traceability. Enterprise users are required to demonstrate they have the right to use uploaded images, while internally generated content can be tracked through its creation process. Even so, Cuenca admits there is “no easy solution”.

Copyright presents a similarly complex challenge. Many artists argue that generative AI systems have been trained on copyrighted works without permission. Cuenca understands the concern but believes technological progress has always disrupted established models.

“You can’t stop technology” is an underlying message throughout our discussion. New tools arrive, industries adapt and society eventually develops new norms.

No-collar Economy

The debate, however, extends beyond copyright and deepfakes to employment itself. This is where Cuenca becomes most interesting. The prevailing narrative suggests AI will destroy jobs. Cuenca thinks the opposite. He argues that the Industrial Revolution created the blue-collar economy and the Digital Revolution created the white-collar economy. Generative AI, he believes, will create a third category – the no-collar economy.

The concept is rooted in accessibility. For decades, creative industries were constrained by cost. Producing a film, designing a marketing campaign or creating professional-quality content required specialist skills, large teams and significant budgets. AI dramatically lowers those barriers. As the cost of creation falls, more people can participate.

“Now brands can make films. Small companies can make films,” he says. “Today you can do that with three people.”

In Cuenca’s view, this will create opportunities for a new generation of creators whose value lies not in manual labour or traditional office work, but in ideas, storytelling, taste and imagination. The tools may change, but the demand for creativity remains. The result, he believes, will be more creative projects, not fewer.

“There are going to be dramatically more opportunities for creatives.”

Whether history ultimately proves him right remains to be seen. Every technological revolution produces winners, losers and unforeseen consequences. What is clear is that AI continues to provoke strong reactions.

Cuenca understands why: “When there’s a new technology, your number one reaction is to understand what it takes away,” he says.

People can immediately see the jobs, processes and skills that become obsolete. What they cannot yet see are the opportunities that emerge afterwards. Those take years to reveal themselves.

If Cuenca is correct, the future of AI may not be defined by machines replacing humans. Instead, it may be remembered as the moment more people gained access to the tools needed to tell their own stories.

Perhaps that is why he keeps returning to the same word: joy. Long after the arguments about regulation, copyright and deepfakes have settled, Cuenca believes the lasting impact of AI will be measured in what people create with it.

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