What if the biggest opportunity with AI isn't doing more with less—but doing what wasn't possible before?

In this episode of What If?, Leslie Grandy sits down with Scott Ehrlich, Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Corporate Strategy at Sinclair Broadcast Group, to explore how media, technology, and business model innovation are changing as AI reshapes what can be created, personalized, distributed, and scaled.

Scott has spent his career navigating major platform shifts—from early OTT subscription services at RealNetworks to digital-first studios, streaming platforms, FAST channels, and AI-enabled media strategy. His perspective is grounded in a simple but powerful idea:

A strategy without leverage isn't really a strategy.

Today, the mechanics of making things are no longer the biggest constraint. Production is faster. Distribution is broader. AI can generate, iterate, and adapt at speeds that would have been impossible just a few years ago.

But that creates a new challenge.

When everything can be made, the real question becomes: What should exist at all?

Together, Leslie and Scott explore:

• Why value is shifting from production capability to judgment, relevance, and timing
• How AI changes the creative process by making iteration faster and less expensive
• Why personalized storytelling may become a new frontier for media innovation
• Why AI-native platforms may become the next operating systems for content discovery
• How business models must evolve when audiences consume information inside AI interfaces
• How leaders can drive adoption by focusing on one powerful promise: eliminating the toil of work

Scott also offers a grounded view of where most organizations are in the AI adoption curve. Before companies can transform workflows, they often need to use AI to improve existing ones. The breakthrough, he argues, starts with helping people remove the frustrating, repetitive work that drains their time and attention.

But the bigger opportunity is still ahead.

Too much of the current AI conversation is focused on efficiency: fewer people, fewer steps, faster processes. Scott challenges leaders to look beyond that and ask a more expansive question:

What new things can we do now that we could never do before?

Because the future of innovation won't belong only to those who move faster.

It will belong to those who can recognize where new leverage is forming—and use it to create something more meaningful.

Reflection question:
Are you using AI only to streamline what already exists—or to imagine what could exist next?