Spotter shuts off public access to its gen AI suite Studio, says it’s focusing on long-form brand deals for creators

Spotter is shutting down its generative AI suite Studio as an external tool and laying off “a small number” of staffers.

Studio, which launched around this time last year, was built because Spotter is always looking for the next big thing in the creator space. When Machinima and StyleHaul co-founder Aaron DeBevoise launched the company in 2019, he did so because he saw the need creators had for liquid production capital, and thought he could provide that capital by accurately predicting YouTubers’ anticipated views and income, then loaning them money against those projected earnings.

This model saw Spotter (which, full disclosure, is a current Tubefilter partner) deploy hundreds of millions of dollars to major creators and bring investments from entities like SoftBank and Amazon. But the content industry’s rapid shift from long-form to short-form in 2020 and beyond impacted Spotter’s calculations and plans. After missing financial goals in 2024, it laid off 40% of its staff.

While facing difficulties with short-form, Spotter was already chasing something new: generative AI tools for creators. It began hiring executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, Headspace, Linktree, and Spotify to build AI tools, and rolled out its first one, Title Exploder, in late 2023.

But Studio was its biggest AI play. Pitched as “a brainstorm partner, project planner, and research copilot,” Studio would digest a creator’s entire channel and use that data to do things like cold-suggest new video topics and draft thumbnails (like the one you see above). MrBeast, Dude Perfect, Kinigra Deon, Rebecca Zamolo, Jordan Matter, Jay Alto, Hayden Hillier-Smith, and Colin & Samir all participated in the tool’s beta period; it became available to creators at large in September 2024.

Now, DeBevoise says Spotter is bringing Studio internal. That means Studio isn’t going away completely, but it’ll no longer be available as a public tool for creators.

“[T]he AI landscape has rapidly evolved. Major technology platforms are now racing to integrate ideation directly into their ecosystems, recognizing how essential it is to a creator’s workflow,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post

. “That progress validates what we set out to do with Studio and the billions of views it helped creators generate. But we need to focus on delivering the most differentiated value, where demand from partners is strongest.”

Spotter’s differentiated value, he added, lies in “deepening the connections between creators and brands.”

A Spotter spokesperson tells Tubefilter the company is putting its efforts into “helping creators unlock more brand opportunities and helping brands engage highly attentive audiences through authentic, long-form storytelling.”

However, they say, Studio going internal doesn’t indicate Spotter is giving up on gen AI. (That being said, if it were, it wouldn’t be the only company re-evaluating a bullish investment into the trend: Meta today laid off 600 employees from its AI division.)

“We’re not moving away from AI, we’re integrating it more deeply into how we operate,” they explain. “By transitioning Studio from an external offering to an internal platform, we can embed its capabilities directly into our growing advertising and licensing businesses. This allows us to use AI where it matters most: powering smarter matches between creators and brands, improving outcomes, and scaling creative impact.”

“I am incredibly proud of what our Studio team accomplished and grateful for the innovation they brought to the industry,” DeBevoise said in his post. “As we make this change, we will do everything possible to support our Studio teammates impacted by this decision and the creators who have relied on their work.”

Like we mentioned above, Spotter’s change is coming with layoffs. The spokesperson says that “a small number of Studio roles are being impacted over the next few weeks as we align our teams to support this strategic shift.”

No other divisions within Spotter are affected.