AI operations & growth advisory for a film studio

Project Overview

Star Hopper Studio is a small, founder-run film production house with strong creative credentials that wanted to grow its commercial side without hiring for every function. As Head of Technical Innovation (advisory), my role is to identify where AI genuinely helps, build those systems on the studio's own accounts, and coach the founders to run them independently — AI literacy over tool dependency.

Core Contributions

AI-Assisted Operations

• Automated the repetitive research, admin, and communications work that was consuming founder time
• Human review is structural: everything that reaches the outside world passes founder approval first

Content Workflows

• An assisted publishing setup where the founders keep full creative control and their own voice
• Automation handles the mechanics around the writing — never the writing itself

Startup Operating Practices

• Introduced hypothesis-driven planning and validation loops for business development
• Helping a creative company make growth decisions the way a startup does

Technologies & Tools

• AI: Claude (agents & skills), custom workflow skills
• Integrations: official platform APIs, scheduled automation on studio-owned hardware
• Principle: consolidation over tool sprawl — everything runs on accounts the studio owns

Outcomes & Impact

• Engagement ongoing since August 2026: first systems deployed and operated by the founders themselves
• Founder time shifting from admin toward creative and client work

What the Founders Say

"Abhi's helping us use AI to offload the busywork so we can focus on the creative side, and to think about growing the studio like a startup. Nothing is a black box — we run everything ourselves."

— Varsha Panikar & Asawari Jagushte, Co-founders, Star Hopper Studio