BBC’s Muslim Alim urges TV creatives to use generative AI tools to visualise formats

BBC commissioning editor Muslim Alim has called on his TV colleagues to use artificial intelligence tools to “accelerate” their creativity and help visualise potential formats.

Muslim Alim

Alim made the call in a LinkedIn post this week that featured a hypothetical horror competition reality format.

Alim said he wanted to demonstrate how easily a new idea can be visualised using AI and encouraged other creatives to use the many generative AI tools now available to them.

The trailer for Dead Run, which Alim emphasised has not been commissioned and wasn’t based on a pitch brief, visualises a show in which 100 players must evade 20 ‘zombies’ trying to catch them.

In the show, the last survivor wins, with gameplay controlled by an overseeing ‘master’ who provides power ups and protective shields, as contestants are encouraged to “hide, trade, betray and survive.” The music on the trailer was created by Alim, rather than AI.

Alim, an early adopter of AI tools in the TV industry who has previously encouraged UK indies to use the tech, said: “It was simply an idea that became so vivid in my head that I wanted to see if I could actually visualise it. So I built a trailer. All created using a small stack of AI tools and a lot of hours refining tone, characters, pacing and gameplay.

“The strongest ideas don’t need this level of visualisation, but it can absolutely help bring a world to life and stress-test whether something really works. As we head into 2026, anyone creating content needs to get comfortable with AI tools, not as shortcuts, but as creative accelerators.”

Marc Cieslak, who focuses on AI as a correspondent for BBC News, replied to Alim’s post, saying: “I think you’ve hit on one the things this sort of tech is good at. These tools are really useful for visualising ideas, almost like a 3D sketch book. I’ve been experimenting with different AI models for a while, I wouldn’t consider the results good enough for broadcast, but as a method of stress testing ideas they’re very useful.”