KULT Launches OFFSIDE: Kucing vs AI, A 105-Episode AI Hybrid Football Prediction Show

KULT, a digital-first marketing solutions company, has launched OFFSIDE: Kucing vs AI, a new 105-episode football prediction series that brings together a deliberately built AI pundit and a rotating panel of real, unscripted cats.

The series is now live daily across dedicated OFFSIDE social channels, with each episode released ahead of official matches.

OFFSIDE: Kucing vs AI marks the inaugural edition of OFFSIDE, a content brand KULT is building beyond any single tournament window. Developed as KULT’s first owned intellectual property, the format was created as a cultural response to one of football’s biggest global moments.

For decades, brands without sponsorship rights have found ways to participate in conversations around major sporting events. With OFFSIDE, KULT sidesteps the pitch entirely, creating a content-led brand built on culture rather than rights. The result is a show where an AI football pundit and a group of cats take on match predictions in a format designed for entertainment first, and prediction content second.

Who Is King Ijad?

At the centre of the show is King Ijad, an AI pundit created by KULT from the ground up.

King Ijad is not positioned as a chatbot, but as a fully developed character. He is the familiar voice in the group chat: opinionated, confident, sometimes wrong, but always entertaining. KULT built him around a recognisable Malaysian archetype, giving him the kind of confidence, humour and personality that audiences can immediately relate to.

Beyond the archetype, KULT trained the AI tools on Malaysian cultural nuances so King Ijad speaks and responds like a local. His references range from Ramly Burgers to Subang Jaya, while his look, tone and mannerisms were carefully shaped to feel recognisably Malaysian.

The aim was not to create a generic AI pundit, but a character who could believably exist in a Malaysian group chat.

The Format

Each episode runs for approximately 90 seconds and is produced for vertical video.

Pakatan Kucing, OFFSIDE’s rotating panel of real house cats, makes its match prediction through simple physical prompts such as country-tagged bowls and a mini football pitch split between both teams.

King Ijad then delivers his hot takes, match analysis and confident verdict before the cats make their final call.

The 105 episodes cover all 104 matches of the tournament, with a grand finale episode closing the season.

A First-of-Its-Kind AI Hybrid Format

During major football tournaments, social platforms are often filled with two popular types of prediction content: animals making predictions and AI making predictions.

OFFSIDE brings both into the same structured show.

The format places a deliberately built AI character and real, unscripted animals within a single episode structure, where both elements are essential to the idea. Without the cats, King Ijad is just another pundit. Without King Ijad, the cats are just another animal prediction video. Together, they create a hybrid format that gives the show its personality and unpredictability.

The humour and spontaneity come from the contrast between King Ijad’s confident analysis and the cats’ completely instinctive behaviour. The cats have no awareness of the stakes and no interest in the analysis that came before their decision. That collision gives the show a quality that cannot be fully scripted or generated by AI alone.

AI as Craft

Since generative AI entered the creative mainstream, much of the industry’s focus has been on technical perfection, from flawless visuals to polished outputs. KULT believes the missing ingredient is personality: output that feels specific, culturally grounded and worth following.

KULT has been experimenting with AI as a creative tool rather than treating it as a shortcut or trend. Its earlier AI-led Raya film, BUNYI RUMAH, explored whether AI could deliver emotion and narrative coherence. With OFFSIDE, the question moved further: could AI become a distinct, recognisable character that audiences would remember?

King Ijad is KULT’s answer to that question.

The character demonstrates what AI can become when shaped with creative direction, trained with cultural specificity and built to behave like someone real. For KULT, the next frontier of AI in content is not just technical execution, but intentionally built persona.

The production also reflects KULT’s belief that different tools should serve the same creative idea. King Ijad is built with AI tools, while the cats are filmed by a conventional production crew. Together, they serve one story.

At KULT, AI is not positioned as a shortcut to craft. It is part of the craft.

For KULT, OFFSIDE was designed to show how brands can participate in major cultural moments without relying on official sponsorship rights. Instead of buying its way into the conversation, the company built its own content platform around football, AI, humour and Malaysian culture. René E. Menezes, KULT Leader, said, “Putting ourselves in the shoes of a brand, OFFSIDE is proof that the only thing you need to own a conversation and build lasting impact during the world’s biggest sporting moment is a better idea. This is KULT building something from scratch: a format, a brand, and an audience. And, as it turns out, a group of cats.”