• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, Yesterday

I spend a lot of time using AI in my role as a marketer, and have tried to use it as a tool for creative development.  After testing dozens of tools, I’ve come to the conclusion that true generative AI creative platforms have a major flaw.  Until they deliver editable assets, they will never be the efficiency tool that marketers are looking for.

AI creative tools, like Canva and Adobe and Promo, provide editable templates, and editing tools for moving things around in video.

But the actual creation of assets in a generative AI platform is flawed and cannot yet replace the experience of working with a designer.

When you work with a designer, you can control the output.  You can tweak it in little ways.  You can made minor adjustments in location, color, and more.  This is efficient because you can take an idea, build it out, and refine it to be where you want it to be.

When using true gen AI tools, you type in a prompt, get an output, and have to revisit the prompt to keep asking for the refinements you want.  Sometimes this works, but most times it doesn’t.  It’s a far less controllable process and leaves too much to the AI to decipher, when the fact is you know exactly what you want. 

Typing in a prompt and having that output delivered in an editable image file, with layers, would be far more efficient.  Then you could shift things around, recolor and crop to get the final product you need.  This emulates more of the process of working with a designer and is what marketers need to truly embrace AI creative generation. 

I have to assume that those AI-generated holiday ads from Coca-Cola were as time-intensive as the more traditional creative process.  AI is simply an executional tool to garner attention -- AI as conversation starter, not efficiency creator.

I think these tools show a lot of promise, and there are exceptions in the market.  There are many tools where AI is used to create elements or recommend design. When layered in with a gen AI tool, you get more efficiency. 

Still, I think we are pretty far from pure gen AI creative replacing designers.  The designers will use their human expertise as oversight when leveraging the tools, and that will create efficiency in the process.  Don’t you agree?