This article was penned in October 2023. All the tools mentioned here evolve every single day. Keep this in mind while reading this article.
No, not everything labeled “AI” is useful or well-designed. As professionals, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to discern genuinely useful tools from the mediatic noise. Many of the tools being pushed by blogs will likely vanish in a few months due to a lack of real value proposition. This article aims to highlight the tools that we believe hold real power in content creation (for us professionals), versus the same copy-pasted list of tools all blogs are showing.
This review comes from the actual usage of the following tools and a significant experience in content creation, both in agencies and with advertisers.
Important Notice Before Proceeding
Before delving further, it’s critical to state that we don’t endorse these tools for commercial brand communication unless conducted ethically and with due diligence. We have devoted an entire article to navigating this legal intricacy. AI serves as an aid, not a replacement. Upholding copyrights and confidentiality is paramount for brands, and we advise consulting with a legal representative when utilizing AI-generated content for commercial branding.
1. AI for Analysis & Research (before content creation)
This is where AI magic truly shines. Many (non-skilled) individuals believe that AI is about generating ideas or taking care of the creative part. It’s mainly in research and analysis where AI truly excels. And all creatives and strategists need solid research to come up with big ideas.
Perplexity AI: Real-time news
Perplexity has a tremendous capability to scan the web for the latest articles around a topic. A task where ChatGPT, as much as we love it, still isn’t quite adept. Bing from Microsoft is also worth mentioning.
Cognosys AI: Generating quick & efficient market studies
Cognosys was one of the first to propose rapid, browsing-based SWOT analyses and market research automatically. Although it doesn’t provide the same level of detail and analysis an experienced human would, it significantly accelerates the process of understanding an industry or a market. This tool is invaluable when used consciously and with great care. In this category, AgentGPT is also worth checking out.
Claude AI: Making the right strategic choices
Claude is the math and strategy geek. See this tool as the socially awkward friend with a 180 IQ who is at the top of the class despite their total lack of social skills. Claude is fantastic for logical reasoning, business strategy, business analysis, and making rational and logic-based decisions. It is also excellent for analyzing big chunks of text, maths, and plenty of other promising things. From a content creation perspective, Claude can help you think strategically before deciding on a type of content.
OpenAI: Accelerating analysis
Our best buddy. Our Swiss Army knife. ChatGPT can significantly aid in analysis. But the real magic happens when you connect the API with other tools to massively analyze chunks of information. Using the Openai API has become drastically simple. For instance, transform your campaign reports into actionable insights thanks to Openai in Excel. ChatGPT goes well beyond the platform when it comes to analysis.
2. AI for Copy Writing
No, we do not believe AI can replace human creativity and the experience of a writer. However, there are tools that genuinely help in some steps of the writing process. But as promised, we stay real. We have tried Jasper and Copy AI, and we believe there are specific cases where writing tools are indeed useful, and other cases where Chatgpt can do the job.
When to use AI tools that are solely for writing (e.g., Jasper, Copy AI):
- Your work as a CopyWriter and it makes sense for you to invest in multiple tools for this activity.
- You have a large volume of writing to do, and you need intuitive and quick automation.
- You work for a single brand and need to ensure the same brand guidelines for an entire team or across different channels.
- You do not need research, data analysis, or internet browsing in your writing work, you only need the writing and the creative part of the text.
In all other scenarios, stick with ChatGPT for writing. Why?
Because you will most likely still need research, analysis or browsing verification, and most writing tools do not provide this.
Because if you work with tons of brands, you will be constantly changing brand guidelines, instead of having just one. Most copy AI tools allow for multiple brand guidelines but only in the higher pricing subscriptions.
Because if you truly master ChatGPT Plus, and utilize all the functions and proper prompting architecture, you can achieve pretty decent results without paying for additional tools, especially if you do other work besides Copy.
3. AI for Image creation
A lot of noise has been made around the new Dall-E 3 option in ChatGPT. And yes, it’s amazing. We confirm it. But mostly for specific types of visuals. The actual king of all AI images is, and will most likely always be, the one and only, Midjourney. We also need to mention Ideogram here, which gained incredible global popularity in just 2 months of existence.
When to use Dall-E 3
- For isometric, 3D visuals.
- For organic Social Media visuals that need to be done quickly.
- For non-realistic images (drawings, icons).
When to use Ideogram
When you need text in the image (but short).
For poster-like compositions with letters.
- Quick organic Social Media.
For T-shirt designs.
When to use Midjourney
For literally everything else. From cinematic, realistic photographic images to astonishing drawings. However, bare in mind Midjourney is far from intuitive, and you need a couple of weeks as learning curbe. It is the best in terms of results, and one of the most complicated to master.
4. AI for Image manipulation
This one is going to be short and sweet. Photoshop remains King. The way Above has stepped up the AI game is truly impressive. Yes, it is not intuitive and not everyone that is not a graphic designer can get around Photoshop. But when it comes to image manipulation, the new AI tools for Photoshop reminds us all why Adobe is a leader. In our opinion, you can ditch the apps and the “intuitive and simpler” competitors. If you want to get real in image manipulation, go straight to the king. No AI tool will be better than this for now.
5. AI for video generation
Now, regarding video, nothing highly significant at this stage will create perfect complex videos from prompts. Video is one of the main areas where human intervention is mostly needed in most of the creation process, and that’s actually quite normal. Most of the leaders in video software like Adobe Premiere Pro have released very promising AI tools. But they mostly help accelerate the process, human intervention is still abundantly needed for high-quality videos. In terms of artistic animations, nothing comes even close to human creativity for now.
Quick prompt-based editing for organic Social Media
For more “accessible” tools for non-professional individuals, we can mention InVideo, and others like Kapwing that help in quickly creating simple edits oriented towards Social Media based on a prompt. These tools are primarily for simple videos and organic animation of accounts. The tool can create basic drafts, but in all cases, intervention is necessary to finalize.
Runway: The most promising disruption in video so far
Now, regarding truly new video AI technologies, it’s absolutely necessary to mention Runway. Runway allows the creation of videos from images, from prompts, and also provides a complete set of AI tools. While it still doesn’t create full videos, it provides solid animated excerpts that can be integrated. You can, for instance, create 4-second animations based on prompts for a post, or transform your Midjourney image into video. This tool is truly disruptive in its market, and we believe it will stay ahead of the game for a while.
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