The creator economy is a flourishing ecosystem where individuals are building audiences and communities online. However in the space of a few short years a wealth of artificial intelligence (AI) tools have emerged, causing a seismic shift as a powerful collaborator, amplifying the voices of these creators and accelerating the industry forward.
Whilst there are many threats to content creators’ livelihoods from AI, we’re also seeing that it can supercharge their scale in three key areas – productivity, creativity and insights. As the leader of a creator company, this article lays out the changes I’m observing and provides a summary of some of the tools we’re experimenting with to scale our creator businesses.
AI as a Productivity Powerhouse
From my experience, creators often find themselves bogged down by repetitive tasks like editing footage, transcribing interviews, or researching video ideas. AI can now step in as a tireless assistant, automating processes – for example video editing software can now intelligently assemble rough cuts based on pre-defined parameters and AI assistants can transcribe interviews and generate captions, freeing creators to focus on what truly matters – the creative spark. We’re seeing this newfound efficiency enabling creators to produce more content and experiment with different formats.
AI as a Creative Catalyst
AI isn’t just about streamlining workflows; it can also ignite creative fire. AI tools are helpful for generating variations on existing ideas, brainstorming new concepts, and even composing music. A script writer facing a mental block can use AI to create different narrative paths or explore alternative character motivations. A musician can collaborate with AI to produce new arrangements or experiment with different genres. This “AI brainstorming” breaks creative roadblocks and opens doors to unexpected possibilities, allowing creators to expand their repertoire and keep their content fresh.
AI-Powered Data
The success of any creator hinges on their ability to connect with their audience and AI has the ability to analyze vast amounts of data, deciphering content consumption and engagement patterns with incredible accuracy. Creators can now use tools to leverage this knowledge to tailor their content to resonate with specific niches, optimize content and build a more engaged and loyal following.
A Collaborative Future
By embracing AI as a partner, I really believe creators can unlock new possibilities, reach wider audiences, and build stronger communities. Here are some of the leading AI tools our creator teams are experimenting with.
The Force Multiplier for Content Creators
By feeding tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude ideas, keywords, or even competitor content, creators can jumpstart brainstorming sessions. They can analyze this information and suggest unexpected directions, generate creative story elements, or even write drafts based on your initial concepts. This frees creators from staring at a blank page and allows them to explore new avenues, ultimately leading to more engaging and unique content.
The AI Muse for Visual Creation
Midjourney is an AI-powered image generation tool that’s revolutionizing the way content creators approach visual production. Much like ChatGPT, it can be a powerful brainstorming partner. With detailed text descriptions (prompts), creators can generate a variety of images that embody their vision. Imagine a fantasy writer conjuring visuals of their mythical creatures or a fashion designer experimenting with different garment styles.
We often use it to explore thumbnail ideas for our YouTube videos. The results can be stunning, so much so that we sometimes use them for the final version!
Beyond MidJourney there are a whole host of excellent text to image generators including DALL-E, Leonardo.ai and playground.ai.
AI-Powered Photo Editing
There are a host of great tools that utilize artificial intelligence to simplify and enhance photo editing for content creators including Photoroom, Cutout.pro and Pixlr.
These tools excel at everything from removing backgrounds to enhancing image quality. They are excellent for content creators who want to streamline their photo editing workflow, create professional-looking visuals and optimize images for various online platforms
Repurposing Long-Form Videos into Bite-Sized Content with AI
Opus Clip is an AI-powered video editing tool specifically designed for content creators who want to extract the most value from their long-form videos. It leverages AI to analyze your videos and automatically generate short, engaging clips ideal for social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.
Anyone Can Make Great Video
Veed.io is a web-based video editing platform that offers a user-friendly interface with powerful features, making it a valuable tool for anyone who wants to create professional-looking videos without needing complex editing software.
The Vocal Chameleon for Content Creators
Tools such as ElevenLabs offer a vast library of pre-recorded, high-quality voices across various accents and demographics. However they also provide a voice design tool, allowing creators to craft the perfect voice by adjusting parameters like age, gender, and even accent strength. Furthermore, ElevenLabs’ voice cloning technology allows creators to clone their own voice, creating a near-perfect digital replica.
Speechify is another versatile tool for content creators who want to enhance their content with high-quality voice overs and narration. Its extensive voice library, AI voice cloning capabilities and content creation tools make it a valuable asset for creating new audio experiences.
Chat and Chill with AI Buddies
Character.ai is one of a number of platforms built around large language models (LLMs) that allow users to create chatbots or “Characters.” These characters can be anything you imagine, from historical figures to fictional beings.
Creators have already started to develop their own chatbots, built around their personalities and areas of expertise, to interact with fans. If you think you’re chatting to an Only Fans creator.. you’re probably not.
An AI Canvas with Limitless Creativity
Runway goes beyond simple editing software, providing functionalities for generating entirely new creative assets. Text-to-X Generation is Runway’s core strength. You can input text prompts describing the desired visual output (image, video, etc.), and Runway’s AI models will generate it for you. Create illustrations, change video styles, or even compose music based on textual descriptions.
It also offers frame Interpolation allowing you to create smooth transitions between images, essentially generating new frames and creating a video out of still images.
AI-powered Music Creation for Everyone
Suno is an AI tool designed to democratize music creation by allowing anyone to generate original songs with just a few words. Its user-friendly interface and powerful AI models make it a valuable resource for both experienced musicians and those with no prior musical background. The heart of Suno lies in its text-based interface. Users provide descriptive prompts detailing the desired song’s mood, genre, theme, and style. Suno’s AI then generates a complete song (melody, lyrics, and chords) based on the input.
A Playground for Anime and VTuber Enthusiasts
Finally, Yodayo is a unique AI platform specifically geared towards fans of anime, VTubers (Virtual YouTubers), and manga. It leverages AI to create a fun and interactive space for content creation and community engagement. Yodayo is ideal for content creators who want to create anime-style visuals for their content and enjoy experimenting with AI-powered art generation.
