An AI-generated image of New York City by creator Manasi Arya using Adobe.
Manasi Arya
Following ChatGPT's launch in late 2022, several new AI tools have emerged for creators to use.
Many tools use generative AI to create more dynamic images, transcribe text, and edit videos.
BI asked 18 creator-economy experts to highlight the most promising new ventures.
To tap into artificial intelligence or not; that's the question seemingly every industry has been asking themselves in the past year — from healthcare and finance to media and entertainment.
When ChatGPT garnered mainstream attention in November 2022, it started an "AI craze," according to Nick Chen, the cofounder of link-in-bio platform Hype.
Since then, hundreds of AI tools have popped up, helping with anything from writing cover letters during job searches to translating text into different languages.
When it comes to the creator economy, some companies have made such advancements that experts like Amber Venz Box, founder of social shopping platform LTK, don't see how the industry can survive without it going forward.
"AI is revolutionizing the creator landscape, helping us creators with everything from discovery to efficiency to even how we evaluate our success and so much more. It's an exciting era," she told Business Insider.
Although the rise of generative-AI tools ignited a fear that content creation may soon become redundant — or be entirely taken over by AI-generated characters like models and influencers — most industry experts think that scenario is unlikely.
"The very idea of using AI-generated images and videos is at odds with what is proven to work on TikTok and Instagram — raw authenticity," Chen said, explaining that online audiences enjoy seeing creators' imperfect moments, like mistakes while filming or messy rooms. "Gen AI only makes the creator less relatable, not more so."
Not only that — AI is still in its infancy, and many tools don't deliver on their promises.
"There was so much hype around the tasks AI could take over, but a lot of tools still need to be refined and improved before they become dependable solutions for marketers or creators," said Lia Haberman, influencer-marketing expert and instructor at UCLA Extension.
Instead, the real value of AI may lie in speeding up processes, increasing productivity, and eliminating time-consuming tasks like video and audio editing, dubbing, or project management.
"AI is creating more of a level playing field for creators," said Lindsey Gamble, associate director of influencer innovation at influencer-marketing firm Mavrck. "With the increasing number of AI startups, creators have numerous ways to speed up their processes and workflow. Previously, creators needed significant time and financial resources for such tasks."
However, navigating the sea of tools that have cropped up in the past year can be challenging.
To understand which companies are moving the needle and providing the most value in the influencer industry, BI spoke with 18 creator-economy experts — including creators, managers, marketers, and video editors.
Adobe Firefly has a range of brainstorming and editing tools
Adobe
What it does: Firefly is an AI service that Adobe has incorporated into all its tools, powering features like Generative Fill in Photoshop. Firefly has many content-ideation and editing options, like custom templates or fonts, text-to-image prompts, text effects, generative image removal to remove unwanted objects or text, and recoloring. Most of the features require a desktop app and aren't mobile-friendly yet.
Who likes it: Tony Santos, YouTube video editor; Sheila Marmon, CEO of digital-ad network Mirror Digital; Manasi Arya, creator; Lissette Calveiro, founder of talent-management firm Influence with Impact; Rowan Cheung, founder and CEO of AI newsletter The Rundown; Phil Ranta, CEO of social platform Spree; and Jordan Orme, video editor and cohost of "The Editing Podcast"
Why they like it: "Their Generative Fill feature has made thumbnail generation twice as fast and 10 times better once you learn how to use it correctly," Ranta said.
Meanwhile, Arya finds Illustrator's Firefly features particularly useful because of its text-to-image capabilities. "You can type in exactly what you're looking for, and it immediately pops up," she said. "It's really fun to use and super easy."
Marmon said many people she works with find Firefly indispensable for creating content and that it's been a "gem for our staff and creators."
ChatGPT uses generative AI to answer users' questions
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
What it does: OpenAI's ChatGPT is an intuitive chatbot that uses generative AI to answer user questions and prompts.
The chatbot helped generative AI enter the mainstream and has continued to grow in popularity. Creators previously told BI they'd found dozens of uses for ChatGPT since it became widely available in November 2022.
Who likes it: Lia Haberman, UCLA Extension instructor; Alexa Moore, creator; Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer-marketing firm Influential; Rowan Cheung, founder and CEO of AI newsletter The Rundown; Laura Bitoiu, social-media marketing strategist; Katarina Terentieva, chief creative officer at media-production company Louder Group; and Natalie Barbu, cofounder of creator startup Rella
Why they like it: ChatGPT can support creators with writing scripts or getting past the writer's block for content, supplementing the work of scriptwriters.
Bitoiu recommends ChatGPT as the No. 1 tool for beginners in AI because of its ease. "There are basically endless options," she said. "I've been using it to brainstorm content ideas, write sales pages and copy, and create new digital products."
DALL-E 2 creates pictures based on descriptions
Tejas Hullur and his team use DALL-E 2 to create images for the newsletter "Out West Chronicles."
Tejas Hullur
What it does: DALL-E 2 uses AI to generate images from descriptions. It can create all sorts of pictures and replicate styles, concepts, and attributes.
Who likes it: Lia Haberman, UCLA Extension instructor; Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer-marketing firm Influential; and Sheila Marmon, CEO of digital-ad network Mirror Digital
Why they like it: "With each new release being exponentially better than the last, I foresee tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E continuing to become a bigger part of how brands, agencies, and creators work in the space collaboratively," Detert said.
Descript is a go-to editing tool for podcasters
Descript
Business Insider
What it does: Descript is an audio and video editor that's meant to feel "just like a word processor," CEO and cofounder Andrew Mason previously told BI. The tool transcribes audio and video and syncs the text to the sound so it can be edited like a Microsoft Word document.
It also offers features like voice cloning to create additional audio for a track by typing, automated removal of filler words, and a "Regenerate" tool that automatically substitutes bad audio to make it sound cleaner.
Who likes it: Nick Chen, cofounder of link-in-bio platform Hype; Laura Bitoiu, social-media strategist; Taylor Loren, social-media consultant; and Katarina Terentieva, chief creative officer at media-production company Louder Group
Why they like it: Creator-economy insiders said Descript has significantly reduced their time editing video and audio. Podcasters previously praised it as one of the most useful AI tools in their arsenal.
Social-media consultant Bitoiu, for example, has used Descript to help edit the courses she sells online. She said the tool helps remove filler words like "um" and "uh," which make her sound more polished to online audiences.
ElevenLabs synthesizes and replicates speech for dubbing
The team behind AI startup ElevenLabs.
ElevenLabs
What it does: ElevenLabs is a long-form speech-synthesis platform.
The platform generates speech in voice-actor style from text, using a model trained to understand what the text says and adjust delivery accordingly. Users can select a pre-existing voice or create a model from a sample they provide. It recently released an AI Speech Classifier feature, which analyzes uploaded tracks to identify if they contain audio generated using ElevenLabs.
The company has become one of the buzziest early-stage AI companies recently, reaching unicorn status and raising in January a Series B round worth $80 million.
Who likes it: Phil Ranta, CEO of social platform Spree
Why they like it: For creators who aim to reach broader audiences around the world, ElevenLabs helps cut the costs and editing time associated with dubbing.
Ranta said that while voice-cloning tools could be dangerous for the potential scams that could result from them, they also make workflows more efficient for content that requires a voiceover.
Fireflies is an AI note-taker
Fireflies.ai
What it does: Fireflies uses AI to help with note-taking, summarizing, and analyzing virtual meetings.
The tool integrates with all the major conferencing platforms, and it can be used to record and transcribe video and audio calls, as well as to highlight key points, generate tasks and action items, and collaborate with team members, including analyzing talk time, sentiment, and monologues for coaching purposes.
The note-taker integrates with project-management platforms like Asana and Trello to generate tasks using voice commands during meetings, and meeting recaps can be shared automatically on collaboration apps like Slack, Notion, or Google Docs.
Who likes it: Avi Gandhi, founder of consulting firm Partner with Creators, and Rowan Cheung, founder and CEO of AI newsletter The Rundown
Why they like it: Fireflies can help get the most out of virtual meetings and streamline tasks without worrying about taking notes or missing anything during the meeting.
"I don't always end up looking back at my transcription notes, but when I forget a thing or two from my meetings, it's nice to have the option to review," said Cheung.
Bard is a Google-developed AI chatbot
Sissie Hsiao is a vice president at Google and general manager for Google Assistant and Bard.
Courtesy of Sissie Hsiao
What it does: Bard is a conversational generative-AI chatbot developed by Google. It can generate text, translate languages, and write content, among other uses. When a user enters a prompt into Bard, the chatbot forms a response based on information in its database or another source, like Google's other services.
Who likes it: Lia Haberman, UCLA Extension instructor; and Matt Navarra, social-media consultant
Why they like it: Like with ChatGPT, creators and industry insiders have found various use cases for Bard, Haberman said — from support with content-idea generation to light editing to writing short text.
Navarra has found Bard useful in generating alternative text and descriptions for images he uses in his newsletter and other types of content.
MidJourney lives on a Discord server, offering features like image remixing
Midjourney website
Midjourney
What it does: Similar to DALL-E 2, Midjourney is a generative-AI model and content platform, where creators can make different images on its Discord server. The platform has processed 70 million images so far, and creators can choose from different pricing models according to their content needs, with features including image remixing, upscaling, and inpainting.
Who likes it: Rowan Cheung, founder and CEO of AI newsletter The Rundown; Sheila Marmon, CEO of digital-ad network Mirror Digital; and Matt Navarra, social-media consultant
Why they like it: "It's a fast and efficient way to sort through multiple creative ideas for backdrops, logos, set design, photo shoots," Marmon said.
Navarra uses the tool to generate images to add to his social-media-focused newsletter.
"It's better at producing fun, realistic images of well-known people," he said. "We often do pictures of Elon Musk or [Mark] Zuckerberg. We put them in scenarios to make it fit with the newsletter."
Notion is an AI-enhanced connected workspace for project management and document creation
Notion
What it does: Notion is a connected workspace that allows teams to share documents, take notes, manage projects, and organize their knowledge.
The company rolled out several AI products in 2023, including Notion AI, an AI assistant that helps generate summaries of text and makes suggestions to enhance a user's writing; Notion Projects, a project-management system; and AI Autofill, which allows users who store large collections of meeting notes, tasks, and other content to use AI to generate summaries, extract action items, and more.
The most recent AI feature, Q&A, provides users with a way to get quick answers to questions drawn from their docs, projects, meetings, and notes through AI and has had over 100,000 signups on the day of launch in November.
Who likes it: Lia Haberman, UCLA Extension instructor; Rowan Cheung, founder and CEO of AI newsletter The Rundown; and Taylor Loren, social-media consultant
Why they like it: Notion has become a go-to tool for many creators and companies to manage their projects — and it's spun a cottage industry of templates that some creators have turned into a full-fledged business.
"Notion is a place where I store all my notes," said Cheung. "It's literally my second brain. Without it, my mind would probably explode."
Opus Clip clips longer videos to be repurposed on short-form platforms
OpusClip
What it does: Opus Clip is an AI tool that does "one niche thing really, really well," said social-media consultant Taylor Loren.
The video-editing platform offers a variety of tools to cut long-form videos into shorter clips that can be repurposed across short-form social-media platforms like TikTok, Instagram reels, or YouTube shorts.
It also adds captions, removes filler words, and offers templates for short-form videos.
Who likes it: Lia Haberman, UCLA Extension instructor; Taylor Loren, social-media consultant; and Lindsey Gamble, associate director of influencer innovation at influencer firm Mavrck
Why they like it: Loren said Opus Clip can help significantly cut down editing time for creators and people who dabble in content creation and facilitate repurposing.
Gamble also said: "A tool like this is helpful not just for traditional creators but also for those like myself who work a full-time job and create content around their industry but are limited on time."
Otter is an AI note-taker that transcribes video and audio in real time
Otter.ai
What it does: Similar to Fireflies, Otter is an AI-powered note-taker that integrates with video-conferencing tools and works to transcribe, summarize, and store information from virtual meetings. Teams can collaborate on the live transcripts, make notes, and generate action items.
Who likes it: Katarina Terentieva, chief creative officer at media-production company Louder Group; and Lia Haberman, UCLA Extension instructor
Why they like it: After testing out and experimenting with different AI tools, Otter is one of the few that Haberman has continued to use.
"It's been so helpful in letting me focus my attention on the conversation instead of being distracted taking notes or trying to remember next steps," Haberman said. "It gives me a full transcript of the call at the end, plus key takeaways. It recognizes people I have recurring meetings with and also sends a transcript to anyone on the meeting invite."
Rewind captures ‘everything you see, say, and hear’ on your computer
From left: Paul Stamatiou, Dan Siroker, and Brett Bejcek, cofounders of Rewind.
Rewind
What it does: Rewind describes itself as "a personalized AI that captures everything you see, say, and hear."
The tool records and stores information about not only virtual meetings but also history on internet browsers and any other action taken on a computer so that the user can have it stored and indexed and go back to it later. Importantly, it automatically excludes private or sensitive data like Social Security numbers or sites like 1Password.
Who likes it: Rowan Cheung, founder and CEO of AI newsletter The Rundown; and Matt Navarra, social-media consultant
Why they like it: Rewind can be particularly useful for people who tend to be in back-to-back meetings with several people each day or who save webpages, screenshots, and PDFs and later forget about them. Rewind stores all this information in one place and makes it searchable.
"I go through a million pages and apps daily, and it helps me recall exactly what I need when I forget throughout the day," Cheung said. "It's also very helpful in curating the most interesting content for the newsletter."
Runway aims to disrupt filmmaking and video creation
Runway
What it does: Runway helps facilitate and streamline video editing and video creation through AI. The company's cofounder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela previously told BI he is on a mission to simplify storytelling, in two main ways: helping to "see the world" with video editing, and "generating things in the world" with content generation.
The platform provides text-to-image generation, text-to-speech voice generation, and ever-developing video tools that enable text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video creation. Runway also has a host of editing tools including background and object removal, and it enables real-time, secure collaboration on projects.
Runway has been used by teams working with YouTube superstar MrBeast and the Oscar-winning movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once," among others.
Who likes it: Jordan Orme, video editor and cohost of "The Editing Podcast"
Why they like it: Runway is helping filmmakers and people who work with videos streamline certain tasks that have historically been particularly difficult or time-consuming, like rotoscoping, the act of isolating subjects in a video to change their background. Orme said as a video editor, Runway has helped him stylize videos and create new clips.
