Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing creativity. Innovative AI algorithms are empowering professionals across industries ranging from graphic design to music production with enhanced efficiency, expanded creative capabilities, and elevated output quality. As an AI expert focused on creative applications, I am continuously amazed yet not surprised by the rapid pace at which these technologies are transforming creative work.
In this guide, we will explore 10 of the most impactful AI tools available today for boosting your creative toolset as a professional in graphic design, photography, videography, web design, content creation, and more. For each tool, I share key capabilities, real-world examples, tips for implementation, and my insight on overall functionality. While the opportunities enabled by AI are astounding, these technologies still have limitations creative professionals should understand. My goal is to provide an objective, nuanced perspective so you can evaluate if and how incorporating AI aligns with your creative goals this year.
Below you will find:
Table of Contents:
- Midjourney – AI Art Generator
- Adobe VoCo – AI Audio Editor
- Nvidia Broadcast – AI Video Enhancer
- Codecademy – Interactive Coding Courses
- Descript – AI Transcription & Captioning
- Copy.ai – AI Content Writer
- Artbreeder – AI Image Blender
- Deep Dream Generator – AI Art Creator
- Runway ML – Interactive AI Design
- Coolors – AI Color Scheme Generator
Now let‘s dive in and unlock new creative possibilities!
1. Midjourney – AI Art Generator
Midjourney is an innovative AI system that generates stunning 2D and 3D artwork from text prompts. With advanced deep learning algorithms trained on millions of images, Midjourney interprets prompts with impressive accuracy.
For creative professionals, this tool unlocks tremendous time savings and creative exploration compared to manual illustration. Within seconds, you can produce original portraits, landscapes, architecture visualizations, concept art, logos, and more simply by describing the desired outcome.
While Midjourney excels at rendering photorealistic content, it also produces stylized, artistic results spanning mediums like pen & ink drawings, oil paintings, pixel art, and pottery. The detail and realism are truly mind-blowing.
However, because AI art generation remains an emerging technology, you may need to experiment with phrasing prompts to produce your ideal outcome. I recommend focusing prompts by including style, medium, and composition details vs. only describing the main subject. The promptengineering subreddit is a great resource for examples and guidance.
Use Cases: Illustrations, concept art, mood boards, graphic design elements like logos and patterns, journalism and publishing
2. Adobe VoCo – AI Audio Editor
Adobe VoCo leverages machine learning to edit speech recordings, removing filler words and background noise while retaining a natural voice quality. Think of it like Photoshop filters for audio!
This tool works wonders for cleaning up podcasts, interviews, voiceovers, and other speech audio. The "Text-based Editing" feature detects fillers like "um" and "uh" then seamlessly deletes them. You can even insert new words and sentences as needed for continuity.
For ambient background noise, VoCo‘s attenuation and noise cancellation features work well for steady sources like AC units but can sound artificial on variable sounds like wind. I recommend only light use of noise reduction to avoid degraded quality.
Finally, you can adjust pacing by compressing or stretching playback speed while maintaining consistent pitch and tone. This helps standardize timing across edits to keep speech natural.
Use Cases: Podcast editing, interview prep, voiceovers, audio books
3. Nvidia Broadcast
If high-quality video calls, conferencing, livestreams, and recordings are critical for your creative business, Nvidia Broadcast is an invaluable AI tool for enhancing both visuals and audio.
On the video side, intelligent noise removal seamlessly takes out repetitive background motion like moving plants or curtain flutter. Auto frame keeps you centered as you move naturally. portrait relighting adds a professional sheen.
The audio algorithms also work wonders detecting and eliminating unwanted sounds from voice pick up and virtual backgrounds. You can sound like you‘re in a recording booth even in distracting environments.
My one caution around Nvidia Broadcast is that the enhanced video effects are powered by GPUs and require robust processing power. You‘ll need a higher-end NVIDIA RTX graphics card to run everything smoothly. For mobile use, I recommend focusing on key audio clean up unless your device can handle the video rendering load.
Use Cases: Video calls, conferencing, live stream productions, video course creation, virtual set building
4. Codecademy – Interactive Coding Courses
While not focused solely on creative applications, Codecademy remains one of the best AI-powered learning platforms for picking up coding skills to expand your capabilities across creative tech fields like web design, animation, game Dev, digital art, and more.
I particularly appreciate Codecademy‘s interactive browser-based environment where you actively write and execute code vs passively absorbing lectures. Applied reinforcement drives proficiency. Their also Community forums bust boredom providing real-time peer learning upon getting stuck.
For creative pros without hardcore computer science backgrounds, Codecademy makes levelling up approachable. Their career paths trickle key concepts before building up to complex projects. And supplemental content dives into areas like algorithms, data structures, and databases that power modern applications.
My advice is identifying a coding area that aligns to your creative niche like Frontend Development, Python Machine Learning, or Game Dev then sticking to a learning roadmap. Consistency pays off unlocking new professional opportunities.
Use Cases: Website building, game/app development, ML artistry, creative data analysis
5. Descript – AI Transcription & Captioning
Multimedia creators dealing with high volumes of video and audio content know well the pain of manual editing and transcription. Descript deploys AI for lightning fast transcription, captioning, editing, and audio/video syncing.
After uploading media, Descript‘s algorithms detect speech providing time-stamped transcripts automatically. You can then make text edits seamlessly while audio edits itself in sync. The same tech also auto-generates subtitles and captions for increased multimedia accessibility.
Descript‘s transcription does best with clear audio in common dialects. Accuracy declines for niche vocabularies or highly-stylized speech. I suggest reviewing auto-transcriptions for errors before publishing edited versions especially for commercial use.
Overall though, Descript saves creators tons of time allowing focus on big-picture content vs laborious details. It‘s a must-have for efficient video producers, podcast editors, journalists, and more.
Use Cases: Video production/post-production, podcast creation & distribution, news media processing
6. Copy.ai – AI Content Writer
Modern online content creators like social media managers, bloggers, and digital marketing teams often need to produce high volumes of writing covering diverse topics quickly. Copy.ai allows generating draft copy with AI for dramatically increased writing efficiency.
After entering a basic prompt, Copy.ai outputs original paragraphs on your topic formatted for things like blog posts, social captions, product descriptions, email newsletters, and more. You then refine generated text applying your unique brand voice and perspective.
I find Copy.ai ideal for early draft ideation that still requires heavy human editing to achieve quality on par with fully manual writing. It reduces blank slate anxiety and research time allowing focus on actual writing craft. The AI writing quality continues advancing rapidly as well in impressive ways.
My advice is being very specific in prompts about tone, purpose, audience etc to better match output to needs. Also fact-check specifics meticulously during editing along with tightening word choice and style.
Use Cases: Content & digital marketing, business blogging, social media management
7. Artbreeder – AI Image Blender
Artbreeder provides advanced AI capabilities for image editing and illustration different than typical filters and effects. Think blending attributes of multiple images to make something new and unique.
The system utilizes GAN neural networks studying source images in granular detail. As you adjust trait sliders, Artbreeder then suggests new blended iterations for you to further tweak or export.
The creative possibilities span merging portrait subjects with varied textures and backgrounds, compositing landscape or architecture elements to invent buildings, applying artwork styles across photos, and imposing color schemes. Artbreeder promotes visual experimentation beyond manual editing limits.
That said, not all results will impress depending on source compatibility and user expertise. Photos with consistent perspective, scale, and lighting blend best. My tip is starting simple with portrait edits before tackling trickier composites. Save versions along the way as starting points for future edits too!
Use Cases: Graphic design, digital/print art, photo manipulation, concept art
8. Deep Dream Generator – AI Art Creator
Deep Dream Generator from DeepArtEffects is my go-to recommendation for effortless avant garde abstract artwork perfect for digital artists, marketers, social media brands and more wanting distinctive visual styling.
Their AI system analyses source images then applies filter effects and transformations yielding surreal, psychedelic and futuristic interpretations with pattern repetitions and distortions related to the original. Having a base photo eliminates staring at a blank canvas!
Every run produces utterly unique results ranging vibrant celestial scenes to technicolor animal oddities that are conversation starters and visually arresting for graphic prints, website hero images, album art, NFT crypto art and more.
I do advise submitting portrait photos and offensive imagery with caution as abstractions can highlight faces or body parts strangely. Landscapes and architecture make safer starting points for brand-friendly projects. Let your imagination run wild!
Use Cases: Graphic design, digital/print artwork, marketing visuals, NFT creation
9. Runway ML – Interactive AI Design
Runway ML earns a spot on this list not only for integrating advanced generative AI capabilities into an easy web interface but also the scope possibilities beyond just static graphics and media.
Creators can build fully interactive applications from AI-generated game environments to product configurators with dynamic image generation to even machine learning powered recommendation engines. Drag and drop modules make even complex logic accessible without coding.
While many competitors focus narrowly on assets, Runway encourages exploring emerging areas like 3D design, augmented reality, and automation pipelines for programmatic asset creation. Expect more integration for music visualizers, animated text templates, HTML widget generation for websites, and assistive design agents.
I highly suggest Runway ML for creative technologists(and aspiring ones!) comfortable working cross-disciplines spanning graphics, UX and interactive media. The versatilty cannot be overstated in terms of career development and marketability.
Use Cases: Interactive design, generative art, data visualization, AR/VR worldbuilding, creative coding
10. Coolors – AI Color Scheme Generator
Last but not least tools like Coolors, despite simplicity compared to other AI powerhouses mentioned, remain essential weapons in every creative‘s arsenal for ideating themes when designing visual content across marketing, events, products, services, and personal brands.
Leveraging AI analyzing color relationships, Coolors converts starter tones picked manually or uploaded into 5 color palettes optimized for harmony. You can fine-tune brightness, saturation, and hue as well as identify clash warnings to refine further.
I appreciate how Coolors also suggests public community palettes from their database matching search criteria. Having RGB, HEX, and image export makes applying schemes across tools easy too.
While AI empowered, color theory remains more art than science. Not every palette will suit so take suggestions as inspiration to test vs blindly implementing. Nonetheless, Coolors provides ample intelligent starting points for design exploration, especially for non-artists overwhelmed deciding colors.
Use Cases: Graphic, environmental and fashion design, art direction, photography, branding
Conclusion
I hope this guide has shed light on key AI creative tools showing vast new opportunity along with more nuanced functionality realities. When carefully incorporated into workflows by discerning professionals, AI empowers artists and creators across verticals by radically enhancing scale and efficiency thereby boosting innovation.
However, these technologies should not subsume but rather assist human ingenuity and judgment. Understanding unique capabilities and limitations prevents overreach into areas better served by manual craft. There exist exciting futures though where human and artificial creative instincts harmonize collaboratively with wondrous new mediums to explore.
