Bernard May is CEO of National Positions, a five-time Inc. 500 companies, an award-winning marketing agency and Google Premier partner.
It’s hard to see that it’s been only three years since the names that have come to define the AI landscape have skyrocketed into public consciousness, moving the wave of possibilities that are still riding today. Midjourney, Chatgpt and Kaiber blew the doors out of the world of marketing and introduced us all to a new era of productivity and creativity.
When it comes to marketing, visual content is the Holy Grail and for good reason. In 2025, “Content” is a shorthand for everything that captures the eyes, hearts and hearts of the next potential customer, including videos, product images, ad clips, and user-generated content. Limited time, assets and budgets puts the marketing team under pressure to maximize output with minimal input. That’s where visual AI tools come into play.
The facts in question are: At least marketers willing to experiment with everything AI has to offer (and how they apply it to a particular marketing role) could be destined to be extinct in the next decade or so. I’m not trying to scare anyone, but I’m pleading to keep all the tools at my disposal up to date to stay relevant.
Here’s what I found after experimenting, testing and using almost every visual AI tool on the market: The workflows included below are something I will return to. I’m not part of all the tools mentioned, but each saved hundreds of hours compared to traditional workflows.
Creating images
In my opinion, AI, which focuses on lasers in image generation, does its best for customization and flexibility. It’s my go-to to create assets like custom images, stocks, and find visual inspiration.
I’ve been using Midjourney for years. You can also enter prompts, select aspect ratios, set camera angles, provide visual references for consistency, and edit after creation.
I admit that when it was released I was a Gemini skeptic. That said, when it comes to speedy and quality image generation, I passed every test I run. Gemini proved to be fast and accurate at the prompt. Working within a large language model allows you to refine your visuals in chat threads.
Creating a video
Now on the video. When you’re ready to blow your mind, go and start the experiment. From creating drone shots of client locations to animation team photos in promotional clips, we used AI for everything. I also started using AI More for Broll and product image video. The model is “Walk Down The Street” and is wearing the most popular outfit. The results are amazing. Many AI video creation tools Achilles’ heels are still in the hands. They can morph, blurry, and usually fail. So, as long as your hands stay in your pocket, it’s worth testing.
Runways are tools that make AI difficult to distinguish from reality, especially people. Eye movements, mouth, hands – in my experience, 95% of the time is nailed. You can start from scratch, provide references to images, or let go. My best results came from the latter.
Kaiber’s Superstudio is my budget-friendly backup for generating video assets from images and prompts. The sandbox style user experience can be creepy, but the results are solid. When I uploaded an image of a client product for the first time and asked for a 360 degree rotation around the product, it provided just that – I was shocked.
Audio ai
This is a bit of a cheat, but if you plan to create an AI avatar version of your team, your voice must be appropriate. If this isn’t yours, skip it. However, if you are going to the avatar route, do not skip this step.
I used evrenlabs for this. You can clone your voice with incredible accuracy for use on scripted video platforms. The script sounds fluid and natural as the vocal tone and cadence match is better.
Become authentic about AI
This is the fact of the problem. The only way to find AI tools to bridge the marketing gap is to open-minded test everything you find. Perfect for all sizes (like the rest). Some are easy to use, and some have better quality than others. But for example, the needs of beauty brands are not the same as those of car dealers. Therefore, the only way to find the right one for you is to test it at high speed and keep the winner.
Start creating
You will find that I rarely resort to a single tool for everything. Mix and match based on your project and your own time. But here’s the point. A moment of history has arrived. If you can think of it here, you can create it. “Limited assets” and “production teams” are no longer valid excuses.
That’s it. I highly recommend thinking beyond the examples shared above. There are new AI tools that will attract social media feeds every day, and none of them should sleep. You never know when you’ll find a new AI diamond in the rough. Continue to create and intrigue your curiosity.
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