This post was created in partnership with LTX Studio
As the digital media landscape is increasingly reshaped by AI, marketing and advertising teams are grappling with how to best utilize the latest tools in their creative without compromising on quality-or losing the human touch.
During an VmeetsolutionsHouse Cannes Lions panel discussion co-hosted with LTX Studio, industry leaders discussed concerns around AI’s disruption of traditional content creation, the innovative way these tools are being used within the industry, and how imagination will never be obsolete.
Creative direction is still driving content
The panelists kicked off the discussion by addressing the fears many creative professionals have around the adoption of AI technology leading to their obsolescence.
Corbett Drummey, VP of brand collaboration at AI video platform LTX Studio, said he believed the perceived threat comes from the rapid disruption AI has caused in the industry. “In the last decade,” he said, “every two years there was a new social network you had to learn, and the industry felt like it changed. But the pace of AI is so fast-I think that’s what freaks people out.”
Dr. Marcus Collins, clinical assistant professor of marketing at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and author of “For the Culture
,
” agreed that technological evolution was often met with concern and skepticism. Citing historical precedent, like ancient Greek philosophers thinking the written word would lead to society’s intellectual downfall, Collins suggested approaching AI with a level of optimism and curiosity.
More practically, Drummey later added, the current-state capabilities of AI tools are built to require human direction and fine-tuning to achieve desired outcomes.
“The concept of control is something we think about a lot,” Drummey said of LTX’s AI-powered creative workspace for image and video generation. “The product is not made to just press a button and get a good result. It’s really centered around creatives’ workflow and giving them the control to get the results they want.” The human in the loop, he said, is so important.
AI mastery will surpass resistance
Creativity and skill in driving AI outputs are necessary to maximize the benefits of these new tools, the panelists agreed.
“I think about AI sort of like the advent of the drum machine,” said Collins. If you were a drummer at the advent of drum machine technology, you might be defensive about learning the new form of the instrument. But it’s those experts who are most needed to get into the new technology and help define and shape the future of percussive sound. “If you had learned the technology,” Collins said, continuing the analogy, “you would have been the best drum programmer,” because you understand rhythm and technique better than anyone.
AI, the panelists agreed, has the ability not just to enhance the work, but enhance the creative skills of the artist-and allow them to grow their vision in ways they previously wouldn’t have been able to do alone.
“If you’re a really good writer,” explained Drummey, “now you have the tools to make an entire show. You can be a one-person band, where you can make this complete work that you couldn’t have before.” These products, he shared, let beginners get in the game.
Key use cases for current-state AI technology
Shifting from the overall blue-sky potential of AI to more practical use cases, the panelists shared how they’ve already seen these new tools uplevel their conceptual workflows.
“I can communicate a creative concept in a few minutes by just dropping in a few bullet points, tweaking the storyboard, generating some motion, and exporting it with sound into a quick video,” said Drummey. “So, I honestly can say it’s the best tool in the world for rapid prototyping creative ideas.”
Beyond the possibilities of pitching and communicating concepts, the panelists highlighted the current-state utility of mixing AI video into edits as B-roll to aid in scene-setting.
“AI, frankly, is much better at doing a world-building shot of a setting that’s really expensive to produce,” noted Drummey. That marriage of generated content with primary footage is something he said he imagines will grow more common in time.
The discussion concluded with a focus on what needs to happen for overall perceptions of the value of AI to change within the creative and marketing spheres.
“You have to inspire people to see the world in the way that it could be,” said Collins. “To get people to behave in the world differently, we have to get them to buy into another perspective, a shared imagination, where these technologies have a much more viable role in what we do as practitioners.”
Drummey was in full agreement. “The artist’s job is to charge ahead into new territory,” he said. “And our job is to give them the tools for that.”