51. AI Software that Agencies are Using as We Speak!

So let’s get caught up on AI in the Ad World, shall we?

The unauthorized Dior spot features AI-generated versions of Rihanna and Emilia Clarke. – Ad Age

Meta AI is nearing 500 million monthly active users while advertiser-facing products like Image Generator are lifting conversions. – Marketing Dive

In case you’re curious. – Digiday

Here comes a pretty strong list of AI resources that agencies are experimenting with – courtesy of Ad Age. The publication presented nine software reviews per edition over three editions. I combined them all into one list. All of the software titles provide a link to the appropriate site. Some, you might have heard of. Some not.

So I’ll lay it all out for you as an AI Buffet and let you pick through what you already may know and perhaps you’ll find a new gem or two. And if you wish, perhaps even list your additional favorite(s) in the comments section below.

Here is a summary of all three Ad Age installments.

Holding companies such as WPP, Havas and Publicis Groupe have pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the technology in the coming years, with some even building proprietary systems. Major partnerships are a big focus, too.

I used this in podcasts for this newsletter. It’s hit or miss with many re-renders and edits. Hearing your cloned voice say something you never said is always remarkable.

ElevenLabs offers text-to-speech, text-to-SFX, dubbing features and more. Interpublic Group of Cos.’ The Martin Agency is using the company’s voice cloning tool (video below) to help with its presentations during pitches.

Used this yesterday. Midjourney does not offer out-painting for imported images. Though it is hard to compete against Midjourney. An option for text rendering is Recraft.ai.

Independent creative agency Something Different has been exploring Ideogram’s ability to render text into AI-generated images with “greater accuracy,” said Creative Director Arturo Gigante.

Some tools are a blast to play with.

The Martin Agency has been experimenting with 3D scanning app Polycam’s gaussian splatting feature, which is designed to create lifelike, natural-looking 3D scenes and subjects.

Runway’s Gen-3 is an AI playground offering a number of unique tools on behalf of democratized art. Does just about everything.

Stagwell’s Code and Theory is using Runway’s tools for stock video creation, helping expedite the production process, said Chief Technology Officer Dave DiCamillo.

One of two AI music go-to’s along with Udio. Both are dealing with lawsuits.

BarkleyOKRP shared that it is using Suno, an AI music generator, to “inspire” new ideas. A few months ago, the independent agency used the tool to create a 30-track digital album about Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuits, which BarkleyOKRP said has lots of “fan love” online.

Nothing about automated email is appealing. I prefer texting or finding the person to have an actual conversation.

Superhuman debuted a slew of AI features in 2023 and has made more updates in recent months, including an AI-powered Instant Reply feature.

Acadia is using ThoughtSpot to “do big data analytics in real time,” said CEO Jared Belsky. ThoughtSpot replaces the need to use SQL, a programming language that helps process information in a database, Belsky said, thereby saving time and money. 

The defacto tool used to upscale lower-resolution imagery or motion.

Many shops are using the AI research assistant Waldo, which offers support on pitches, brand strategy, creative and more. Waldo has reduced McKinney’s “initial desk research by around 50% from a time perspective,” according to Anita Schillhorn van Veen, executive director, strategy at the agency. 

WPP, IPG, Havas, Omnicom and Accenture have used Waldo, according to the company’s website, which also lists brands including Uber, Walmart and Disney.

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Credit: Captions, Tactiq, Wordtune

Captions, an AI startup backed by actor-musician Jared Leto and Index Ventures, lets users create and alter videos. VML has been exploring Captions’ ability to create “influencer-like videos on the fly,” said Brian Yamada, chief innovation officer at the WPP agency. 

HeyGen offers a much more intriguing capability: creating a digital twin to attend Zoom meetings on your behalf.

Independent media agency Noble People used HeyGen “to ‘reanimate’ a coworker to host our monthly all-staff meeting which, naturally, was AI-themed,” said Todd Alchin, partner and chief marketing officer. “We also use it to voice videos where traditional voiceover isn’t needed.”

What exactly is “traditional voiceover?”

If you wish to customize your LLM, this place is the GitHub for funky AI code. Bring someone from technology with you.

Several agencies—including Goodby Silverstein & Partners and McKinney—told Ad Age they are using the AI model repository Hugging Face, which stores open-sourced foundation models such as Meta’s Llama 2 and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion. 

Nextatlas recently debuted Generate Suite, an AI-powered market research assistant. Omnicom Group and Accenture are also using the tool, according to the company’s website, which also lists brands such as Barilla, Mondelēz International and Stellantis as clients.

Here’s yet another subscription for you.

“The tool quickly pulls and summarizes data, providing fast, relevant answers backed by a wide range of sources—great for strategy and creative sessions,” FCB Global Chief Creative Officer Andrés Ordóñez said in a statement. 

Allows you to run locally to generate AI imagery gratis. Stable Diffusion is a series of open-source models that have been made publicly available by Stability AI.

SpecialGuestX, which is based in Madrid, Spain, shared that it’s experimenting with text-to-image AI model Stable Diffusion. RPA has used Stable Diffusion for work on behalf of Honda, including a recent spot called “Prompted by Dreams.”

Finally – a reason for meetings.

Keeping notes during meetings can be quite tedious. Convicts, a New York-based digital media and creative agency, has tapped AI meeting assistant Tactiq to streamline the process, Social Media Director Sean McKeever said in an email. McKeever added that the tool has made a “notable difference” in managing post-meeting work and action items. 

Wordtune is an AI editing tool that, in addition to providing proofreading support, is designed to identify users’ writing styles and tailor authentic suggestions. It’s caught the attention of SuperHeroes, a Brooklyn, New York-based creative shop. 

Accenture Song employees are using tools from Writer, a startup creating generative AI writing products, according to a company spokeswoman. Accenture made an investment in Writer last September; terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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This is easily my favorite feature in Photoshop Beta.

Adobe’s AI-powered Generative Fill tool, which allows users to edit images in various ways, is perhaps one of the more recognizable tools on this list. It’s quickly become essential for designers, according to Toby Barlow, CEO of indie agency Lafayette American.

Built-in features include “RFP Response.”

Many shops are building their own tools to help manage the more mundane tasks of pitches, but there are plenty of publicly accessible products catching agencies’ attention. Quad is using the AI workspace platform Cassidy to help with responses to request for proposals, according to a spokesperson.

ComfyUI is a web-based interface that works with text-to-image AI model Stable Diffusion, as well as Black Forest Labs’ Flux 1 AI model, to better help users generate and edit images. 

Agencies such as Anomaly, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and SpecialGuestX are experimenting with ComfyUI, which recently released ComfyUI V1, a desktop application.

You lost me at “web banner maker.”

Creatopy is a platform that automates ad creation using AI. Lafayette American told Ad Age that Creatopy’s web banner maker, which allows users to customize animations in their designs, is especially useful. Below, a video of Creatopy’s “Advanced Animations.”

“This site probably does the work of 10 people at a bigger agency,” said Barlow, helping “go toe to toe with all the holding company goliaths.”

Fall down the rabbit hole with this one. You’ll kill an afternoon.

Flim, which bills itself as the “search engine for creative people,” is essentially a massive database of video cuts and stills.

Boston shop Colossus is using Flim to “sort through hundreds of thousands of clips from films, TV shows and other ads,” said Tyler Sugg, a creative technologist and art director at the agency. 

Focaldata is an “AI coworker” designed to help organizations conduct research, collect data and analyze results.

“We’re building Focaldata AI for enterprise insight teams who want to say “Yes” to more requests from brand, innovation and product stakeholders.”

Cheil Worldwide agency McKinney uses Focaldata to moderate interviews with consumers and test its creative ideas during pitches. 

Kive is an all-in-one platform to generate ideas, produce professional content, organize assets and build brands with AI.

Kive is an AI-powered platform aimed at helping creatives organize, create and share images and videos. The platform is particularly useful for mood boards and image organization, said Colossus Executive Creative Director and Co-Founder Travis Robertson.

Wieden+Kennedy, Droga5 and Forsman & Bodenfors have also used Kive, according to the company’s website.

Krea’s Flux is well-known and the real deal for video generation and editing.

Much like other AI platforms, Krea offers a slew of different features, including video generation. Anomaly finds the company’s “Realtime” editor tool particularly helpful, said Chris Neff, global head of emerging technology at the Stagwell agency. 

Krea recently made Black Forest Labs’ Flux 1 AI model available to use in Realtime.

Pika 1.5 is another widely accepted generative video tool.

There’s no shortage of text-to-video generative AI tools. San Francisco-based studio Bonfire Labs shared that it’s using Pika Labs, which competes against tools such as OpenAI’s Sora and Runway. 

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