Video generation tools
AI-powered video generation is rewriting the rules of content creation, enabling rapid, scalable production without sacrificing creativity. These tools empower anyone to bring concepts to life with stunning visuals, cutting through traditional barriers of time and cost.
Yes, we’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth a closer look. Krea also brings together a wide range of video models in one streamlined platform. While it doesn’t house every single model from every tool, it does include many of the big names like Veo-2, Kling 2.0, Ray-2, and others.
It’s a smart option if you don’t want to juggle multiple subscriptions. With Krea, you get a central space to experiment, create, and test ideas without interrupting your flow.
Luma has some pretty cool features also there’s (NeRF) Neural Radiance Fields to reconstruct detailed 3D models from a series of 2D images captured with a smartphone. And, Dream Machine also allows users to generate short, realistic videos from text prompts or image to video. It leverages the Ray2 model—great for animations and includes impressive camera controls like bolt cam and fast zoom-ins.
3. Higgsfield
Higgsfield is fantastic, easily a favorite among filmmakers. If you're familiar with Eye Candy, you’ll feel right at home, and if not, consider it a hidden gem worth exploring. Higgsfield offers a similar interface and features a massive library of Motion Presets. These are predefined camera movements, visual effects, and animation styles designed to instantly elevate your video scenes. You can quickly apply cinematic moves like "Bullet Time," "Crash Zoom In," "Dutch Angle," or "Snorricam" without manual animation. Plus, they’ve added some clever extras like viral ad presets or iconic movie scenes.
They’ve just launched two big updates:
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Effects Mix — now you can stack explosive VFX like Set On Fire + Crash Zoom In or Turning Metal + Thunder God in one shot, turning single scenes into high-impact visual stories.
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Start & End Frames — drop in your opening and closing visuals, and let Higgsfield magically stitch the middle into a cinematic arc. Ideal for before/after reveals, narrative transitions, or visual ads.
4. Kling
Kling AI has quickly become a go-to for cinematic video generation. Its 2.0 and 2.1 Master models deliver striking realism, with consistent character appearance and movement across scenes, already setting a new bar for narrative AI.
What’s new is the Pro and Master split. Pro gives directors precision lighting, smooth transitions, and frame conditioning, while Master pushes realism and expressive motion even further. Kling also added multi-element editing, letting you swap or remove objects in a scene without starting over, and camera presets like pans, dollies, and over-the-shoulder shots for instant cinematic moves. On top of that, Kling is testing lip-sync dialogue and virtual try-ons for fashion and retail.
Now, Kling 2.1 adds a powerful “start‑and‑end frame” feature, giving creators full control over how a scene begins and ends, opening the door to seamless, continuous shots that feel like real filmmaking .
5. Hailuo AI
Hailuo AI, developed by MiniMax, is also a powerful tool that turns text prompts and images into high-quality videos—perfect for concept art, photography, anime, and animation. Its intuitive interface makes visual storytelling fast and accessible.
What sets Hailuo apart is its ability to generate cinematic-style with advanced models like T2V-01-Director and I2V-01-Director that give creators control over camera angles, lighting, and scene composition.
Google’s Veo models are starting to make AI video feel more like real filmmaking. Veo 2 gave creators proper camera tools, smooth pans, zooms, and tracking shots in crisp high resolution.
Now there’s Veo 3, which takes things up a notch. It can add motion, sound effects, dialogue, and background audio to short clips, all from a single prompt or even a still photo. It’s built for creators who want to quickly produce short, cinematic scenes that feel polished and alive.
7. Sora
Sora is OpenAI’s text-to-video tool built right into ChatGPT. It lets you create short video clips up to 20 seconds long at up to 1080p HD quality just by typing a prompt or even uploading a reference image. Perfect for quick demos, mood tests, or pitching film scenes. You can fine-tune or reshape your clips using vivo editing tools like Storyboard, Remix, Re-cut, Blend, and Loop.
8. Midjourney
Midjourney has also launched its first video model and it’s surprisingly good. The new tool adds motion to visuals generated directly within Midjourney’s interface. It’s easy to access and offers two motion options: low and high. You can use auto settings or control it manually through prompts.
9. Seedance 1.0 (Bytedance)
Seedance 1.0 is already turning heads. Movements are smoother, more grounded, and surprisingly lifelike, making it a standout for music videos, cinematic shots, or almost anything. The tool also handles longer shots with consistency, tracks motion well, and follows prompts accurately. It’s fast too, generating 5 seconds of HD footage in under a minute.
10. Wan 2.1
Wan 2.1 is Alibaba’s open-source tool for turning text or images into video. It creates smooth, realistic motion—ideal for storytelling or action scenes. It handles character movement well while keeping the look consistent. It also delivers significantly better output quality, especially in motion and stability, and allows users to describe scenes using natural language. There are two versions: a powerful 14B model and a faster, lighter 1.3B model.
Alibaba has since released Wan 2.2, which upgrades resolution to full HD, adds more cinematic effects, and runs more efficiently.
11. Pika Labs
Pika Labs is the team behind those viral “Pikaffects”—weird, eye-catching AI videos that pop up all over your feed. They use Pika, a tool that turns simple text or images into short, animated clips. Type something like “anime zoom-out” or “neon city at night,” and it does the rest, bringing your idea to life with motion, color, and mood.
How Every Creative Can Work Smarter with AI (Without Losing their Craft)
Whether you’re just starting or catching up, don’t stress. We’ve got you. This is an essential guide to using AI in creative work across design, code, direction, and strategy.
AI is shifting how we make creative work. Our job is to help people navigate that change without losing what makes the work matter. Creative work isn’t just about making content—it’s about choices: knowing when to push an idea further, spotting what doesn’t exist yet, and taking risks. How we respond is what counts.
If you’re a founder, leader, or practitioner, this is the moment to act. That could mean:
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Setting policies that credit human work clearly
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Reviewing how AI fits into your workflow
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Helping your clients understand the difference between fast and thoughtful
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Investing in tools and systems that reflect your team's values
Those who lead will have a chance to set the tone for how AI is used across the industry, not just to speed things up or cut costs, but to define how technology can support real creativity without stripping it of its edge. That means putting standards in place, protecting authorship, making sure tools are used to enhance the work, not replace the thinking behind it. It also means leading with integrity, being transparent about what’s AI-generated, pushing back when shortcuts weaken the idea, and building systems where human judgment still drives the process.
Today, artificial intelligence helps us move faster, automate tasks, and scale ideas in ways that weren’t possible before. For many teams, it also means quicker turnarounds, more variations, and lower costs. But this also means that new workflow implementations will massively reduce manual labor and free up time for real creative work. AI is a powerful tool, but it has its limits. It doesn’t know what will resonate. It can’t make decisions based on intuition. It doesn’t understand context, timing, or emotion the way people do. It can’t tell a good idea from a bad one, only humans can do that.
And this isn’t about competing with machines. It’s about leaning into what they can’t replace: your judgment, your taste, your lived experience. Creative tools will keep evolving. But the goal stays the same. Make work that connects, tells a story, and makes people feel something.
If we’re not careful, AI can flatten the work. Make it too safe, too similar, too fast. But if we lead with intention, it can make room for more experimentation, more voices, more time spent on the parts that really matter like story, emotion, and originality.
The tools are neutral. It’s what we do with them that counts.
Image Generation Tools
That’s the part that’s human. And it’s not going away. To build a future we trust, we have to shape it on purpose, not by default. But if you listen to how people talk about it, you’d think we’re all on the brink of a breakthrough or a breakdown. It’s either “the end of creativity” or “the greatest tool since the internet.” The reality, of course, is more boring and at the same time, more interesting. AI is neither saviour nor villain. It’s definitely not going to bring an end to creativity, in fact creativity will be the hardest skill to replicate, along with empathy, and critical thinking. And that’s the part worth paying attention to.
Not just what AI can do, but what our reactions to it reveal about the kind of future we’re hoping for. Because when you’ve got the vision, AI simply helps you get there faster.
Creatives already have started folding AI into their process not as a replacement, but as a tool to sketch ideas, storyboard concepts, test directions, even build ready-made prototypes that cut down time and cost. Some are taking it further, building second brains to keep everything in one place, vibe coding with AI to build websites and apps, or automating entire systems to generate content. It's ambitious, definitely messy, and brilliant at the same time.
First things first, the fundamentals haven’t changed. Taste still matters. Context still matters. Ideas still matter. These tools shift constantly, every week, there’s something new. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. So we’re starting simple. Whether you’re working solo or leading a team, these are the tools worth knowing.
Image generation tools harness AI to create stunning visuals instantly, transforming the way creatives bring ideas to life. By automating complex design processes, they open new possibilities for innovation and expression.
1. Midjourney
Midjourney is one of the most creatively flexible tools out there. Whether you're going for something cool, surreal, or even stock-style, it can handle whatever you throw at it. It's versatile, and great for moodboarding, exploring styles, and visual ideas.
Take a look at the brilliant work of Tatiana Tsiguleva on Midjourney. Also worth checking out: Ohneis652. There’s a growing wave of artists exploring AI-generated art and Othr.ai had a smart idea, to build a platform to showcase them. Think Shutterstock, but more curated and more artistic.
We also used Midjourney along with its video model and several other tools to craft the visuals for our Gen Wealth campaign: the first AI-powered campaign for Siebert Financial. Designed to empower a new generation of investors to take control of their financial future through smart investing. The visuals were made for digital, and out-of-home, and yes we made it all with AI.
Check out the full video campaign here.
2. Krea.ai
Krea has been evolving fast and is quickly becoming one of the most powerful creative platforms out there. It brings together a wide range of image and video models all in one place. One standout feature is Krea Realtime, which lets you adjust and generate while seeing the outcome in real time. It also includes Flux models from Black Forest Labs, so you can train specific products, styles, or objects. Beyond that, you can enhance images, chat with the tool, turn visuals into 3D, and even build entire scenes to export into software like Blender.
3. Runway
Runway keeps things refreshingly simple. You can generate images using Runway’s Frames feature with built-in styles. But what really stands out is the ability to work with reference images, an intuitive feature that makes creative control feel effortless (take a look here). On the video side, Runway shines with subtlety, ideal for gentle motion, pared-back animation, and moments where less really does more.
4. Chat GPT
If you’re a designer in need of a quick solution, ChatGPT is more powerful than ever. Built on GPT-4o, it lets you generate and refine images directly inside the app, whether you need quick concepts, polished mockups, or even final assets. Of course, you’ll still need to polish them. You can also edit images in place: highlight a section, tweak colors, or add entirely new details without leaving your flow.
The model now handles text on images far more accurately, renders complex details with sharper fidelity, and keeps multiple elements consistent within a single scene. You can check out some examples from kavelabs, Ai_revolved, and a UI/UX designer called design4me__, all of whom post helpful tips and prompts.
5. Flora
If you want to build smooth, collaborative workflows—this is your tool. Flora offers an infinite AI canvas where text, image, and video blocks connect visually to form custom pipelines. Need to craft storyboards, moodboards, or campaigns?
You can:
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Drag-and-drop AI blocks (text→image→video) to map ideas in real time.
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Collaborate live: teams work together on the same canvas, feeding into one coherent creative flow.
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Unlock pre-built or community-made workflows.
What makes Flora stand out is how it’s built by creatives, for creative flow, it’s not just about tools; it’s about supporting the way you think and work.
6. Reve
Reve’s a favorite like it was made by someone who knows how to frame a shot, give prompts style, and land that aesthetic vibe without much effort. It’s intuitive, slick, and especially sharp when working with visuals that include text. Whether you’re designing posters, ads, or fashion campaigns, Reve is trained to handle it beautifully.
9. Letz.ai
Another great tool to keep in your stack is LetzAI. It generates images, leans more on a curated look side of aesthetics, and has a feature that lets you enhance skin with hyper-realistic textures in AI portraits—a big win for fashion and beauty work. Beyond that, Letz is flexible: you can train your own models, edit images, mix multiple styles, and achieve more consistency with their AI Character Studio, where you can upload your own images or train them.
Their Cinematic Mode is especially impressive. It generates images with the depth, lighting, and atmosphere of a film still, making outputs feel cinematic and nearly indistinguishable from real-life shots.
10. Visual Electric
Visual Electric is a creative AI tool that turns text prompts into visuals, pretty much like all of the tools so far. It’s designed for designers, art directors, and creatives who want more expressive results than typical AI image generators. The interface is intuitive, fast, and playful—encouraging exploration. It handles style, colour, and composition surprisingly well, offering strong control. Ideal for moodboards, concept art, and early-stage visual ideas.
Nano Banana is about editing images, and so far it delivers exceptionally well. The results are impressive and closely match your prompts. Instead of starting over each time, you can generate and then tweak in small steps like merge, remix, evolve—all in one continuous flow. It feels more like sculpting than editing. Here’s an example: threads.com/@heysirio
12. Ideogram
Ideogram is an AI image generator built with designers in mind, known for producing visuals where text looks clean and intentional. It's perfect for posters, branding, or editorial work. It stands out in a crowded field by treating typography as part of the composition, not an afterthought. With its latest 3.0 update, Ideogram introduced Style References, letting you guide generations by uploading up to three images while turning inspiration into direction.
13. Seedream
Seedream is ByteDance’s next-gen image model built for speed and fluid creativity, merging generation and editing into one seamless tool. With its 4.0 release, it feels less like an upgrade and more like a rethink of how image tools should work. Where most generators separate “create” and “edit,” Seedream collapses the gap, letting you sketch, adjust, and refine in one uninterrupted flow.
3D Assets & Design Tools
AI-driven 3D design tools unlock new creative freedom by automating tedious tasks and enhancing detail with intelligent assistance. Whether for games, films, or product visualization, they accelerate workflows and expand the boundaries of what’s possible.
1. Spline AI
Spline is a browser-native 3D design tool that makes creating interactive, animated scenes feel surprisingly effortless. You can model, texture, animate, and build interactions, all in one clean, intuitive interface, no code required. What makes Spline stand out is how accessible it is. It strips away the heavy UX of traditional 3D software and replaces it with something far more playful and immediate. Real-time collaboration lets teams design together in the same space, while its export options (from web embeds to motion assets) make it a go-to for product mockups, landing page visuals, and motion-rich prototypes.
2. Rive
Rive is where motion design meets real-time interactivity with none of the usual friction. No code needed (unless you want to get into it), and everything runs buttery smooth across web, mobile, and game engines like Unity. Its open-source runtimes make it easy to integrate into whatever you’re building.
Whether it’s a playful UI flourish or a full-blown interactive sequence, Rive makes it feel effortless and a little bit magic.
3. Intangible
Users can generate editable 3D environments from simple text prompts—perfect for fast prototyping and visualising ideas without any technical know-how. The platform also supports real-time collaboration, making it easy for teams to co-create. From animated sets to full storyboards, it’s a powerful tool for streamlining pre-production across commercials, films, and social content.
4. Kuse.ai
Kuse.ai feels like a creative whiteboard built for the AI era. Yup, that’s right, at its core, it’s a visual workspace where you can drop in images, PDFs, links, videos, basically anything and then start shaping ideas with the help of AI. Whether you're mapping out a moodboard, summarising research, or just trying to connect a few scattered thoughts, Kuse gives you a fluid, non-linear space to do it.
You can collaborate in real time, generate AI imagery, ask for insights, or build out full boards that mix content, context, and creativity—all in one place.
5. Endless Tools
A seriously fun no-code platform for creating interactive 3D visuals, animations, typography, and eye-catching effects. Endless Tools makes it easy to mix media and build standout visuals endlessly for everything from posters to websites, thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
They’re always rolling out fresh updates and features—worth keeping an eye on: @endlesstools
6. Glif.app
Glif.app is another no-code platform built for creating interactive, modular AI experiences called “glifs.” These little apps respond to user inputs like text, images, or clicks, and can generate everything from visuals to video or text output. You can explore and remix tons of creative tools in the community library, like transforming a selfie into any visual style here Style-Transfer Toolbox, or trying this animated effect Animator by Anibaaal.
It’s a super flexible playground for prototyping ideas, building microtools, or adding interactive elements to your next design sprint.
7. Figr Identity takes the heavy lifting out of building design systems in Figma.
It’s a smart plugin that helps you generate variables, style guides, and a full library of production-ready components, automatically. Whether you're working solo or managing a growing team, Figr keeps things fast, consistent, and scalable.
What it does best:
– Instantly creates design tokens for colour, type, spacing, and effects
– Includes 80+ plug-and-play components with built-in variants
– Lets you preview and tweak everything live in Figma
– Designed to grow with your team—from first file to full system
Ideal for anyone looking to speed up design ops without compromising on quality or cohesion.
8. Loveart.ai
Lovart is an AI-powered design agent that works right alongside you, turning ideas into bold, visually striking creative work across product, branding, and packaging.
Whether you’re crafting avant-garde bag concepts, building playful visual identities for pet food brands, or designing eco-conscious packaging for coffee, Lovart blends human imagination with machine precision. The interface is sharp, the output fast, and the results feel like something straight off a moodboard except it's real, and ready to use.
9. Weavy
Weavy is a visual tool for creating images and videos using AI. It works by connecting nodes, small blocks that each do a specific task. If you’ve used ComfyUI, it follows a similar logic. You can build workflows by dragging and linking these nodes together on a shared canvas.
What makes Weavy different is its focus on collaboration. Teams can work together in real time, and workflows can be turned into simple apps, so others can use them without dealing with the full node setup. It’s a flexible tool for creatives who want to customise their AI pipelines and share them easily.
Kittl is a browser-based design platform built for making logos, posters, social-media graphics, t-shirts, mockups, you name it. It simplifies good design with templates, assets, and AI tools, usable by professionals and enthusiasts alike. One unique feature is the one-click text effects, which quickly turn simple type into dramatic, stylized visuals you won’t find elsewhere.
11. Copilot 3D
Copilot 3D turns a single image into a ready-to-use 3D model—no steep learning curve, no clunky software. Just drag, drop, and start shaping ideas in three dimensions. Whether you’re building for games, printing, teaching, or experimenting, it makes 3D creation fast, intuitive, and open to anyone. You can integrate your models into animation, VR/AR, design, and more or draw inspiration from a curated library of distinct scenes to jumpstart your next project. What will you create with Copilot 3D?
12. Hera
Hera is your AI motion designer built to turn static assets into beautifully animated content, instantly. No timeline scrubbing, no After Effects headaches. Just upload your files, and Hera handles the motion: typography, layouts, logos, UI elements, whatever you’ve got. Whether you’re creating social content, product demos, brand visuals, or prototyping interactions, Hera gives you studio-level motion design without the studio. It’s fast, intuitive, and always on your wavelength.
13. Magic Animator
Magic Animator turns your static Figma files into smooth, scroll-stopping motion, no timeline, no keyframes, no After Effects. Just pick a frame, describe the animation, and let AI handle the rest. Perfect for prototypes, product reveals, or just adding life to your UI. Fast, fluid, and pretty easy.
Coding & Development Tools
Whether you're designing in the browser, prototyping an app, or building something a bit weirder with AI. These tools are made to help you move faster, think smarter, and ship with less friction.
1. Mistral.ai
If you’re looking to integrate AI into your projects, Mistral gives you direct access to some of the most powerful open models out there. It’s clean, fast, and great for building your own generative features through APIs. Also, Mistral's new DevStral model is purpose-built for coding, offering developers a powerful AI assistant tailored for software tasks.
It’s designed to understand and generate code efficiently, while DevStral supports a wide range of programming needs, from debugging to writing functions, making it a valuable tool for streamlining development workflows.
2. Bolt.new
So, Bolt is pretty impressive. It makes building apps feel easy, just type what you want to create, and you’re off. Sure, you’ll need to know how to prompt and be clear about what you're asking for, but you don’t need to know how to code. Whether it’s a mobile app, a blog, or a landing page, Bolt helps you build, run, and deploy it all from your browser.
You can start from a Figma file, a GitHub repo, or go blank with your favourite stack. Want to spin up a docs site, scaffold a UI, or draft a deck? There are quick-start options for that too. It’s a super intuitive way to go from concept to code, without getting stuck in setup mode.
3. Lovable.dev
Lovable recently unveiled Lovable 2.0, a significant upgrade that makes building apps and websites smarter and more seamless than ever. Imagine creating production-ready apps and websites simply by chatting with AI —no coding headaches required. With the new smarter chat mode, teams can collaborate in real time, sharing ideas and making updates instantly.
Plus, built-in security scans provide peace of mind by catching vulnerabilities before deployment. Lovable 2.0 takes the hassle out of development, making it easier than ever to create, build, and launch digital products with confidence.
4. Replit
Imagine this: you drop in a few screenshots of your favorite website into Replit, and just like that, boom, you’ve got a working version built to match your reference. Pretty impressive. Replit is an all-in-one coding environment that runs entirely in your browser. You can write, test, collaborate, and deploy, all in one tab. With AI built in, it’s perfect for web and app designers who want to prototype, experiment, or scale quickly, without the hassle of setting up a full dev environment.
5. Cursor
If you're into visual coding or just want a smarter way to write code, Cursor is your tool. It's an AI-powered code editor that helps you write, clean up, and fix your code. You can even chat with its built-in assistant while you work like having a helpful teammate right in your editor. It’s especially great if you’re working on front-end stuff and want things to feel more intuitive (and less lonely).
Latest updates, made simple:
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Background Agents now run quietly in the sidebar, handling cleanup, search, and GitHub PR checks while you keep coding.
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Max Mode unlocks stronger AI for complex projects, with better folder-level context so the model understands your whole repo.
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Inline Editing and interruptible chats make it easier to refine code on the fly.
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Bugbot is the latest addition, an agent that scans pull requests for logic errors and security issues before they ship.
Google recently launched Stitch, a new tool that turns simple text prompts or rough ideas into fully-formed UI designs for web and mobile. You just describe what you want, pick your platform, and Stitch generates clean, usable layouts, no wireframing or design tools required.
It goes beyond just good-looking screens:
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You can easily tweak and adjust designs on the fly
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Export production-ready HTML in one click
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Keep full control over your layouts—edit, reuse, and build on them
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Powered by Gemini, it learns and improves as you work
Stitch is designed to make early-stage design faster, easier, and more flexible from concept to code.
OpenAI’s Codex is a powerful AI system designed to translate natural language into code, making programming more accessible and efficient. Built on the same technology as GPT, Codex understands complex instructions and can generate code snippets, entire functions, or even full applications across multiple programming languages.
Whether you’re a seasoned developer speeding up routine tasks or a beginner learning to code, Codex acts like a smart assistant, helping you write, debug, and explore code faster. It integrates seamlessly into tools like GitHub Copilot, offering real-time suggestions that enhance productivity and creativity, ultimately reshaping how software is built.
8. UX Pilot
UX Pilot isn’t just for wireframes, it’s a full-on UX design assistant. You type what you want to build, and it turns your words into clean screen flows and layouts. From there, it can polish things into high-quality, ready-to-go designs with smart spacing, structure, and style.
You can run quick AI checks for usability and accessibility, and even preview where users are most likely to click. You can also edit your design just by chatting with it. When you're ready, export everything to Figma (with full layers) or grab clean HTML/CSS to speed up dev handoff.
9. v0 by Vercel
It's an AI tool that turns written prompts into fully functional web apps—code, copy, and backend included. The newly rebranded v0.app takes aim at the no-code crowd, promising to turn product managers, marketers, and designers into devs overnight.
When you open v0, it introduces itself as “Vercel’s AI‑powered assistant,” ready to:
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Create React components and full‑stack Next.js applications
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Build responsive designs with tools like Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui
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Implement forms, dashboards, landing pages, and more
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Write and run code in Python, Node.js, or SQL
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Integrate databases, AI services, and even generate visual diagrams or charts
10. Claude by Anthropic
Claude Code is Anthropic’s AI tool built directly into the terminal, turning command-line work into a true collaboration. It understands your project’s architecture, helps you plan features, write and test code, fix bugs, and even open pull requests, all with minimal prompting. Think of it as an always-on pair programmer that actually understands the flow of your work. It’s powered by Claude Opus 4.1, Anthropic’s strongest model, known for deep reasoning, code comprehension, and handling long, multi-step tasks with ease.
One of its standout features is Model Context Protocol (MCP)—a new way for Claude to securely access and reason across multiple tools and files at once. That means it can pull in live context from places like Figma, Google Drive, Slack, or your local file system, making its help feel far more aware and useful. MCP is currently available through Claude API and Claude AI Studio, both accessible via Anthropic’s site.
11. Claudia
Claudia is a simple, clean interface for using Claude Code—an open-source desktop app that makes working with AI easier and less messy. It’s built with modern tools like Tauri, React, Rust, and TypeScript, and helps you manage your projects visually, like a storyboard. You can create your own AI assistants, test them out safely, and reuse them whenever you need. It also shows you how much you’re spending on tokens, how the models are performing, and what’s being used so you’re never in the dark.
With features like checkpoints and timelines, you can go back, compare changes, and tweak your work easily. It runs on your computer, works across macOS, Windows, and Linux, and is fully open-source so your data stays private. Try it out here: claudia.so.
12. Rork
Rork takes your app idea and builds it for iOS and Android. No dev team, no Figma-to-nowhere loop. Just describe what you want, and Rork spins up working software fast. Now it’s powered by GPT-5, making it sharper at turning your rough concepts into usable apps. Perfect for testing, prototyping, or launching without starting from scratch.
Research Tools for Creatives & Strategists
From first ideas to fully built-out research, these tools help you stay focused. They sort through long reads, organize messy thoughts, and pull out what matters so you spend less time digging and more time creating.
1. Elicit
Elicit is like the research friend who works fast and doesn’t get tired. You give it a question, it sweeps through papers, pulls out the pieces that matter, and lines them up so you can connect the dots. It’s good for when you need to go deep on something without burning yourself out on the busywork.
Whether you’re exploring a new topic or digging deep into something niche, elicit helps you stay focused on thinking and decision-making, not getting bogged down in the grind of sorting and summarizing.
2. ChatGPT (Deep Research Mode)
Chat GPT’s deep research is like having a fast, tireless assistant that can scan huge amounts of information, pull out what’s useful, and help you make sense of it. It looks across articles, papers, data, and the wider web and finds useful links. It’s useful for anyone from researchers, writers, students, and professionals who need to understand something deeply without spending hours doing the grunt work.
3. Deepseek
DeepSeek is a powerful, open-source AI tool built for research, problem-solving, and technical tasks. The newest version of R1 is faster, more accurate, and better at formatting answers, great if you need clean output for research or workflows. V3.1, launched in August, takes things further: it handles longer documents, works faster, and blends the best parts of DeepSeek’s earlier models into one. If you’re digging through dense info or working on big ideas, it’s built to keep up.
If you’re researching something complex, exploring ideas, or working with big chunks of text—DeepSeek is a fast, open-source AI built to help. The latest models are accurate, easy to use, and built for handling long documents, clean outputs, and deep problem-solving.
4. Perplexity.ai
If you’re researching, building strategy decks, or just digging for smarter answers. Perplexity is built to help you think sharper. It gives you real-time, cited results, lets you switch between top models like GPT‑4.1, Claude 4, and Sonar, and supports deep research modes for more layered thinking. With its AI-powered browser Comet and mobile Assistant, you can search, summarize, and stay in flow without jumping tabs or losing context.
5. Gemini (Deep Research by Google)
If you’re doing research for a project like building a deck, writing copy, or pulling references—Gemini Deep Research can save you hours. Just type what you’re looking for (say, how a design trend started or what people are saying about a product), and Gemini breaks it down into steps, searches the web, and gives you a clean, sourced report. No more digging through tabs or skimming articles.
It works inside Google Workspace and Pixel phones, so it fits right into tools you already use. The newer Gemini 2.5 Pro model is faster, handles longer documents, and can even read and summarize your own files with a tool called NotebookLM.
6. QWEN
Its latest iteration, Qwen3, introduces a hybrid "thinking" and "non-thinking" mode, allowing users to balance deep reasoning with rapid responses . With multilingual support spanning 119 languages and a 128K token context window, Qwen3 facilitates comprehensive understanding and generation across diverse content.
For strategy teams managing complex projects, Qwen offers features like intelligent document creation, insight tagging, and seamless sharing, reducing reliance on traditional tools like Google Docs.
7. Jan-v1
Jan-v1 is a local-first, open-source AI tool for serious research. It lets you search the web and dig deep into topics without ever sending your data to the cloud. Think of it as a privacy-first alternative to Perplexity Pro, delivering answers with 91% accuracy. Built to work with LM Studio, Jan-v1 supports custom models like LLaMA 3 and Mistral, and runs fully on your machine for full speed and full control.
You can download and run Jan-v1 through its GitHub repo or pair it with LM Studio for an easy local setup.
8. Claude (Anthropic)
Known for its long context window and careful reasoning, Claude is particularly strong for synthesising large documents, handling transcripts, and supporting strategy work. Its Opus 4.1 model excels at critical reading and pulling out nuanced insights, making it valuable for creatives and strategists who work with dense material.
Management Tools for Creative Teams
Maybe you’re the type of person who just happens to be juggling from moodboards, meetings, to or a dozen open tabs, but guess what? These tools are built to help creative teams stay organised, aligned, and moving forward without losing their spark.
1. Fellow.app
The antidote to messy meetings. Fellow.app is an AI-powered meeting assistant designed to streamline the entire meeting lifecycle from preparation to follow-up. It enables teams to collaboratively build agendas, capture real-time notes, and assign action items, ensuring that meetings are organized and productive. Fellow integrates seamlessly with platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, allowing users to access meeting tools directly within their video calls.
One of Fellow's standout features is its AI-driven note-taking capability. During meetings, it can automatically transcribe discussions, generate summaries, and identify key decisions and action items.
2. Sana.ai
Think of Sana as your team’s second brain. It gathers up your docs, guides, and resources, cutting through the noise so no one’s stuck trawling Slack threads or wandering Notion rabbit holes again.
Sana acts as an intelligent knowledge hub for your team, organizing internal documents, tutorials, and resources in one centralized system. It eliminates time wasted searching through Slack threads, Notion pages, or scattered folders by making information easily searchable and accessible. With Sana, onboarding, training, and day-to-day work become more efficient, ensuring your team stays aligned and focused on high-value tasks.
3. Tana.inc
Tana is an AI-native workspace built for how teams think and work today. Part mind map, part document system, it lets you organize everything from ideas, tasks, to resources in a way that feels natural and easy to navigate. With tools like Supertags and nodes, your knowledge stays connected and searchable, while AI steps in to handle the busywork: meeting follow-ups, voice transcriptions, content drafts.
Whether you’re managing a big project or just trying to keep the day moving, Tana helps your team work smarter, faster, and more in sync.
4. Tanka.ai
Funny enough, its name is similar to the app above. Tanka.ai isn’t just to help you make better decks — it’s here to reshape how your team thinks, creates, and moves forward. At its core, Tanka is a presentation tool, but one that’s smart enough to learn, adapt, and evolve alongside your team. It helps you craft sharp, on-brand decks at speed, whether you’re racing toward a pitch, refining a quarterly update, or distilling complex ideas into something clear and impactful.
But beyond the slides, Tanka works as a partner connecting real-time insights with a deep, collective memory, helping teams not just keep up, but stay ahead.
5. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is the spreadsheet reimagined, a work management platform powered by AI that helps teams move with real flow. It takes the grids you know and turns them into a dynamic, predictive system that adapts to how you work, helping you track tasks, manage timelines, and collaborate effortlessly.
From IT and marketing to construction, healthcare, and higher education, Smartsheet flexes across industries, eliminating bottlenecks, aligning teams, and making sure the work that matters stays on track. It’s not just about managing projects; it’s about creating the conditions where creativity, precision, and progress thrive, no matter how complex the challenge.
6. Notebook LM
Think of it as Google’s research assistant built right into your notes. It automatically summarizes lengthy documents, organizes key information, and uncovers insights hidden within your files, saving you the hassle of digging through endless pages or playing detective to find what matters.
Google’s NotebookLM includes a smart feature called Audio Overview that turns your text documents into engaging, podcast-style conversations. With just one click, it creates a lively dialogue between two AI hosts who break down your uploaded content whether PDFs, Google Docs, slides, or even YouTube transcripts into an easy-to-follow, natural-sounding discussion.
7. Endex
Endex is an AI agent that lives directly inside Excel, acting like a built-in analyst who already knows your spreadsheet inside out. It helps you model faster, catch errors, trace logic, and reason through numbers without switching tabs or losing flow.
Every insight it gives is cited, either to a cell or a source, so you always know where things come from. It speaks the language of finance fluently, detects red flags in footnotes, and even pulls data from PDFs or the web to build tables and narratives inside your workbook. Built with OpenAI’s latest models and backed by a $14M seed from the OpenAI Fund, Endex is secure, audit-ready, and designed to help you think strategically without slowing down.
8. Lazy
Lazy is the always-on note tool that captures anything, anywhere, then lets you chat with it. Think voice memos, meeting notes, random thoughts, screenshots. One shortcut and it’s saved. Ask Lazy to summarize, recall, or connect dots later. It’s your second brain but actually easy to use.
9. Genspark
GenSpark Slides builds your presentation—templates, content, and all. Just type what it’s about, and it pulls from researched info, drops it into clean, ready-to-edit slides, and lets you tweak it PowerPoint-style. You get hundreds of free templates, smart layouts, and full control over how it looks and reads. Basically, it’s trying to be your slide agent before ChatGPT beats them to it.
Audio Generation
1. Eleven Labs
ElevenLabs turns plain text into voice that sounds anything but artificial. Whether it’s for audiobooks, games, films, or creative side quests, it skips the studio and delivers voices that feel lived-in, expressive, and narratively tuned. With Eleven v3, the model now supports 70+ languages, character dialogue, and audio tags like [excited], [whispers], or [sighs], giving you full control over emotional tone and storytelling flow.
They also added Eleven Music—an AI composer that takes prompts and turns them into full, commercially usable tracks. You get full control over genre, tempo, language, instrumentation, and mood. Want reverb-soaked vocals with vinyl crackle? Or an electro-pop hook in Spanish? Just type it.
2. Play.ht
While ElevenLabs shines with hyper-realistic, emotionally rich voices and lets you clone your own voice with eerie precision, Play.ht takes a slightly different path. It leans into flexibility and accessibility, offering a vast library of prebuilt voices across dozens of languages and accents.
What makes Play.ht stand out is how easy it is to layer multiple voices into one project, perfect for podcasts, product demos, or anything that needs natural-sounding back-and-forth dialogue. You get professional narration or conversation-style reads without needing a studio or even a script longer than a few lines.
3. MusicFX
MusicFX, part of Google’s growing lineup of creative AI tools, takes a refreshingly playful approach to music generation. Instead of offering polished, radio-ready tracks, it focuses on giving you fast, flexible loops and sound snippets you can shape into your own.
What makes it stand out is how prompt-driven it is, you just describe the mood or vibe you want (dreamy ambient, pulsing synth, chill guitar), and the tool generates original, royalty-free music on the spot. It’s less about building full compositions and more about offering creators whether you’re working on a short film, a social post, or a personal project—fresh, custom sounds to play with. It’s creative, lightweight, and surprisingly fun.
4. Artlist
Known mainly as a go-to platform for royalty-free music and sound effects, Artlist has been quietly expanding into the world of AI-powered audio generation and it’s worth paying attention to.
Artlist’s audio generation focuses on creator-ready music that’s designed to fit seamlessly into professional projects. Instead of random loops or experimental sounds, it delivers polished, structured tracks that feel like they’ve already been crafted for film, ads, or content creation. You can also find a selection of voices in case you need to generate audio from text. It’s AI music, but with a creative brief baked in, perfect for filmmakers, editors, or brands who want bespoke sound without the guesswork.
5. Mozart
Mozart AI is generating serious buzz as a bold pioneer, a benchmark-defining leap in music tech. It’s widely referred to as the world’s first AI-powered DAW, recognized for introducing true AI co‑creation into a traditional music production workflow.
It's a browser-based, AI-powered digital audio workstation designed to help musicians, producers, and creators produce music faster without sacrificing creative control. It works like a co-producer, generating beats, melodies, and chord progressions from simple text or voice prompts, while also offering smart tools for arrangement, mixing, and mastering. Unlike traditional DAWs, it simplifies technical tasks and enables real-time collaboration in the cloud.
6. Chatterbox
Chatterbox is an AI-native voice tool that gives brands, characters, and creators a real voice—literally. With just a few clicks, you can turn any script into a natural-sounding voice experience ready for games, animations, interactive stories, virtual worlds, or marketing campaigns. No robotic tones, no clunky editing. Just fast, expressive, high-quality audio that sounds human. Whether you're building an indie game, crafting a brand experience, or experimenting with voice as a medium, Chatterbox makes it easy to bring your characters to life.
7. Overlap
Got a one-hour episode? Overlap finds the moments worth sharing. It automatically clips your podcast highlights, adds captions, and formats them vertically so they’re ready for TikTok, Reels, Shorts, wherever your audience lives. No timeline scrubbing. No editing tools. Just clean, scroll-stopping content pulled straight from your conversation. From longform to shortform in minutes.
Why You Should Keep Exploring (and a Few Creative Bonuses)
To keep up with AI, follow the latest developments, join industry conversations, and regularly experiment with new tools in your workflow. Real value comes from understanding how these tools can support and not replace your unique creative process. Whether you're a designer, writer, marketer, developer, or strategist, the key is to test, observe, and integrate thoughtfully.
Step 1: Research and Prep Smarter
Start with research. Tools like Elicit, Perplexity.ai, or Gemini help you explore ideas for creative campaigns, business concepts, design trends, or audience needs—summarizing sources, generating insights, and structuring your thinking. Use ChatGPT or Claude to keep all your notes, transcripts, and ideas searchable in a single conversation thread.
Example: Research how Gen Z audiences respond to soft launches. Use Gemini to gather sentiment, then prompt Claude to organize it into a creative brief.
Step 2: Audit Your Workflow
Pick a recurring task like:
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Producing brand-aligned digital assets
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Creating high-fidelity visuals for mood boards
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Generating tone-of-voice samples or tagline variants
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Converting static images into subtle, looped animations for social
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Drafting product copy or editing landing page content
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Researching competitors or consumer behavior trends
Now, swap in an AI tool to streamline it.
Example: Use NotebookLM or Sana.ai to keep track of competitive insights or campaign research over time.
Step 3: Map Your Steps
List every phase of your creative or technical process: Ideation → Research → Roughs → Review → Final Delivery
Highlight where you're still fully manual. These are your best AI candidates.
Example: Use UX Pilot to skip hand-drawn wireframes and go straight to a working UX prototype from a prompt.
Step 4: Find the Low-Hanging Fruit
Identify tasks that suck time and energy:
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File naming
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Script formatting
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Simple design variants
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Basic grammar/ spell checks
Example: Use Claude or ChatGPT to check tone of voice and grammar, or generate five tagline variants in your brand's tone. You can even keep track of your projects inside with tabs.
Step 5: Add Voice, Music, and Motion
Bring your story to life with AI-powered media:
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ElevenLabs: Narrate your script or clone a brand voice for demos
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Chatterbox: Bring characters to life for games, brand stories, or product explainers
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Artlist or Eleven Music: Generate mood-aligned, royalty-free tracks in seconds
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Magic Animator or Krea: Animate your designs or static visuals to share on social
Example: Script a 15-second reel, voice it with ElevenLabs, animate in Magic Animator, and score it with Eleven Music.
Step 6: Streamline Project Management
Use tools like:
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Fellow.app for agenda, follow-up, and AI meeting summaries
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Sana.ai to centralize brand and project documentation
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Smartsheet or Tana.inc to track tasks, timelines, and team updates
Example: After a brainstorm, use Fellow to summarize ideas and assign next steps. Sana keeps your creative prompts and decks searchable for the team.
Step 7: Prototype & Tweak with Dev Tools
Whether you're building a campaign microsite, designing an internal dashboard, or fixing buggy code:
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Glif for visual scripting or onboarding flows
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Cursor or Replit for lightweight coding fixes or script automation
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Codex CLI or Claudia for prompt-based app generation or model testing
Example: Build a simple MVP flow in Glif, then refine logic in Cursor. Test with Codex CLI or deploy to preview using Claudia.
Creativity has never been predictable. It's a back-and-forth between you, your tools, and the story you're shaping. AI can suggest new directions, but it’s your voice that brings it to life. Stay curious. Run weird prompts. Test messy ideas. Break things and fix them. Then tweak it until the idea or final product feels like it's stemming from your inner creative soul. The best work isn’t defined by the tools. It’s shaped by the questions you ask, the risks you take, and the way you turn ideas into something worth sharing.
Written by Debora Deva
Debbie is a writer, art director, and multidisciplinary creative at TOML Collective. With a background in advertising, she brings fresh perspectives to the journal — aiming to educate, question, and spark new ideas.
Get in touch with debora@tomlcollective.com