AI · 6 min
AI ads without the slop
Generation is free. Taste isn't. Here's the workflow that keeps output on-brand.
AI can make more creative possible, but volume is not a point of view. Without a clear brief, a faster production process simply produces more work that looks like everyone else's.
Begin with the real product, the real audience and a single campaign idea. Define what must stay true: product details, brand colours, tone and any claims that require approval. Then choose where experimentation is useful: setting, composition, pacing or opening hook.
Use AI as one part of an art-directed process. Generate options, select deliberately and edit by hand. Check every frame for visual errors, misleading representations and details that don't belong to the brand. Human review is not the final checkbox; it is the direction that makes the output worth seeing.
Test variations with a purpose. A different visual environment can probe a different audience context; a different first second can test the hook. Keep enough of the idea consistent that you can understand what changed.
A practical starting point: write one creative brief with a product truth, audience tension, proposed visual and explicit do-not-do list. Use it to create a small set of variations, and review them against the brief before anything goes live.