One of the misconceptions about AI is that it will completely replace any kind of creative process — a more likely outcome is that it will aid/accelerate them, and here's an example:
Over the last 10 years, I've worked in/around content & design marketplace startups. I also hired hundreds of creatives via freelance, agency, and platform models as a marketer.
While Canva and similar tools have and probably will continue to dominate the market's low and low to mid-end, there will always be a need for differentiation.
If you don't believe me, pause for a second, and imagine your 10 favorite brands and influencers all sharing nearly identical TikTok videos based on the same script and visuals.
Bigger stock libraries and more advanced large-scale language models will help, but to create meaningful and differentiated content, there will still need to be a creative process.
Here are some examples of AI/ML elements that I could see making creative platforms/marketplaces more scalable:
1) Speeding up the front end of the matching process via AI analysis and recommendations
Example: I submit a brief, including a brief description, tags, and 2 examples of motion graphics I like, and AI analyzes those and offers suggestions for who to work with.
2) Creating an outline / mock-up / concept early on
Example: Not everyone does it this way, but talented commercial designers/creatives often provide a cocktail napkin sketch or crude animation early on to check direction so there's an agreement before they invest a lot of time.
AI could enable this for both creatives and clients by better scoping projects once a brief comes in. I could see an AI video tool being integrated into a big platform and adding significant value.
3) Speeding up the QA process
A lot of quality checking right now is on the plate of the PM (or internal designer/person with design experience). This means that on successful projects, there are often 2 or 3 hidden edit rounds before it goes to the client for approval.
I'm not saying they do it efficiently, but this is why some agencies have all those extra role titles that you're not really sure what they do.
In a lot of cases, both on the client and creative side, what I've seen is that if you get a good concept > 1st draft to the client, things go well. If not, the project usually ends up over budget and not as high quality even when you do get it back on track.
These are things that large design marketplaces & platforms are just starting to work on, and there’s probably room for startups to drive value here, too.
If you do go the route of launching a new company, you’ll probably need a creative, engineer, and business person to execute on it, but there's likely a market opportunity for something between traditional design/content marketplaces and the futuristic AI overlords know/do better than humans thing.