Apr 30

Apr 30 Rethinking Creative Production with AI

If you’re a marketing leader and the words “AI creative production” still make you think of auto-generated, brand-breaking Franken-ads… congratulations, you’re wrong—but in good company. According to Alexei Chemenda, the founder of Poolday.ai, most marketing execs still harbor some deliciously outdated misconceptions about AI. And if you’re clinging to the idea that AI is either a plug-and-play creativity killer or just a quantity-over-quality machine, it’s time to level up.

Alexei joined the podcast to discuss AI and ads, distilling it into something like a philosophical cheat sheet for modern marketers. These are my takeaways:

#1 AI Doesn’t Replace Creativity

One of the great fallacies of the moment is that AI is a creative autopilot. That it can generate, ideate, and execute without any human spark. In reality, Alexei says, it’s not a substitute for creativity but a force multiplier.

Instead, think of AI as your tireless creative assistant. It edits, reworks, repackages, localizes, and adapts. It takes the grunt work off your plate so you can finally operate from what Alexei calls your “genius zone.” That sweet spot where strategy, storytelling, and brand building live.

In other words, let AI handle the tedium. You handle the magic.

#2 Brand Voice Won’t Get Lost

A common fear is that letting AI loose in your creative stack means diluting or corrupting your brand. But the opposite is true: the best AI tools actually enhance consistency. They don’t discard your brand guidelines—they enforce them with machine precision.

On the contrary, brands are winners. Big, glowing, chandelier-style winners.

Why? Because AI levels the creative playing field, but it doesn’t flatten the emotional power of brand equity. If you’re running an ad for Monopoly, Assassin’s Creed, or Call of Duty, you’re already halfway to a conversion. Familiarity wins attention in a sea of sameness.

AI floods the market with creative volume. Brand cuts through it with memory, meaning, and trust.

#3 UGC Reaches Scale

AI is transforming UGC-based ads from one-offs into modular systems. Where before you’d hire an actor, book a shoot, and pray to the content gods, AI now allows you to tweak existing creatives infinitely. Want to test a new call-to-action or swap out the protagonist? No problem. No reshoots required.

Companies like Poolday allow you to not only create what looks to be user generate content (UGC) with ease but also create multiple variations of UGC ads - changing everything from the copy to the language and the actor in moments.

And here’s where it gets radical: we no longer need to chase the mythical perfect ad. Instead, we aim to create sets of creatives, each optimized for a micro-segment. Alexei puts it like this: “My dad and I drive the same car. We’ll probably respond to totally different ads.”

Personalization isn’t a gimmick—it’s the future of performance.

To summarize: AI enables an unprecedented volume of video production. But more isn’t better—better is better. The trick, Alexei says, is setting creative guardrails. Your narrative style, tone, pacing, and visual identity shouldn’t change just because you’ve scaled.

If you’re a brand builder, define the rules and enforce them. If you’re an upstart, test like hell and let the market tell you what sticks.

#4 A/B Testing Is Dead. Long Live AI Segmentation.

A/B testing was built for an era of creative scarcity. When all you could afford was two ice creams—vanilla or chocolate—you tested both and gave everyone the winner.

But what if everyone could get their favorite flavor?

That’s where AI-driven dynamic optimization shines. It creates a stream of personalized creatives, shaped and evolved for each audience. You’re no longer asking “What ad performs best?” You’re asking, “Which version of this ad resonates with this specific user segment?”

The creative process becomes evolutionary, not binary.

The AI Marketing Team of the Future is Part Poet and Part Data Scientist

Tomorrow’s marketing leaders will be hybrids. Part poet, part data scientist.

Marketers of tomorrow understand prompt engineering as well as branding. They’ll be fluent in ethics, personalization, and the creative applications of AI tooling. Expect new roles to emerge: AI strategists, AI ethicists, marketing technologists. And don’t be surprised if the most valuable skill becomes knowing how to brief an LLM like you’re talking to your art director.

So, is AI killing human creativity?

Alexei’s take: not. It’s freeing us to do the work we’re uniquely suited for. The work only humans can do: thinking, feeling, storytelling.

AI handles the busywork. You deliver the brilliance. Or as Jeff Bezos once said: “My job is to make a few high-quality decisions per year.” AI gets you the context and clarity to make those decisions count.

The message is clear: AI won’t replace you. But a marketer who knows how to wield AI just might. So set your creative guardrails. Light your brand’s chandelier. And step boldly into your genius zone.

– Mishka Katkoff