Ben Heaysman, film and content creator at Sledge, considers how AI's capabilities can be combined with human creativity to create impactful communications.

Artificial intelligence (AI) was perhaps one of the biggest buzzwords of 2023, and I predict that, in 2024, we’ll see a widespread shift from discussion to application – especially if events such as the recent CES are anything to go by.  

AI will quickly become integrated into all of our daily lives, in both a professional and personal sense, and there are many ways our film production department has been using it over the last year to enhance our ways of working, and inform, educate and inspire corporate audiences further. 

Exploring practical AI usages 

AI can add value across a corporate film’s pre-production, production and post-production phases – whether that’s in relation to a 60-second hype reel that is designed to motivate and empower employees, or the edit of an in-person event that is held for a company’s VIP customers and shared with them after the fact. 

Enhancing creative concepting during pre-production

From a pre-production perspective, AI can be used to develop scripts that resonate with hyper specific audience segments. It can scope out and recommend the most suitable sites for on-location shoots based on the objective at hand – from corporate offices to key landmarks, to unique outdoor spaces, and AI art generators allow us to bring storyboards, concepts and thematic ideas to life in visually compelling ways.   

New and unique ways with content production 

When it comes to producing the content, we’ve been looking to AI platforms such as Runway, which seamlessly and swiftly transform text prompts and/or still images into captivating films. It’s one of the many AI tools of this nature that we use to share key inspirations or elements of our briefs, which then appear on screen.   

By analysing the data, AI can also be used to provide real-time recommendations around the most desirable camera angles to adopt, backdrops to design or utilise based on factors such as natural light, and talent or interviewees’ positioning.  

Seamless editing at post-production   

Here the tech can enhance accessibility and enable organisations to reach a broader audience, in that it is equipped with captioning, transcription and translation functionalities. 

If a company’s stakeholders are located throughout the globe, or have visual or hearing impairments, for example, these AI applications can ensure they too, are able to consume the content.  

One of our recommended tools here is Adobe Premiere Pro – its newer versions are equipped with these functions, and they also feature audio enhancement capabilities, ensuring external noise is eradicated seamlessly.  

Opportunities for AI-driven content  

AI can be woven into all types of corporate film content, from virtual events and webinars that feature various internal leaders, to onboarding videos and educational ‘how-to’ animated pieces. 

It is also being increasingly leveraged to produce company-wide email communications, organisations’ annual reports, press releases, copy for intranets – and even briefing documents for agencies like ours.  

In essence, in a world where audience expectations are both on the up and always evolving, AI provides us with the tools to unearth peoples’ individual wants, needs, expectations and interests to the most granular of detail, and at speed.

This ensures our wider film pieces are relevant not only on a more macro scale, but they also strike a chord with each and every individual – whether that’s an employee in the UK or an investor in the US, and ensures an organisation’s key messages are communicated with clarity, and with impact.  

Additionally, AI can be beneficial in that it can save us time and therefore improve productivity, increase accuracy, especially when it comes to the more detail-heavy and admin related tasks, such as translating content into another language, calculating sums, and arranging countless film assets in an orderly manner, and result in a higher overall end-product.   

AI: purely beneficial? 

To summarise, while AI brings with it many advantages, we cannot rely on it alone to create corporate communications, whether that’s a film or a press release.  

For corporate content to truly resonate, it must feature a human element. When we, for example, come up with the initial creative idea, we’re doing so with an innate understanding of the human psyche, and of our audience. When we then look to AI, it can provide us with several options, of which we can choose from, and know will resonate the most.  

Simply put, in my view, success with AI is all about balance.