It’ll be very interesting to see how Gen AI tools choose to evolve over the next 12 months. Will they start to look & function more like full suite editors, or stay unique tools that serve as an entry point for beginners / pathway to more advanced tooling?

Right now gen AI tools like MJ, Suno & Runway cater to much different audiences than their professional counterparts (photo editors, DAWs, video editors). They’re geared more towards the novice, & the products today, for the most part, reflect that (which I think is a good thing).

Something I’ve noticed with pretty much every AI tool (Midjourney, Suno, Pika, runway, etc) is that even tho they’re “simple” they gradually introduce you to more complex concepts and techniques. Each is its own little learning journey, and it’s super fuckin fun and inspiring.

As you get more comfortable in these tools, you sort of naturally progress to wanting MORE, and end up in this hybrid workflow where you START with AI, then export into more “professional” tools for further editing This is where things seem to get a bit tricky…

Deciding which features belong in your AI tool, versus the professional tool, is tough mj COULD be a better photo editor suno / udio COULD be a better DAW runway COULD be a better vid editor But should they? And if not now, eventually, will they?

Conclusion thoughts

IMO, evolving these products for the “professional”seems..idk, wrong. A major part of what makes AI magic is its ability to take something complex (like composing a song/image) & simplify it into something widely accessible (like writing a prompt) AI workflows SHOULD be simple.

AI tools & pro tools might coexist for a while (AI focusing on ideation/initial creation, pro tools remaining standard for detailed editing/final production). But ultimately, how they choose to evolve as they get more & more capable will determine a lot about our future workflows.

Author: Nick St. Pierre.