Created using MIDJOURNEY V7

**designer exposed to many ai tools and happy about having so many possibilities. A sky behind this person**

For years, my attempts to integrate AI into my design workflow were more comedy than creativity. Awkward illustrations, unusable mockups, and videos that looked like they were pulled from a glitchy dream—nothing felt ready for the pace and polish that B2B creative demands.

But the game has changed.
And here’s the kicker: in just a few months, it will change again.

The speed of AI innovation means the tools you’re experimenting with today might feel outdated by next quarter. Platforms like Midjourney and Runway are evolving at a breakneck pace—transforming image and video generation from “experimental” to “essential” for real-world creative work. The Infinite Canvas mindset, as Superside frames it, is about removing limits on scale, iteration, and imagination.

Here’s how I’m using AI today—and what’s about to shift again.

1. AI-Powered Research: Faster, Smarter Starts

Tools like ChatGPT have become creative accelerators.
Whether I’m exploring brand guidelines, competitor positioning, or industry case studies, AI can now distill massive amounts of information into concise, usable insights in seconds. This isn’t just about speed—it’s about starting with sharper, more strategic creative direction.

2. Midjourney: From Concept Sketches to Client-Ready Visuals

Midjourney has redefined image generation for B2B.
What used to feel like a playground for surreal art now delivers polished, on-brand visuals that rival (and sometimes replace) traditional stock photography. With well-crafted prompts, I can produce tailored imagery for campaign concepts, pitch decks, and sales enablement—often in less time than it would take to find a halfway-decent stock shot.

And in a few months? Expect Midjourney to close even more of the gap between AI concept art and production-ready assets.

3. AI Video Tools: Runway & Beyond

Finding the perfect stock video used to be a time sink. Now, tools like Runway and Pikaso are making it possible to generate custom, brand-aligned B2B video content in minutes.
Runway’s newest models allow for seamless scene creation, smooth motion, and stylistic consistency—perfect for explainer videos, social campaigns, and ad spots.

The result: faster prototyping, lower costs, and creative control you simply couldn’t get from stock libraries.

4. Stock Platforms & AI Partnerships: Outsourcing vs. Building In-House

Stock platforms are racing to keep up. Shutterstock, Freepik, and Envato Elements are adding AI image and video capabilities—but unlike Midjourney and Runway, they’re largely outsourcing or partnering rather than developing their own engines. The good news is that they are including these services usually at no extra costs, allowing teams to start experiencing with AI without having to upgrade.

Shutterstock
Since early 2023, Shutterstock has offered an AI Image Generator that uses OpenAI’s DALL·E technology to create custom visuals from text prompts Reuters+3socialectric.com+3Wikipedia+3 Lifewire. They’ve also beta-tested AI editing tools—like Magic Brush, Variations, and Smart Resize—powered by “the latest OpenAI technology” Lifewire. Meanwhile, Shutterstock has collaborated with Databricks to develop ImageAI, a diffusion model trained exclusively on Shutterstock’s own library—ensuring clean legal use without scraping outside content VentureBeat+7Fast Company+7Reuters+7.
Freepik (and Elements)
Freepik has gone deep into AI. Their AI Suite integrates models such as Google Imagen, Flux, Mystic, Ideogram, Runway, and GPT for image generation—and more, including Kling, Google Veo, Hunyuan, and MiniMax, for video Reddit Wikipedia+2Freepik+2. They even partnered with Fal.ai in 2025 to launch F‑Lite, an open-source model trained exclusively on Freepik’s own licensed library—another step toward independence from third-party engines Wikipedia+2Reuters+2.
Envato Elements
Envato is also enhancing AI capabilities through its AI Labs. Tools like ImageGen, VideoGen, MusicGen, and VoiceGen are becoming part of the creative workflow—but specifics on which underlying model drives them aren’t publicly detailed labs.envato.com.

In contrast, platforms like Midjourney and Runway invest directly in developing their unique engines—giving them tighter control over features, iterations, and creative evolution.

5. The Big Limitation: Text Rendering

Here’s the elephant in the AI room—type.
Most AI tools still produce warped fonts, broken letters, or limited editing capability. If your design relies heavily on typography, you’ll likely be cleaning up in Photoshop or Illustrator.

It’s a gap that Adobe is surprisingly slow to close, but given their recent Firefly integrations, the fix may be coming sooner than we think.

The Bigger Creative Limitation: B2B Stereotypes

The problem runs deeper than text. Most AI models are trained on massive image databases that are overloaded with dated, cliché, and often inaccurate depictions of B2B. The result? AI delivers visuals that feel stuck in 2010—stock-like, over-polished, and conceptually off-target.

The image above is a real AI-generated example of what the system thinks “B2B compliance risk” should look like:

Unrealistic lighting and surreal effects that distract from the message
A cold, corporate aesthetic that doesn’t reflect modern brand storytelling
And yes, garbled, unreadable “Compliance Riak” text

This isn’t just a one-off glitch—it’s a symptom of biased training data. AI engines are feeding from libraries full of these old tropes, so the default output reinforces them.

The Shift Is Happening—But Slowly

The landscape is changing. Design agencies like Moving Brands and these companies I’ve helped —Venminder and Roots AI—are leading a wave of more human, approachable, and design-forward B2B creative. These brands prove that “business” visuals can be modern, emotionally resonant, and easy to understand.

But until AI models are retrained with this new visual language, they’ll continue to have a hard time separating what’s fresh and effective from what’s stale and overused. The gap will close—but it will take time, iteration, and better datasets.

The Takeaway

AI is no longer a novelty in creative work—it’s a competitive edge.
But it’s also a moving target. The tools that feel revolutionary today may be table stakes by the end of the year. If you’re in B2B design, the key is to keep experimenting, stay adaptable, and treat AI not as a replacement for creativity, but as an amplifier.

Because six months from now, the way we create might look completely different.

AI is no longer just a novelty for B2B creatives—it’s becoming a real asset. If you use the right tools and workflows, it can speed up research, content creation, and production. But it’s not a full replacement (yet). Treat it as a creative partner, not a magic wand.

Want to explore how AI fits into your B2B design process? Start with ChatGPT, or inexpensive tools like Freepik, or Envato Elements and experiment from there. But always keep swimming!

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