Exploring playgrounds & tools

Conversational AI:
Start Smart, Stay in Control.

The AI toolscape is exploding—fast. Much like the martech boom before it, a jungle of new SaaS platforms has appeared, many of them pricey “wrappers” built around the same open-source models. Often bloated. Often unnecessary.

If you’re just getting started, skip the wrappers. Use conversational LLMs (like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude etc.) directly. They’re perfect for experimenting, brainstorming, and iterating fast—manually, yes, but intentionally.

Once you’ve defined your needs, custom GPTs or prompts can help semi-automate your workflows. When you’re ready to scale or embed AI into your operations, you’ll face a choice: third-party tools or DIY.

Personally, I prefer the DIY route. A basic API setup—no or limited code needed—gives you more control, better data protection, and far more flexibility than most off-the-shelf solutions.

💡 Hugging Chat let´s you experiment with more models made available as Open Source via Hugging Face.


AI Meets Headless CMS:
Smarter, Faster, More Adaptable.

Today’s AI-powered content management systems do more than store content — they structure it intelligently, generate metadata automatically, and adapt formats for web, mobile, or voice assistants.

What’s truly transformative is how AI handles content adaptation: ● It localizes for culture and tone ● Generates complementary assets (images, audio, transcripts) ● Dynamically assembles variations based on real-time user behavior

And beyond automation, AI becomes a quality gatekeeper: ● Even predicting performance before you hit “publish” ● Enforcing brand consistency ● Flagging compliance risks.

💡 ContentfulStoryblokKontent.aiMagnoliaStrapi


From Idea to Prototype to Code:
AI in Design to Dev Workflows.

Concept Development ● AI helps turn abstract ideas into concrete visual directions—fast. Tools like MidJourney and Figma AI plug-ins generate mood boards, wireframes, and variations in seconds, accelerating early-stage exploration.

Design ● In the design phase, AI integrates directly into familiar tools. Figma auto-generates layouts and UI components, while Adobe Firefly and Canva Magic Design assist with rapid visual editing and composition.

Figma + AI integrates AI into Design and Prototyping ● Creatie is a AI-design first mockup tool

PrototypingStitch by Google Labs converts simple prompts and images into sophisticated UI designs and frontend code within minutes. Users can input natural language, screenshots, or wireframes, and receive outputs that can be directly pasted into Figma or used as functional frontend code.

💡 Stitch by Google Labs (mockups + experimental code) AI is getting into page builders, that earn from hosting your awesome AI-made pages: e.g.

The result of heavily relying on AI for coding is called “vibe coding“. The term was coined by Andrej Karpathy (co-founder of OpenAI and former AI lead at Tesla) in early 2025, emphasizing a fluid and less analytical approach to coding enabled by advanced LLMs. It represents a shift towards a more intuitive and “conversational” way of building software.

AI-driven: The core of vibe coding is using AI tools, particularly LLMs like ChatGPT or Claude, to write or assist in writing code. Natural Language Prompts: Instead of writing detailed code specifications, developers (or even non-developers) describe their intentions or desired functionality in plain, conversational language. The AI then translates these “vibes” into executable code. “Code first, refine later” mindset: It often prioritizes quickly generating a working prototype or initial version, with the understanding that refinement, optimization, and debugging may follow. Focus on Outcomes: The user focuses on what they want the application to do, rather than how to implement it technically. This can free up developers to concentrate on design, problem-solving, and user experience. Iterative and Conversational: It often involves a back-and-forth interaction with the AI. If something goes wrong, the error message can be fed back to the AI for a fix, creating a conversational and iterative development process. Lower Barrier to Entry: Vibe coding can make software development more accessible to individuals without extensive traditional programming knowledge, enabling them to create simple applications or prototypes.

But: While powerful for rapid prototyping and simpler tasks, vibe coding has limitations, especially for complex or large-scale projects. Challenges include: Maintainability: Long-term maintenance of complex AI-generated codebases can be challenging. Code Quality: AI-generated code may not always be optimized, efficient, or adhere to best practices. Debugging: Debugging AI-generated code can be difficult if the user doesn’t fully understand the underlying logic. Security and Reliability: For critical applications, relying solely on AI-generated code without deep human understanding can introduce risks.

💡 For the page-builders lovers, who to not mind bounding to a hosting service, solutiona like Framer and Durable might be appealing. I still prefer to have control on where and how to publish, however. And on the cms behind!

Same.new is a “design cloner”: it creates pixel-perfect replicas of user interfaces and generates corresponding front-end code compatible with popular frameworks and libraries (powered by Claude Sonnet).

Bolt is an in-browser AI development assistant for building full-stack web applications. It offers a chat interface where you can instruct an AI agent to make code changes, which are implemented in real-time in the development environment. Using Bolt, you can create websites and JavaScript-based applications that integrate with Figma for design, Netlify for deployment and hosting, Supabase, Expo for mobile app dev, Stripe or payment handling.

As of June 2025, Lovable AI has emerged as the leading choice for developers and tech enthusiasts seeking efficient app development solutions. This AI-powered platform transforms natural language descriptions into complete web applications, setting itself apart from traditional development tools. Unlike typical no-code platforms, Lovable AI specializes in generating production-ready code, enabling developers to quickly create applications with complete frontend and backend functionality.

● All code is fully accessible through GitHub and can be exported for customization
● Users simply describe their desired application in plain English
● The platform automatically generates comprehensive code for all application layers

Cursor is an AI-powered code editor available for Windows, macOS and Linux. It enhances developer productivity by combining the familiar features of Visual Studio Code with advanced AI capabilities. Developed by Anysphere Inc, Cursor helps programmers write and modify code more efficiently through intelligent assistance.

The editor comes with powerful features powered by AI language models. It understands natural language instructions, allowing developers to generate and update code through simple prompts. Users can search their entire codebase using plain English queries, perform smart rewrites across multiple code sections at once, and get AI-powered suggestions for their next coding steps – all while maintaining full control over the development process.


Document Design & Publishing:
Smarter, Not Harder.

Smart Design & Writing ● AI-powered tools like Gamma.app and Canva Docs generate clean, professional layouts with minimal effort. Built-in assistants in Google Docs and Microsoft Word help refine structure, tone, and clarity in real time.

Smart Distribution ● Still exporting to PDF? AI can do better—by adapting your documents for multiple platforms and formats automatically, ensuring your content is always fit for purpose.

For the ones with a design background, Adobe – now integrating AI in all the Design and Creative Cloud is still the best solution.

💡 ● Gamma.appAdobe InDesignAdobe ExpressCanva Docs


Text-to-Speech:
Audio Without the Studio

AI-powered text-to-speech (TTS) tools—led by platforms like ElevenLabs—have revolutionized voice narration. Gone are the flat, robotic tones of the past. Today’s models deliver natural, expressive, emotionally nuanced speech in multiple languages, accents, and styles.

For audiobooks ● Faster production, lower costs, and greater accessibility—giving even indie authors the ability to bring their stories to life.

For podcasts ● AI voices enable dynamic narration, multilingual formats, and even fictional characters with distinct vocal identities.

For video ● TTS streamlines voiceovers for tutorials, ads, and explainer videos—no studio time needed.

💡The race is on! If you are in the creative businesses, the two top players are already known to you: ELEVENLABS vs HUME. For the moment (mid 2025), I stick to ElevenLabs.

1 ElevenLabs – It used to be the best-in-class, fitting nearly all creative use cases (podcasts, audiobooks, videos..) and with a still best-of-breed Voice Cloning feature.

In June 2025, ElevenLabs has released Eleven V.3, all about semantics and emotion control, plus embedded ability to create soundscapes and credible audio conversatons – all of that supporting 70+ languages.

2 Hume.ai with its  Octave LLM, promises to generate voice based on semantic understanding of text context: in some tests it outperforms ElevenLabs Voice Design for perceived naturalness (see here). For solo creators or creative professionals, its pricing is competitive, too. What it still misses: breadth of languages covered (but 30+ are there) and, as of June 2025, the Voice Cloning is still under development – planned for release by year end 2025.

The other strong competitor is Resemble.ai, who released in 2025 the production-grade open source TTS model “Chatterbox“: the model has been benchmarked against ElevenLabs and is available on Github and via Hugging Face. For the solo creator, the Resemble platform offer an alternative to the Eleven Labs projects interface, that integrates with a audiovideo editor. A sleek solution, indeed. However, I have tried voice design and clone too and I was not amazed by the results.

🎙️ TTS & PODCAST In 2024 I was skeptical. Then I began working with LLMs to generate podcast scripts (once the prompt is structured like a good creative brief, and the source material to be converted is well written, ChatGPT and Claude produce commendable results).
Later, when it became multilingual, I started using Google LLM Notebook to generate audio podcasts. As with scripts, everything depends on the source material’s quality. Notebook excels at “explainers”—narrative non-fiction and educational non-fiction are the projects I’ve worked on. However, content requiring dramatic arcs or literary tones isn’t suitable for Notebook (this is by design—the tool is meant for exploring information, not creating artistic content).
The takeaway? Proceed with caution. For my personal podcasts on beyondberlin.substack.com, I continue to use LLMs as writing and adaptation assistants rather than relying on them to generate podcast scripts from scratch.


Text-AI Audio Enhancement:
Studio-Quality Sound, No Engineer Needed

Modern AI tools make high-quality audio production effortless. Platforms like Auphonic and Adobe Podcast Enhance automate what used to require hours of sound engineering.

These tools: ● Remove background noise ● Balance volume across speakers ● Enhance voice clarity through smart EQ ● Deliver consistent, polished audio—automatically

No need for expensive gear or professional post-production. With AI, crystal-clear sound is now part of your standard toolkit.

💡AuphonicAdobe Podcast Studio (prosumer)


AI-Assisted Video & Audio Editing: Pro Results, Fewer Clicks

For solo creators and small teams, tools like CapCut, Descript, and Runway ML have made high-quality video and audio production incredibly accessible.

Think: auto-captions, background removal, AI voice editing, and smart music suggestions—no production crew required.

In enterprise environments, platforms like Capsule Video, Adobe Sensei, and Synthesia push automation even further: script-to-video conversion, voice cloning, and advanced VFX streamline workflows while ensuring studio-level output.

Adobe Elements deserves special mention as Adobe’s response to new competitors like ByteDance’s CapCut. Few people know that the complete Adobe Elements package (Video and Photos) is significantly less expensive and more secure than CapCut (as of 2025). I appreciate Adobe’s move into the prosumer market—their professional standards have made those of us working in media fall in love with their tools.

💡 🎬 Editing & Post: CupCut, Descript, , Adobe Elements 📹 Screen Recording: Loom by Atalassian 🖼️ Enhancement: Topaz Labs 🏢 Marketing focused: Flawless, Synthesia, Capsule Video, Recast


Translation & Editorial Fine-Tuning:
Precision Meets Expression

Professional-Grade Translation with AI

💡In the evolving AI translation landscape, DeepL and large language models (LLMs) play distinct but complementary roles.

DeepL captures nuance, maintains consistent terminology, and preserves document structure—ideal for legal, technical, and corporate content. ● Unlike LLMs that often prioritize creativity, DeepL delivers reliable, standardized output with enterprise-ready security (end-to-end encryption, GDPR compliance). ● Its bulk translation capabilities make it a go-to for efficient, high-volume, multilingual workflows.

Editorial Fine-Tuning with AI

AI doesn’t just translate — it enhances how we write. ● Think of it as a super-thesaurus: LLMs understand context and tone, offering smarter, more expressive rewrites than any synonym list ever could. ● Generate multiple versions of a paragraph, adjust tone, simplify for accessibility, or elevate for style — all within minutes. Provided you can describe the outcome you want to achieve (tonality, wording, rhythm..) which means: conversational AI doed not make you a writer, if you never dealt with the foundations & methods of writing (creative, journalistic, scientific, marketing etc.).

🖋️ Literary translators, too, increasingly use LLMs as creative collaborators.

Drafting, revising, and refining text while keeping full creative control. ● This blend of precision and flexibility empowers professionals to scale quality across languages, formats, and audiences.


AI as a Data Storytelling Partner

AI now plays an active role in turning data into insight-rich narratives and visuals—without needing a data science degree.

What it can do: ● Transform structured data into clear, human-readable stories ● Auto-generate and refine charts and graphs ● Recommend the most effective visual formats ● Highlight trends, outliers, and anomalies in real time ● Respond to natural-language queries about your data ● Summarize complex dashboards into concise narratives.

In my work, AI has been especially valuable for chart creation and dataset interpretation—once tedious, now intuitive. Conversational tools let users ask: “What’s the trend here?” or “How do this year’s sales compare to last year?” — no SQL, BI tools, or dashboards required.

💡 Claude.ai ChatPGT MS Copilot Map tools: Mapbox.io Chart design: Mermaid.charts Convert graphic interface to data: OmniParser V2 Extract and visualise data from text: Napkin


Speech-to-Text & Dubbing:
Transcribe, Translate, and Repurpose at Scale

AI transcription and dubbing tools have unlocked powerful new workflows for accessibility, content repurposing, and global distribution.

Transcription: Instant Access & Repurposing

Tools like Whisper and Otter.ai convert speech to text in real time—enabling: ● Captioning for accessibility ● Turning podcasts into blog posts ● Automating meeting notes and interviews. / Newer tools like Letterly, AudioPen, and Oasis go beyond basic transcription—summarizing voice input into bullet points, structured notes, and narrative drafts.

AI Dubbing: Speak Any Language, Naturally

Platforms like ElevenLabs and DeepDub offer multilingual dubbing with natural tone, lip-syncing, and custom voice styles—dramatically reducing the time and cost of traditional dubbing workflows. Perfect for global content creators, these tools make it easy to publish in multiple languages—without losing your voice (literally or figuratively).

💡Best-of-breed: ElevenLabs STT “Scribe” (developer API & web interface) ElevenLabs/STT and DeepDub (multilingual dubbing with lip sync)

💡Free & open-source: Jojo Transcribe WhisperWebGPU and Whisper Large V3 via Hugging Face Whisper Diarization (in-browser speaker + word-level recognition)

💡Next-gen voice note tools: Letterly ● AudioPen ● Oasis ● TalkTastic (voice-controlled desktop interface)


Note-Taking & Knowledge Management:
Smarter Recall, Deeper Insight.

Modern tools like Notion, Obsidian, and Mem have evolved from simple digital notebooks into intelligent knowledge engines.

With built-in AI, they can: ● Summarize meetings and extract key insights ● Auto-organize notes and suggest connections between ideas ● Answer natural-language queries about past content—instantly

The real breakthrough? Context awareness. Ask, “What did I write about audience segmentation last spring?” — and it finds it.

💡TalkTastic – voice-controlled notes and knowledge search across apps

💡 Notion AI, which integrates ChatGPT & Claude, has become my 24/7 second brain.


Web & Media Extraction:
Smarter Scraping, Deeper Parsing

AI-powered tools now allow you to extract structured information from websites, documents, and even videos—without writing custom scripts.

Commercial Tools: Landing.ai Advanced AI for agentic document parsing and object detection in images. Ideal for complex layouts and unstructured data. ● ScrapeGraphAI: from prompt to scrape: simplifies the development of scrapers

Free & Open Source AI SCRAPER – Scrape and summarize website content using large language models. ● Assistant Builder – Create a custom assistant by selecting a model and inputting specific domains or URLs to crawl and extract.

Video Parsing & Analysis Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (Experimental) – Test advanced summarization and insight extraction from YouTube videos and other rich media.


AI-Powered Music & Sound Design:
Custom Audio, On Demand

AI is transforming audio production—from full music compositions to immersive sound effects—making pro-level sound accessible to everyone.

Music Composition Tools like Suno AI and AIVA generate original soundtracks in seconds, tailored to any mood, genre, or format—from videos to podcasts to interactive media.

Sound Effects & Ambient Design Platforms like  Optimizer.ai and Boom Library AI create on-demand sound effects and ambient soundscapes, perfect for film, gaming, and immersive content.

Dynamic & Adaptive Audio AI-powered engines are now creating adaptive soundtracks that respond in real time to user actions—ideal for gaming, virtual spaces, and interactive storytelling.

💡 Suno AI AIVA Brev.ai Stability.ai Optimizer.ai

However, I am perfectly happy with available music and SFX libraries, at least for my personal podcasting projects.


Multimodal AI:
Generate Video, Images & Visual Stories

AI is redefining visual storytelling across formats—empowering creators to generate stock footage, product visuals, branded assets, and virtual environments with a prompt.

Key Use Cases

🎬 B-Roll & Stock Footage AI-generated clips enrich documentaries, news features, and corporate content with dynamic background visuals.
🛍️ Product Visualization Brands prototype campaigns and product renders without costly photoshoots—speeding up design, marketing, and iteration cycles.
🎨 Creative & Advertising Generate on-brand assets for social media, campaigns, and visual identities—fully customized, refreshable, and cost-efficient.
🌍 Virtual Environments Gaming, simulations, and immersive content benefit from AI-generated scenes, props, and dynamic visual effects.

Generative Video Tools: almost an infinite list, ever evolving and blurring the lines between Enterprise-Hollywood/Gaming studios and prosumer tools:

RunwayLMLoom screen recLuma DreamHaiper.aiAdobe Firefly Hedra Studio Kling.ai Krea.ai Sora (OpenAI) Video from photo: Pika.art Synthesia Captions Open Source: Genmo Enterprise: Stability.ai Repurposing: from long to short formats Reap Video Opus Clip Avatar “talking heads” videos: Heygen

Generative Images

As of early 2025, ChatGPT leads the field with its highly versatile and imaginative image generation—especially admired for Ghibli-style artwork, strong text integration, and variation handling.

Others: MidJourney, DALL·E 3, Stability Business-friendly: Adobe Firefly (trained on licensed assets) Creative-forward: Ideogram, Reve

!!! The key challenge is avoiding the rush to chase every new visual trend. While the risk of “everything you see is fake” looms near, there’s also an opportunity to thoughtfully use AI to push past traditional limitations in illustration. The path forward requires careful balance—advance deliberately, but cautiously.

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