Podcast Episode Summary: "Stop Prompting: Build an AI ‘Design App’ Instead (Demo)"

Podcast: Marketing Against The Grain
Date: February 3, 2026
Host(s): Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot CMO) & Keith (interviewer)
Guest: Lore, CEO and co-founder of Weavy (recently acquired by Figma)

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into how AI is transforming creative work in marketing—moving away from repetitive prompting and toward systematized, scalable workflows that empower teams. Lore, CEO of Weavy, shares insights on building reusable creative systems, the limits and strengths of AI for content creation, and why the future of design and marketing is collaborative, not just individual. Live demos and concrete workflows illustrate how professionals can move from iteration fatigue to effective, reusable design “apps.”

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Pain of Prompting & AI's Growing Pains

• Problem Statement: Marketers and creators are stuck endlessly prompting tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, leading to frustrating cycles and inconsistent, disappointing results.
• Lore’s Insight:
  "There is a huge promise...of creativity, of speed, but too much focus has been put on ease. It's not so easy...You still need the professional people involved, but their craft, the way they do things, has changed." (02:39)
• Professionals now focus less on "making pixels" and more on architecting processes and systems.

From One-Off Prompts to Creative Systems

• Mindset Shift: Reframe from making one asset at a time to building creative systems that can be reused and scaled across teams.
• Keith: "As marketers, we haven’t evolved our mindset past the like, 'well, I’m going to take a long time to make this one thing.' No, make a lot of things to start. Pick the really good ones and then refine them." (05:31)
• This move enables quick generation, testing, and refinement across a suite of creative assets.

Demo: How Weavy Transforms Creative Workflows

[Demo section with interface walkthrough — timestamps throughout 07:32–22:03]

Basic to Advanced Use (07:32–12:02)

• Node-based Editor: Weavy uses a node system (each box is a node; input→output) allowing connections to different AI models simultaneously.
• Comparing Models: Instantly test various leading image/video generation models side by side with the same prompt, e.g., Google's "Nanobanana", Reeve, Mystic.
  • Notable moment:
    "Each model does something pretty different." —Lore (08:24)
• Manual Controls Kept: Unlike most AI tools, Weavy offers traditional editing controls (blur, masks, levels) so creators retain agency without heavy prompting.

Systematizing Creativity: New Angles Machine (11:10–13:57)

• Automating Variation:
  System accepts an image, uses an LLM to suggest 10 new scene angles, and auto-generates them. This system can be reused for any new starting image.
  • "The idea is that you’re building your own toolbox...reused again and again." —Lore (12:02)

Brand Consistency: Illustration Style Systems

• Consistent Outputs: Start with a brand’s unique style and allow marketers to feed new requirements, generating consistent and on-brand imagery quickly.
  • Lore: "Once I’ve built a system I want to hand it over to other people...they don’t want to open a brief to the studio and wait until it arrives." (13:57)

Team vs. Silo: Democratizing AI for Organizations

• Single vs. Team Effort: If each of 10 marketers builds their own prompt system, consistency and learnings are lost—systematizing brings everyone together.

  • Keith: "If everybody’s doing their own thing, nobody’s learning from anybody and everything’s all siloed up." (14:23)

• Customization & Niches: No “universal” workflow; each large client ends up with dozens of their own unique creative pipelines (15:21).

• Unlock: Once a robust system is built, scaling output for large teams is easy, shifting creative from bottleneck to enabler.

Advanced Example: Automated YouTube Thumbnail A/B Testing

(16:47–22:03)

• Workflow Overview: Drag in thumbnail, select test type (visual hook, headline, pose, gesture), generate multiple high-quality alternatives for A/B experimentation.
  • Saves vast amounts of time for content teams and producers.
  • Keith: "This workflow...is essentially an app that...people are out there building to sell for like 10, 20, 30 bucks a month. And you just built it in a week." (18:21)
• Expertise Required: Domain knowledge still essential to design the right variable tests, input guidelines, and build the workflows.
• Lore: "The outcome is actually useful for you because otherwise it's nice, but you cannot use it." (19:13)

The Work—Not the Tools—Is the Differentiator

• Systems, Not Just Activities:
  If you find yourself repeating creative activities, invest in building a system around them. Otherwise, you’re wasting time and energy (22:03).

Mindset: AI Won’t Instantly Make Things Easier—Learning is Key

• Learning Curve:
  Lore: "It is going to be faster, but not on day one...there’s a learning curve and there is an investment." (23:03)
• Leadership:
  Building production-ready, democratized creative systems is hard, but essential. Teams must focus on progress and continual improvement, not just one-off outputs (23:31).

Avoid the Hype Trap: Building Durable AI Practices

• Lore: "Part of the challenge is to identify the real stuff from the hype...Invest in things that are deep, that will give you that edge." (24:32)
• Don’t chase every shiny model—build systems and processes that let you swap in new technology when it improves.

The Near Future: Creativity Becomes Collaborative & Systemic

• Lore (on Figma integration and future):
  "The future is a lot about changing the craft to system building...seeing creatives evolve from pixel editors into system builders and enablers." (27:55)
• Team Sport, Not Solo Sport: Collaboration, transparency, and shared systems are key. AI-powered creative work will become a team activity, not a collection of disconnected individual attempts (28:34–29:24).

Practical Advice & Founders’ Notes

(29:24–35:50)

• For Busy Marketers:
  If you can’t invest time to learn new systematic approaches, stick to existing tried-and-true workflows and don’t chase one-size-fits-all tools; they rarely deliver.
  • Lore: "If you feel like you have too many things to deliver tomorrow...go back to the old way." (30:02)
• R&D Mindset:
  Consider building creative systems as R&D—most efforts won’t yield instant results, but those that do will confer a unique advantage.
• Keith: "Right now this learning and this investment...is like optional, and it’s not really optional. This is a big transformation...You will hit a point in which you cannot compete unless you have the right AI-first process." (31:19)

The Role of Specialists

• AI multiplies the impact and scale of creative/marketing specialists but cannot replace their point of view, taste, or strategic thinking.
  • Lore: "You needed an expert marketeer to say that’s how we do AB testing...you need the expert creative to say, that’s the brand guidelines." (34:15)

Building an AI-Native Company: Lessons Learned

• No Playbook—Only Adaptation: The market is noisy and fast. Focus on appealing to advanced users, foster community (Artist Collective), and let your best users share their workflows.
• Community Drives Learning and Distribution: A close core of expert users can help build, refine, and evangelize your product faster and better than traditional marketing (35:50–39:00).
  • Keith: "The best companies will be those who spend a higher percentage of their customer acquisition cost on API calls to LLMs, than ads to Google and Meta." (38:25)
• Timeless Principles: Know your user, start with a focused audience, and build community—AI changes the tools, but not the core company-building principles.

Notable Quotes

• Lore:
  "The craft is shifting from making pixels into building processes." (02:39)
  "There is no reason to give up control...Layer-based composition is so basic. But you just don’t get it in generative media tools." (10:55)
  "What happens when a better model comes out? Are you going to go crazy? Or are you in a position where...everything's gonna be better tomorrow? If it's the latter, you're building the right thing." (25:34)

• Keith:
  "Creative is hard. It’s real work and it takes real depth of thought. Businesses and brands you love don’t get there by accident—they get there through a lot of hard work. It’s just, how can you now scale that hard work?" (16:20)
  "If you are not taking that R&D approach and systematic approach...it's going to be really hard to win a year from now." (32:08)

Timeline of Key Segments

• Prompt Fatigue & the Limits of AI Creativity: 00:00–04:49
• From Single Assets to System Building: 04:49–06:32
• Weavy Product Demo: Node-based Editing & Model Comparison: 07:32–10:55
• Retaining Professional Creative Controls: 10:55–12:02
• Systems Thinking: Automating Image Variations: 12:02–13:57
• Collaborative Brand Style Workflows: 13:57–15:21
• Consistency & Scaling Opportunities: 15:21–16:47
• YouTube Thumbnail A/B Testing Workflow: 16:47–22:03
• Mindset Evolution: Learning Curves & System Investment: 22:03–26:02
• Collaboration in the Future of AI Creative Work: 26:02–29:24
• Getting Over the Investment Hurdle: 29:24–31:19
• Building for the Future: Infrastructure & Specialization: 31:19–35:00
• AI-Native Startup Lessons: 35:50–39:42

Conclusion

This episode unpacks the practical and philosophical journey of moving from prompt-based, ad hoc AI content generation to building robust, collaborative, reusable systems—turning creative work into "design apps" and democratizing high-quality output across teams. The future belongs to marketing organizations who invest the time to learn, systematize, and specialize, building a durable AI-first foundation for the years to come.

Action Items & Further Learning:

• Try Weavy’s free tier or use workflow blueprints mentioned by Lore
• For marketers: Identify one repeatable activity and build a system for it
• For leaders: Adopt an R&D mindset toward creative operations with AI
• For founders: Start with core community, encourage public sharing, and focus on advanced user needs

Resource links (as noted in the show):

• Weavy.ai
• Marketing Against the Grain Newsletter