Which AI Stack Is Right for Design and Creative Teams?

AI tools are multiplying faster than design reviews on a Monday morning. 🚀

Each one promises to cut your design time in half, instantly whip up high-quality assets, or somehow unlock 10x creativity. The real question is, do you need every single one of those tools?

Nope. 

What you really need is a handful of AI applications that work well together and support your creative process from start to finish. In other words, an AI stack.

Let’s take a closer look at this setup and explore how you can build or choose the perfect stack for your team!

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Core Components of an AI Stack for Creative Teams

The exact tools in an AI tech stack will vary depending on your team’s goals and priorities.

That said, a great AI stack for any creative work always has five key components:

AI content creation tools

These are AI software that help you quickly brainstorm, create, and edit your creative assets in just a few minutes. While the output usually needs a bit of refining (it’s not always perfect right out of the box), it speeds up your content production.

Here are some common AI content creation tools you should consider adding:

• Text and writing assistants: Use these to generate ad copy, social media captions, blog posts, email drafts, summaries, meta descriptions, product briefs, SOPs, etc.
• Image and design generators: Get social media graphics, product mockups, event posters, illustrations, storyboards, and more with AI art generators 
• Video creation tools: Perfect for creating short promo videos, product demos, explainer videos, or quick Reels. They can also turn scripts into animated videos or presenter-style clips 
• Content research and optimization tools: Brainstorm topic ideas, spot content gaps, optimize your blogs with the right keywords, generate SEO briefs, and analyze top-performing competitor content
• Audio and voice tools: Convert scripts into natural-sounding speech, transcribe interviews, create audio snippets for social media, and generate narration or voiceovers for videos and ads
• Web design creators: Great for rapid prototyping, they let you iterate faster. Use them to generate homepage and landing page layouts, create UI mockups, and automatically style pages with your brand elements

AI asset library

Not talked about as much, but it’s one of the most important parts of your AI tech stack.

An AI asset library automatically tags, groups, and categorizes your assets the moment you upload them. This makes it a breeze to store and organize all your creative files.

Searching for files gets way simpler, too! Instead of remembering exact file names or digging through folder locations, type a natural language query like: “Show me all the holiday campaign images that have a red background.” And voila! 

Another huge plus? These tools can delete duplicate assets, so you don’t waste hours manually cleaning up your storage.

AI communication tools

Artificial intelligence simplifies team communication in two main ways:

• It brings everything together: No more jumping between chat, email, and meeting tools. AI integrates all of that, so you can access any conversation or communication channel from one central spot
• It makes communication easier: AI can summarize long chat threads, translate messages, transcribe meetings, and extract key details from audio recordings. This means you can chat and collaborate with your team not just easily, but much smarter, faster, and more efficiently

AI project management tools

Your design team needs a smart project management system just as much as engineering or product teams do. Especially if you’re an agency juggling different clients—AI can manage the chaos for you. 

With an AI-powered project management tool, you can automatically:

• Analyze team capacity and assign work to available members
• Forecast project timelines and estimate costs
• Update task statuses, send reminders, and monitor progress in real-time

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How to Build or Choose Your AI Stack for Creative Teams

Not sure whether you should build an AI stack from the ground up or just choose one?

Here’s a quick rule of thumb to help you decide:

• Go ahead and BUILD if you’re a large organization or agency that has complex custom needs, highly sensitive assets to manage, or proprietary software that can’t be integrated with widely available AI tools 
• You should CHOOSE a pre-existing solution if you run a small or mid-sized business, have a limited budget or resources to build an AI stack, and want to use AI right away

Once you’ve made that call, it’s time to get moving. 

Let’s walk you through how you can actually build or choose your AI stack step-by-step:

Step 1: Define your needs

Take stock of the types of assets your team produces most often.

Do you lead a purely content-focused team that delivers blog posts and copy with occasional visual elements? In this case, a lightweight design stack is enough. One that offers simple AI image generation. 

Or is your team design-heavy—producing brand identities, campaign visuals, UI mockups, product illustrations? Then you need product design tools in your tech stack to support fast iteration and multi-export workflows. 

Step 2: Evaluate and select the right tools

Compare each AI tool on the one thing it’s fundamentally supposed to do.

Remember, a complicated tool that no one uses is a money drain. Pick something user-friendly that your designers, writers, editors, etc., can start using in minutes, not weeks.

Next, factor in the scalability to meet future workload, team capacity, and additional charges.

Data privacy is just as important here. Check whether the tool offers encryption, compliance certifications, and granular user permissions. Make sure you can easily restrict data sharing for training AI models.

But do you know what the real deal-breaker is? Integrations.

Every tool you add to your AI stack should integrate with the others and your existing system for smooth data flow. 

Step 3: Bridge AI workflows with unified orchestration 

Multiple tools in your design AI tech stack lead to tool sprawl, which drains productivity, budget, and focus. It will turn into work sprawl, where your files, updates, and decisions are scattered across apps, chat threads, and inboxes.

Guess the impact of this problem? A staggering loss of $2.5 trillion in global productivity every year. 

To avoid this, once your AI stack is in motion, you will need a single orchestration layer to connect your efforts across tools and departments. 

ClickUp becomes that orchestration layer. 

The world’s first Converged AI Workspace connects apps and workflows into a unified platform. 

What does that even mean for you? 👇

Step 4: Deploy the stack and train your team

Once your AI stack is ready, roll it out in phases to ease adoption and performance testing.

Start with tasks that offer immediate value. It could be synthesizing user search or automating parts of the design handoff process. Then refine the workflows. 

Or if your team is small, deploy the AI stack for just one project. 

Use these wins to build stakeholder buy-in before expanding AI adoption. 

💡 Pro Tip: Use ClickUp Clips to quickly capture screen recordings and create product walkthroughs for training team members. You can embed these Clips right into ClickUp tasks or Docs, or just share them via links.

Step 5: Monitor performance and iterate

Moment of truth! You need to ask these questions:

• How well is your AI stack performing?
• Has it genuinely helped your team produce and deliver creatives faster?
• Are you seeing an increase in the quality and quantity of design work?
• Has the AI system reduced the number of revisions or, worse, increased them?

Track this progress from day one—not just during your initial pilot, but continuously. This way, you can proactively spot when certain tools stop working effectively or when new needs pop up that require more advanced solutions.

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Example AI Stack for Design and Creative Teams in 2026

We’ve curated a foundational AI tech stack for your design and creative teams. Feel free to add or swap out tools based on what you need:

1. Ideation and content generation

This layer fuels early-stage creative thinking and speeds up content creation for your design teams. It helps designers move from blank canvas to usable concepts faster, whether that’s visual direction, campaign ideas, or copy drafts.

ChatGPT 

Start with ChatGPT to brainstorm design concepts, campaign ideas, marketing roadmaps, creative directions, etc 

Key features:

• Idea generation for campaigns, layouts, and design themes
• Copy drafts for landing pages, microcopy, and creative briefs
• Conversational prompting to iterate on concepts quickly

Pricing: Free; paid plans start at $20 per month per user

Midjourney 

Use Midjourney as your go-to AI design tool for quick image or art generation. For every prompt you enter, it instantly creates four image variations, which is fantastic for rapid iteration in those early stages.

Key features:

• Text-to-image generation for rapid visual exploration
• Style and aesthetic experimentation using prompts and references
• High-quality concept visuals for pitches, mood boards, and inspiration

Pricing: Starts at $10 per month per user

Jasper 

Switch to Jasper to generate written content such as ad copy, social media captions, YouTube scripts, product descriptions, resumes, LinkedIn posts, and more.

Key features:

• Brand voice and tone configuration for consistent messaging
• Templates for headlines, product copy, and campaign content
• Collaboration features for reviewing and refining creative copy

Pricing: Starts at $69 per month per user

2. Design and editing

This layer will help you move faster from concept to execution. It automates repetitive design tasks, enabling rapid iteration across formats and channels.

Figma AI

Use Figma AI to generate layouts, refine components, and speed up iteration without leaving their core design environment.

Key features:

• AI-generated layouts, components, and design suggestions
• Smart text rewriting and content population inside frames
• Faster iteration through auto-resizing and design refinements

Pricing: Free; paid plans start at $20 per month per user

Adobe Firefly

If you’re an Adobe user, Adobe Firefly allows you to generate and edit images, video clips, storyboards, brand assets, marketing templates, and more within the Adobe ecosystem.

Key features:

• Text-to-image and text-to-vector generation for creative assets
• Generative fill and expansion for quick edits and variations
• Commercially safe outputs integrated into Adobe tools

Pricing: Starts at $9.99 per month per user

Canva Magic Studio 

Canva’s Magic Studio is useful for quick graphic creation, bulk edits, and fast-turnaround content. 

Key features:

• Magic Design for instant layouts based on prompts or content
• Magic Edit and background removal for quick visual changes
• Brand kits to apply fonts, colors, and styles consistently

Pricing: Free; paid plans start at $12.99 per month per user

3. Collaboration and project tracking

Managing creative workflows can get overwhelming if you’re not a pro at project management. You’ve got deadlines shifting, clients updating their requirements, and team members stuck in endless loops of feedback. 

To manage all that, jump into ClickUp, the everything app for work.

ClickUp’s Design Project Management Software is built exactly for this.

It comes pre-built with all the key components of a powerful design AI tech stack, thus connecting every stage of your design process and reducing AI sprawl.

Start with ClickUp’s Creative Request Form Template to easily gather, monitor, and manage every single creative request.

Get free template

Break down projects into simple, actionable items using ClickUp Tasks. Add due dates, dependencies, assignees, and custom statuses to each one, so everyone is crystal clear on their responsibilities and deadlines.

Then use ClickUp Brain, the integrated AI assistant, to brainstorm and fine-tune ideas, generate structured design briefs, and produce marketing content on the go. 

You can also get it to create visual design mockups, mood boards, and concept sketches with natural-language prompts. No fancy prompt engineering needed. 

What’s more, ClickUp Brain eliminates the context overload that slows most design cycles. 

Since the AI assistant understands your workspace, it can explain the intent behind a brief, summarize feedback trends, or highlight what changed between version V2 and V8 of an asset.

ClickUp Chats can be your new fav instant messaging platform. Since it’s built right into the ClickUp workspace, you no longer have to leave work to connect with others. 

⭐ Bonus: Set up ClickUp Automations to eliminate repetitive, manual work from your internal processes. For example, you can create a no-code automation that instantly notifies the approver whenever a task status is updated. That way, nobody has to waste time constantly checking for updates.

Pricing:

4. Feedback and versioning

These tools give design teams a single place to collect input, track versions, and move assets toward approval without confusion or rework.

Frame.io

For reviewing video assets, use Frame.io. You can add frame-by-frame annotations and even draw directly on the video with precise, timestamped comments. 

Key features:

• Timestamped comments on video and motion designs
• Version comparison to track changes across iterations
• Secure sharing links for external reviewers and clients

However, it starts to fall short when you need to manage feedback on other types of creatives, like content copy, or for general team communication.

Pricing: Free; paid plans start at $15 per month per user

ClickUp Proofing 

Not only can you (or your clients) add detailed comments on videos, images, and documents, but ClickUp actually centralizes and connects all that feedback directly to your main workspace.

Using ClickUp’s Proofing feature, reviewers can add, assign, or resolve comments on any PNG, GIF, or PDF file without leaving ClickUp. 

With ClickUp for design reviews, assign feedback directly to a team member from the comment itself, turning passive suggestions into actionable items. 

Key features:

• Inline comments and annotations on design files
• Version history tied directly to tasks and workflows
• Status-based approvals to move work from review to final

Pricing: Free with ClickUp Business and Enterprise plans

5. Asset management and delivery

You want the creative assets to stay organized and accessible for reuse. This layer helps you with that. This way, you deliver the right assets to the right people without having to constantly dig through folders or deal with outdated links.

Bynder

Bynder is a digital asset management (DAM) system for organizing, storing, and managing large volumes of creative assets. You can store and share images, videos, logos, and branding materials across teams and clients.

Key features:

• Central asset library with metadata and tagging
• Version control to ensure teams use approved files only
• Controlled sharing for internal teams and external partners

ClickUp Docs 

Use ClickUp Docs + Brain combination to create and store brand guidelines, design systems, creative briefs, and delivery notes. 

Key features:

• Centralized Docs (with versioning and user permissions) for brand guidelines, design systems, and asset handoffs
• AI-powered summaries that highlight key updates, changes, or approvals
• Context-aware writing and editing that pulls from tasks, comments, and past work

Pricing: Free with all ClickUp plans

Integrations with Google Drive and Dropbox mean you can upload and access all your assets lightning-fast.

All project information—ideas, tasks, files, feedback, and approvals—lives within ClickUp, so your team always has a clear, searchable record of every step.

6. Reporting and insights

The final piece of the puzzle? A robust project analytics tool that helps you monitor team capacity, track project performance, and report on key insights.

ClickUp Dashboards offer the perfect way to do this (without the need for a separate analytics tool).

Build custom project management dashboards using simple drag-and-drop widgets and AI cards to track every facet of your team’s performance. 

By centralizing these insights, you can quickly assess whether your AI tech stack is paying off in terms of speed, output quality, team adoption, and collaboration.

You can build custom visualizations using a variety of AI Cards to track and optimize every part of your AI tech stack. Some examples include: 

• Pie Chart to see how design time is split across projects, clients, or asset types such as social, web, or video
• Bar Chart to compare weekly or monthly design output, revision counts, or turnaround time across teams
• Battery Chart to monitor progress on active design tasks, review stages, or approval readiness

You can also use built-in AI Cards to surface insights such as where feedback cycles are slowing down, which assets are stuck in review, or which designers are overloaded. AI Cards can even flag anomalies such as unusually high revision counts or missed deadlines. 

And because dashboards auto-refresh and can send scheduled summaries, design leads don’t need status meetings just to understand the blockers. 

Pricing: Free with ClickUp Business and Enterprise plans

⭐ Bonus: ClickUp’s Workload View shows you each team member’s current tasks. You know who is overworked and can allocate resources accordingly. 

The red shows overcapacity, the green shows optimal capacity, and the orange indicates they have bandwidth to take on more work. 

🚀 ClickUp Advantage: Bring every creative tool into one workspace with ClickUp Integrations. 

ClickUp connects seamlessly with 1,000+ tools, from Figma, Adobe, and Canva to Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Notion. 

Your files, feedback, calendars, messages, and design prototypes all flow into one unified workspace, eliminating cross-tool chaos.

Automate handoffs, sync updates instantly, and keep every creative asset tied to the right task or project. No rebuilding your stack. No context switching. Just smoother, smarter workflows end-to-end.

7. Work orchestration layer by ClickUp 

In the AI stack for design and creative teams, the workflow orchestration layer will hold everything together, and ClickUp plays that role. 

ClickUp BrainGPT is built for this—to eliminate AI sprawl. 

It brings multiple AI capabilities into a single desktop workspace, so designers don’t have to juggle separate tools for ideation, writing, search, and updates.

Here’s how design teams use it:

• Access multiple AI models in one place: Use ChatGPT for copy drafts, Gemini for research and structured thinking, or Claude for narrative and concept refinement without leaving ClickUp
• Use Talk-to-Text for faster creative capture: Dictate briefs, feedback, or task updates instantly. Designers can speak their ideas the moment inspiration hits instead of breaking the flow to type
• Enterprise Search across your entire design stack: Ask natural-language questions to find work across tasks, Docs, comments, files, connected tools, and even the web. No digging through folders or apps.

With BrainGPT, ClickUp becomes the command center for design work. Ideas flow into tasks, feedback turns into action, and assets move to delivery without manual coordination or constant status checks.

As one Reddit user put it:

If you’re already using too many AI tools, here’s how to cure it before things spiral out of control 👇

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Benefits of an Integrated AI Tech Stack for Creative Teams

Maybe you’re wondering whether an AI stack for creative work will actually make you more productive.

Or questioning the need to build an integrated AI stack for creative teams when you could just buy a couple of tools instead! 

Here’s how an AI tech stack accelerates revenue growth and why it’s worth every penny.

Faster concept-to-delivery timelines

Generative AI, smarter automation, and centralized project management together speed up your creative operations.

This empowers different teams to launch campaigns sooner, respond to trends on time, test more ideas, and capitalize on sales windows.

Fewer feedback cycles and missed deadlines

The right AI tools can deliver near-publish-ready drafts in one go. This drastically cuts revision rounds and helps you launch campaigns on time (or even ahead of schedule).

Enhanced creative inspiration through AI collaboration

You know where most creative teams lose time? Brainstorming ideas, researching, and turning those abstract thoughts into tangible art.

An integrated AI stack removes these creative blocks by helping teams quickly explore new directions and collaborate during brainstorming sessions, resulting in much better ideas.

Improved visibility across campaigns and assets

Nothing slows down creative output like bad visibility into your campaigns.

Both ideas and energy slip away as you spend more time hopping between tools, finding the right files, and keeping everyone on the same page.

An integrated AI stack fixes this. It provides a single unified workspace that automatically organizes assets and tracks progress, so you can finally focus on the real work.

Consistent brand storytelling across platforms

AI can enforce brand rules, maintain tone, keep colors and styles aligned, flag incorrect assets, and generate content that stays on-brand across every channel.

This brand consistency improves campaign performance and helps you acquire customers more efficiently.

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Common Mistakes Made When Selecting AI Tools for Teams

Before we finish up, let’s quickly look at three things you absolutely need to avoid when you’re putting together your creative AI stack:

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Supercharge Your Creative Workflows With ClickUp

With generative AI making it easy for anyone to generate designs and creatives, the real question is: How do you stand out?

The answer is simple: By leveraging artificial intelligence wisely at every step of your creative workflow.

By smartly integrating AI into your work, you stop delivering lackluster AI-generated content that everyone else is making. Instead, you unlock your team’s maximum potential and reach peak creative capacity as AI takes over broken communication, repetitive work, and project management.

ClickUp makes it a breeze to add AI and automate different parts of your workflow without adding more tools to your stack.

Brainstorm ideas, collaborate with your team, design creatives, ask clients for feedback, track projects, and report on insights—all from a single, AI-driven workspace.

To get started, sign up for ClickUp for free.

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