Kennan Davison on Icon, the AI Admaker, and Raising from Founders Fund
A $105M-exit founder walks through why creative production is the bottleneck AI removes.
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How do founders use AI to generate and test ad creatives at scale?
AI has collapsed the cost of producing ad variations: tools like Icon, Creatify, and AdCreative.ai turn one product video or image into dozens of testable creatives, and Meta's algorithm now rewards that volume when the concepts are genuinely diverse. The founders winning with this treat AI as a production multiplier while keeping a human on strategy, hooks, and taste. Start with one tool and 10 to 20 distinct concepts a month, then let performance data pick the direction.
Go deeper
18 resources.
Creative Strategy AI Mastery: Prompting to Producing (2025 Guide)
The best-known creative strategist on YouTube shows her actual AI prompting-to-production workflow.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →Why AI Creative Strategists Will Become the Highest Paid Marketers (Motion Creative Strategy Summit)
Operators from Jones Road, Ridge, and HexClad on why AI makes creative strategy the highest-leverage role.
Listen on Spotify open.spotify.com →Excited to introduce Icon, The First AI Admaker
The founder's own launch thread explains exactly how AI assembles winning ads from your clip library.
Open x.com →Creatify: AI agents for generating video ads at scale (Series A announcement)
Shows where agentic ad creation is heading, from concepting to scaled A/B testing, from the investors backing it.
Open kindredventures.com →The Ultimate Guide to Generating AI-Powered Ad Creatives at Scale
A concrete end-to-end workflow for going from product shot to a testable creative batch.
Open adcreative.ai →How to Make Ads for Meta and TikTok in 2026 (high-volume production system)
The operating system behind teams shipping hundreds of ads a month without more headcount.
Open motionapp.com →AI and Creative for Meta Ads in 2025: A Definitive Guide
A trusted Meta ads operator separates the AI creative tactics that work from the hype.
Open foxwelldigital.com →Dara Denney on testing AI ads across different budgets
A practical small-budget testing setup for AI-generated ads from a top performance creative.
Open x.com →How Meta's AI push is changing ad creation
Independent reporting on what Meta's generative ad tools actually change for advertisers.
Open marketingbrew.com →AI Video Ad Generators Comparison: Sora 2 vs Veo 3 vs Runway vs Pika
Head-to-head of the video models founders now use to generate ad footage without a shoot.
Open adlibrary.com →10 Best AI Ad Creative Generators & Tools (Tested)
A creative agency actually tested the generator tools, so you skip the trial-and-error.
Open superside.com →Make Ads That Convert: AI in the Creative Process
Sensible framing of where AI belongs in each stage of the creative process.
Open goprimer.com →2025 Ad Creative & Creative Strategy Trends
Data-backed trend report on ad families, creative diversity, and AI's role in the mix.
Open motionapp.com →Make Ads That Convert 2025 (virtual summit)
Free summit sessions from top creative strategists on AI-era ad production.
Open motionapp.com →Veo 3 vs Sora 2: When to Use Which Model
Clear guidance on matching each video model to hooks, testimonials, and b-roll for ads.
Open leonardo.ai →Icon: The Human Admaker
ChatGPT-plus-CapCut for ads; the reference product for AI creative volume on a founder budget.
Open icon.com →AdCreative.ai
The most accessible starting tool for static and banner creative generation at volume.
Open adcreative.ai →More in Ads & Performance Marketing
- Why use AI for audience research, copy variants, and campaign analysis? 19 →
- What are real examples of small teams running big-league paid campaigns with AI? 18 →
- Which AI tools should a founder actually put in their first ad stack? 18 →
- How do founders create AI UGC and avatar video ads without a creator budget? 19 →
- Should founders let Meta, Google, and TikTok's AI automation run their campaigns? 16 →
- How do founders use AI to research competitor ads and find winning angles? 17 →
- How much should founders budget for ad testing, and when should they kill or scale a creative? 18 →
- When do AI-generated ads backfire, and how do founders avoid the AI slop trap? 17 →
- How do founders use AI to build and optimize landing pages that convert ad clicks? 18 →
- Should founders advertise inside AI platforms like ChatGPT? 19 →
- How do founders use AI to measure what is actually working across channels? 16 →
- How are Indian D2C brands and startups using AI in performance marketing? 16 →
- What new AI-driven ad channels and media-buying agents should founders watch beyond Meta and Google? 17 →
Also in Starting Up
The same ground, over in Grow & market, our Starting Up track.
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