Why AI Isn’t Just About Generating. It’s About Creating Time to Create

A lot of the focus on AI in the creative world I see tends to revolve around generative tools such as text-to-video, image generation, etc. Which makes sense, but I think there’s another area that often gets a bit overlooked: using AI to power up your creativity by speeding up workflows, giving you that little bit more time to be creative.

For example recently, I started vibe coding my own custom apps, tailored specifically to each job request and project.

It began with a small challenge: converting .vtt subtitle files into .srt. I’d never done it before and wasn’t sure how. I knew there were probably many tools out there online but thought, why not just make my own? Surely it wouldn’t take that long…right?

And it turns out, it didn’t! Job done.

VTT to SRT Converter app running in the browser.

From there, I started exploring how much further I could take vibe coding, and began building a browser-based subtitling tool. The goal is to create something accessible, intuitive, and fast for my team and department to use. So far, it can:

• Convert subtitle files

• Create and edit subtitles

• Re-arrange and re-time subtitles using a timeline view

• Check for overlaps

• Export to .vtt or .srt

The subtitling app running in the browser.

The long-term vision? Add AI functionality: automatic transcription and translation of uploaded videos, basic trimming tools, and the ability to export videos with burned-in subtitles. A tool that any stakeholder, manager, or producer could run quickly and easily on their laptop.

I’ll keep you updated on how this tool and other tools I’m working on develop. Including exploring agents. The power to create with AI is just incredible and there is so much to explore!