Storytelling with AI

Whatever your role, storytelling is an important mechanism for influencing, advocating, and otherwise getting sh*t done.

Some people are natural storytellers, for us mortals AI can be a critical tool for telling compelling and convincing stories.

Below are 4 mechanisms you should be experimenting with along with some personal examples. Try these out with internal or external stakeholders:

Metaphors

The Metaphor is one of the oldest and most effective forms of storytelling. A good metaphor can frame an argument or discussion. And AI can help you brainstorm and come up with the best metaphor for the point you are trying to make. I start with the end goal of what I am trying to influence, share the audience and the output (which in this case was a data project I was trying to sell) and then have it brainstorm the inputs.

Let me give you an example of a recent voice convo I had with ‘Chuck’:

And then after some massaging it came up with a good idea:

Visual Metaphors

As an extension of this, visual storytelling has never been easier with AI. I include AI visuals in most of my pitch decks, meant to both tailor and customize the story as well as elicit emotional reactions.

Let me give you an example: I was talking to an ecommerce leader about the impact of technical issues on their website. Rather than trying to explain the emotional response from trying to buy something and hitting an error, I created an image of someone walking through a brick-and-mortar store and encountering a glass wall that prevented them from proceeding and purchasing despite their intent.

Generative Video

2025 will be the year that generative video goes mainstream. Google’s Veo 2 has shown us what is possible. Although its still waitlist only, you should be experimenting with tools like Sora, or building AI avatars as I discussed in a previous post.

Recently, I’ve been playing around with AI video that can be used in professional contexts like RFP submission cover letters. Invideo is far from perfect but can generate an entire script and long-form video from any text. Below, I uploaded a prior blog post on Starting your AI Journey and without any prompting or editing it generated a script, video and audio that is “pretty good” (I’d give it a solid “B-”, still a little creepy):

Next time you have an opportunity to tell a story, I hope you will use AI to make your point ring truer and to tug on the heart strings on your audience. Its the wild west out there and i’d love to hear what else you are experimenting with, drop me a line!