Here's Your Rundown of TikTok's New Suite of AI Tools

TikTok has redefined what it means to be a content consumer and producer today. With nearly 2 billion users worldwide spending more time on TikTok than other social media apps, the platform has earned the ‘social media giant’ moniker.

The land of never-ending dance battles, viral challenges, and lip dubbing is now harnessing artificial intelligence to turbocharge the platform. Let’s break down TikTok’s latest suite of AI tools and what it means for its users.

Introducing Symphony, TikTok’s Creative AI Suite

Since generative AI has made it its life’s mission to completely overhaul the content creation process, social media platforms have refused to take it lying down.

From Facebook’s suite of AI tools for advertisers, to Instagram’s AI image creation and editing tools, Snapchat’s conversational AI, and even X’s Grok, a ‘humorous AI search assistant,’ everyone is taking their piece of the pie.

And TikTok is not one to be left behind. This June, Tiktok announced in a blog post the launch of Symphony, , the platform’s new suite of creative solutions powered by generative AI.

Symphony is made up of four pillars: Symphony Assistant, Symphony Creative Studio, Symphony Avatars, and Ad Manager.

1. Symphony Assistant

What started as TikTok’s Creative Assistant, designed to help users find inspiration, discover trends and accompany them throughout their creative process, has now evolved into Symphony Assistant.

It performs the same functions Creative Assistant does, but at an even greater scale.

If there’s one thing TikTok isn’t lacking, it’s repositories of creative data — and this is just the thing its AI assistant needs to meet wide-ranging creative needs.

How to use Symphony Assistant

1.  Step is to visit TikTok Creative Center through the website and not the TikTok app. You can log in using either your TikTok account’s login information or simply create a free Creative Center account.
2.  Once logged in, look to the top right-hand corner of the landing page, right next to the login icon and you’ll find the Symphony Assistant.
3.  Now, you can send your queries ranging from TikTok insights, writing ad scripts, brainstorming ideas and so much more.

See my sample query and the response below.

Query: I am a content marketer struggling to go viral on TikTok. What kind of content can I make in a month to get me to my first 500 followers?

It gives a long list of content ideas sufficient for a content marketer truly trying to grow on TikTok. Not just ideas too, but also what trends it would fit nicely with, the best hashtags for each post and even a unique selling point for each idea.

You might be thinking, “This looks like something ChatGPT could produce.” That’s true until you get to the most interesting part:video references. And it doesn’t just put a link there that redirects you to the video on the TikTok app.

Instead, videos from real creators related to your query are seamlessly embedded into the response. This integration allows you to view and interact with the content directly within the platform, making the experience more immersive and practical. Potential game-changer.

2. Symphony Creative Studio

Short, engaging videos are the core of TikTok’s value proposition.

While the end product can be just one minute, these videos often take creators anywhere from 30 minutes to hours to film, edit, and publish.

The Symphony Creative Studio is designed to speed up the production process of video content like product videos, avatar narrations and dubbed translations, with a generative AI feature that creates ready-to-use videos for ad campaigns.

How to use Symphony Creative Studio

To test this tool, I created a business account for a pretend shirt retailing business for men called Sammy’s Tees.

1.  Visit the Symphony Creative Studio website and create a profile for your business through a TikTok One account. 
2.  Now that you have access, import details about your business through your website URL, or do it manually.
   • Details required include the name of your product or service, brand, price, a description of what you’re selling and media assets you would like in the video.
3.  Choose from custom video previews generated by The Creative Studio. 
4.  Edit the video you choose using the three available video options — avatar narrations, product videos or dubbed translations. (Alternatively, you could simply choose one of the video options and make all the decisions from scratch.) 
5.  Use TikTok's editing studio to choose an avatar, add background music, and narrate your script. (I used the script Symphony Assistant created for me)
   
6.  Fine-tune the video then export. Note: Exported videos come with an ‘AI-generated’ tag. 
   

Sammy Tee’s final video isn’t perfect. The lip sync is slightly off and there are limited avatar editing options — but it‘s a pretty good start for a tool in beta testing.

3. Symphony Digital Avatars

As a market projected to be worth 270 billion dollars by 2030, digital avatars are quickly becoming a cornerstone of virtual interactions and online branding.

TikTok’s Symphony Digital Avatars tool, in particular, allows users to create unique and lifelike AI-generated personas that they can use in their videos.

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These avatars are all created from video footage of real paid actors that have licensed their likeness for commercial use. Not only do users get to use these avatars in various lifelike environments and postures, they can also choose the voice, accent and language most suited to the narrative.

Currently, users can access either stock or custom avatars, both of which are available in the Symphony Creative Studio. The stock avatars are pre-made and generic, while custom avatars are uniquely designed to represent specific individuals or brands.

How to Use Symphony Digital Avatars

French TikToker Lucas Dampeyrou recently told Adage the feature is a massive growth opportunity. Here's how you can leverage it too. 

1.  Visit the Symphony Creative Studio website and log in, as explained above.
2.  Choose the avatar narrative option and you’ll be led to a page where you can select an avatar based on filters like industry, body gesture, clothing style, scene, and gender.
   
3.  After selecting the avatar, you have the option to edit the avatar’s voice, accent, and language as it suits your video idea.
4.  Alternatively, you can create a custom avatar to represent the likeness of the creator or the spokesperson of a brand. This feature is available under the Train your own avatar option but it is currently unavailable to the public.

4. Symphony Ad Manager

Integrated into TikTok Ads Manager workflow is a set of AI-powered features designed to optimize ad creation, performance, and streamline the entire campaign process.

Symphony Features in TikTok’s Ad Manager

• An auto-diagnosis and auto-fix feature that scans your ad videos for gaps in your compliance or optimization, and fixes them in no time.
• An auto-optimization feature that will generate scripts, subtitles and voice overs ready to be integrated into your video in one click.
• An auto-generation tool that will create new videos from your website URL or existing media assets in your account.
• AI-enhanced display cards and carousel images which use simple inputs to generate compelling visuals that optimize product images for visual selling on the app.

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Benefits of Using TikTok’s AI tools

A majority of respondents in our recent State of AI in Marketing survey agree that AI solutions have had a positive impact on their work. But how exactly will TikTok’s AI tools do this?

1. Streamline the content creation process.

With features like Symphony Assistant and Symphony Creative Studio, users can quickly generate creative ideas, scripts, and customizable videos, enabling professional-grade content creation with ease.

This is why content creation remains the popular use case for generative AI, according to our recent State of AI in Marketing survey.

2. Increase viewer engagement.

The way these tools are designed, they provide tailored suggestions based on trending topics and user behavior, ensuring content stays relevant and engaging.

The Symphony Digital Avatars, for instance, allow users to create personalized and lifelike avatars that represent their unique brand or persona. People are also calling them AI or virtual influencers.

A study has found that these avatars, in general, have a ‘positive impact on perceived enjoyment and immersion, both affecting consumer engagement and purchase intention positively.’

3. Get better ROI on TikTok ads.

The new Symphony features in the TikTok ad workflow will guarantee that creators are releasing campaigns that would scale.

From enhancing video quality to optimizing for campaign effectiveness, creators can expect to receive better ROI on their ad spend.

What’s next?

Most of these tools are still in beta testing and may not be fully available to all users yet, with some features subject to change as TikTok gathers feedback and makes improvements.

By understanding how to leverage these features, you can position yourself to take full advantage of their capabilities as they become more widely accessible, ensuring you stay ahead of the curve and keep your TikTok engagement on lock.