Three months after releasing an advertisement for its Surface Pro and Surface Laptop hardware, Microsoft has revealed that it was made using generative AI.
The minute-long ad, which had gone live three months ago in January, did not catch anyone’s eyes as being AI-generated.
Why Microsoft made an AI-generated ad
In a blog post published on Wednesday by Microsoft Design, senior design communications manager Jay Tan revealed that earlier this year, the Visual Design team was tasked with making an ad for Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Surface Laptop for Business Copilot+ PCs. The challenge was that it had to be delivered within a month.
As the team wondered how to navigate through such a tight deadline, the idea of creating an ad using generative AI.
“The team managed to deliver a compelling script, storyboards and a pitch deck that accurately represented how they visualised the ad within a matter of days instead of what usually may have taken weeks,” Tan wrote in the blog.
Making of Microsoft’s AI-generated ad
Microsoft revealed that the advertisement was not entirely AI-generated.
The ad, which went live on January 30, saw “the occasional AI hallucination would rear its head,” Tan said.
This meant that the creators had to edit some of the AI output and integrate it with real footage.
“Each frame was carefully curated, removing anything that looked weird and out of place, and ensuring only the most compelling elements remained,” the blog post said.
Tan admitted that replicating details like human motion continue to be a challenge for AI tools, which prompted the team to add a human touch to the ad.
“When deciding on which shots within the ad were to be AI generated, the team determined that any intricate movement such as closeups of hands typing on keyboards had to be shot live. Shots that were quick cuts or with limited motion, however, were prime for co-creation with generative AI tools,” he said in the blog.
While Tan or Microsoft did not provide details about which exact shots were taken using AI, intricate details of making the ad were shared.
The creators used a combination of written prompts and sample images to feed the image generators.
“We probably went through thousands of different prompts, chiseling away at the output little by little until we got what we wanted. There’s never really a one-and-done prompt,” said creative director Cisco McCarthy.
While the process was ‘relentless’ as per McCarthy, visual designer Brian Townsend said that the team “probably saved 90% of the time and cost it would typically take.”
