AI Tools

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced digital world, storytelling is more important than ever for NGOs. It helps build trust, attract donors, engage communities, and influence change. However, many organizations face resource and time constraints that limit their ability to consistently produce high-quality content. AI tools offer practical support by automating content creation, translating messages across languages, and simplifying complex tasks—allowing NGOs to focus on what matters most: their mission.

Benefits of Using AI

  • Boost Creativity: Stuck on a headline? Need a fresh perspective for your story? AI can be a powerful brainstorming partner, generating ideas you might not have considered.
  • Save Time: Automate repetitive tasks like drafting initial content, summarizing long documents, or generating social media captions. This frees up your time for strategic thinking and human connection.
  • Enhance Quality: AI can help you refine your writing, improve grammar, suggest clearer phrasing, and even adapt your tone for different audiences.
  • Reach Wider Audiences: Translate content, generate diverse visuals, and create accessible formats more easily.
  • Overcome Writer’s Block: When the words just aren’t flowing, AI can provide a starting point or help you reframe your thoughts.
  • Data-Driven Insights: AI tools often include analytics or optimization features that help improve messaging based on performance and audience engagement.

Important Considerations Before You Start

While AI is really helpful, it’s crucial to remember:

  • AI is a Tool, Not a Replacement: Your human touch, critical thinking, empathy, and unique voice are irreplaceable. Always review and edit AI-generated content.
  • Accuracy and Bias: AI models learn from vast amounts of data, which can sometimes contain biases or inaccuracies. Always fact-check and ensure the information is reliable.
  • Ethical Use: Be mindful of copyright, attribution, and transparency. If AI generates a significant portion of your content, consider disclosing its use, especially in professional contexts.
  • Privacy: Be cautious about inputting sensitive or confidential information into public AI tools.

 

AI Tools in Action: Evaluations and Scenarios

Let’s dive into some specific AI tools that can help you with different aspects of communication and storytelling. We’ll evaluate them and explore how you can use them effectively.

Tool 1: Large Language Models (LLMs) – e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude

These are the versatile "Swiss Army knives" of AI, capable of understanding and generating human-like text.

Evaluation

  • Strengths: Incredibly versatile, good for brainstorming, drafting, summarizing, translation, and adapting tone. Can handle a wide range of text-based tasks. Often have free versions available.
  • Limitations: Can sometimes «hallucinate» (make up facts), may lack nuanced understanding of complex topics or cultural context, and might produce generic-sounding content if not prompted well. Requires careful fact-checking and editing.

Possible Use Scenarios:

  • Content Ideation: «Generate 5 ideas for a social media campaign about media literacy for teenagers.»
  • Drafting Blog Posts/Articles: «Write an introductory paragraph for a blog post about the importance of critical thinking in the digital age.»
  • Summarizing Reports: «Summarize this 10-page report on climate change impacts in Norway into 3 key bullet points for a press release.»
  • Drafting Social Media Captions: «Write 3 Instagram captions for a photo of a community workshop, using a hopeful and engaging tone.»
  • Brainstorming Interview Questions: «Generate 10 open-ended interview questions for a local politician about youth engagement.»
  • Adapting Tone: «Rewrite this formal announcement into a more casual and friendly tone for a newsletter.»

Tool 2: AI Image Generators – e.g. Midjourney, DALL-E 3 (integrated into ChatGPT Plus), Adobe Firefly, DeepAI

These tools can create stunning visuals from text descriptions, opening up new possibilities for visual storytelling.

Evaluation

  • Strengths: Generates unique images quickly, can create visuals for abstract concepts, great for mood boards and illustrative purposes, often has different artistic styles.
  • Limitations: Can struggle with precise details (e.g., specific text in images), sometimes generates uncanny or distorted human figures, ethical concerns around copyright of training data and potential misuse (deepfakes). Requires practice to get good results with prompts.

Possible Use Scenarios:

  • Website/Blog Illustrations: «Create an image of a diverse group of young people engaging with digital media, in a vibrant, friendly style.»
  • Social Media Graphics: «Generate an abstract image representing the flow of information for a post about misinformation.»
  • Storyboarding: «Create a series of images depicting a character’s journey from confusion to understanding about a complex issue.»
  • Presentation Backgrounds: «Design a subtle, inspiring background image for a presentation on community empowerment.»
  • Concept Art: «Generate an image of a futuristic newsroom.»

Tool 3: AI Presentation Makers – e.g. Gamma, Presentations.AI, Tome (also for visual docs)

These tools automate the creation of presentation slides, often with integrated text and visuals.

Evaluation

  • Strengths: Saves significant time in presentation design, generates layouts and suggests content, can often integrate images and basic charts, good for quick drafts.
  • Limitations: May produce generic designs or content if not guided well, customization can be limited in free versions, still requires human input for compelling narratives and specific data.

Possible Use Scenarios:

  • Workshop Presentations: «Create a presentation on ‘Introduction to Digital Storytelling’ with 5 slides, including key takeaways.»
  • Pitch Decks: «Generate a pitch presentation for a new non-profit initiative focused on climate education.»
  • Internal Reports: «Draft a summary presentation of last quarter’s achievements for an internal team meeting.»
  • Quick Explainers: «Develop a short visual explanation of Norsensus Mediaforum’s core values for new interns.»

Tool 4: AI Text-to-Speech (TTS) & Voice Generators – e.g. Murf AI, ElevenLabs, Google Cloud Text-to-Speech

These tools convert written text into natural-sounding speech, creating audio content without needing voice actors.

Evaluation

  • Strengths: Creates professional-sounding voice overs quickly, offers a variety of voices and languages, cost-effective for small projects, useful for accessibility.
  • Limitations: Can sometimes sound robotic or lack natural human emotion and intonation, ethical concerns around synthetic voices and deepfakes. Not suitable for highly expressive or nuanced performances.

Possible Use Scenarios:

  • Explainer Videos: «Generate a voiceover for a short animated video explaining a new policy.»
  • Podcast Intros/Outros: «Create a consistent voice for the introduction and outro of a podcast series.»
  • Accessibility: «Convert written articles into audio versions for visually impaired audiences.»
  • E-learning Modules: «Develop voice overs for interactive online learning materials.»
  • Social Media Audio Clips: «Generate a short audio clip from a blog post to share on platforms like TikTok or Instagram Reels.»

Tool 5: AI Video Generators – e.g. InVideo AI, Synthesia, HeyGen, Pictory.ai (and upcoming like OpenAI's Sora)

These cutting-edge tools can create entire videos, from short clips to explainer videos, often from just text prompts or existing content. Some even feature AI avatars.

Evaluation

  • Strengths: Can generate videos very quickly, saving significant production time and cost. Great for creating short explainer videos, social media clips, or quick content drafts. Many offer stock media integration, voiceovers, and subtitles automatically. Ideal for producing consistent video content at scale.
  • Limitations: While rapidly improving, realism can still be limited (especially for complex human actions or nuanced expressions). Full creative control might be less than traditional video editing. Ethical concerns around deepfakes and responsible use of AI avatars. Can be resource-intensive or costly for advanced features.

Possible Use Scenarios:

  • Quick Explainer Videos: «Generate a 60-second animated explainer video about ‘identifying fake news online’ from a script.»
  • Social Media Video Ads/Promos: «Create a short, dynamic video promoting an upcoming Norsensus workshop, including AI voiceover and relevant stock footage.»
  • Content Repurposing: «Transform a long blog post about civic participation into a series of short, engaging video snippets for different social media platforms.»
  • Personalized Video Messages (with AI Avatars): «Create a brief video greeting from an ‘AI ambassador’ welcoming new members or partners (if an AI avatar feature is available and appropriate for Norsensus’s brand).»
  • Rapid Prototyping for Video Concepts: «Quickly generate a draft video from a storyboard idea to visualize how a narrative will flow before investing in full production.»

Conclusion

AI tools are transforming how we communicate and tell stories. By thoughtfully integrating them into your workflow, you can amplify your message, reach new audiences, and spend more time on the truly human aspects of your work: connection, empathy, and impactful narratives. This guide, for instance, was generated with Gemini (with some small adjustments by us!) – a testament to how helpful these tools can be in jumpstarting your communication efforts. We encourage you to experiment and discover how AI can empower your own storytelling journey. And remember to add your unique human touch!

© Norsensus Mediaforum 2013-2023