End a brand with more than fifteen years of authority, give up the leadership position in the category or end with a website with more than one hundred million visits per month. These are some of the complex decisions that Freepik, the Spanish graphic resources platform, had to make to become what it is now: Magnific, an ecosystem of creative artificial intelligence tools. The process has had an impact on the business, the brand and the team, but they assure that the benefit exceeds the cost, because it has opened the door to a new market.

The company’s leaders shared their story at Ahead, a meeting promoted by the software and artificial intelligence studio Tailor Hub. After a successful inaugural edition, its intention on this second occasion was, as stated in the invitation, to bring professionals closer to the best Spanish story regarding AI transformation. And they turned the attendees at the Design Center, in Matadero Madrid, into witnesses of Magnific’s success story.

The company, founded in Malaga in 2010, completed last May a process that it has been working on over the last few years and that has focused on its evolution from a platform of fragmented tools to an integrated creative infrastructure powered by artificial intelligence. The change has required a new name, visual identity and domain, but also a solid cultural and talent management exercise that can be inspiring for those organizations navigating adaptation to the landscape that AI is shaping.

Lesson 1: Embrace change

The evolution from Freepik to Magnifc was, as described by Antonio Lasaga, Growth Lead at Magnific, an organic process driven by both technological developments and the creative community. He assures that artificial intelligence first changed Freepik’s product, and then also changed its brand. Freepik was the stock image page with the most traffic globally, but generative AI and the ability it provides to create put the business on the ropes.

The company’s reaction was to launch an AI vertical, and that caused the creative community to go from uploading 5 million monthly contents to the platform’s catalog to 50 million. As Lasaga explained, that was one of the first problems, since the team was not able to assume, with the infrastructure it had at that time, the volume of content and its corresponding moderation. They chose to open the doors, but what happened then is that the new content contaminated the searches and made the experience worse.

Antonio Lasaga, Growth Lead at Magnific.

“It was a mistake, but also the start of great conversations on Freepik. It was a fertile mistake. We began to research more about AI and develop possible solutions, and a question arose: ”what do we want to be?“, explained the manager. “We discovered that we wanted to be the space where content was created, not just uploaded.Even the creative community and their user base warned them that they were falling behind, and that’s when they realized that the Freepik brand was starting to be a problem.

The business had changed and not assuming it could mean compromising the survival of the company. The main challenge, as Lasaga explained, was the management of change internally, which required a strong exercise in breaking down the team’s skepticism regarding technology and convincing that what was needed to continue evolving was to become Magnific.

Despite everything, the change from Freepik to Magnific has had its price: the loss of 40% of organic traffic. Recovering it is something they are already working on, as the manager explained in statements to reason.Why. Brand building, external references and the relationship with the community through social media, influencers and events are the main levers they are activating.

However, they point out that the transformation has had benefits, because it has positioned Magnific in a new market and is allowing them to work with large companies. “The brand is growing, and I think that is the main advantage“, he commented to those attending Ahead. “The lesson is that authentic leadership begins when you decide to move”.

Lesson 2: constant learning

Another process that has been key to the success of Magnific’s transformation has been the transition of the team in terms of skills and knowledge. Professionals, both creative and technical, have integrated AI into their workflows and ways of working, something that has allowed them to move from execution to strategy. “Before, 80% of the time was spent executing the content, now we dedicate the same proportion to choosing and deciding what we are creating.”explained Melissa Diago, AI Production Manager at Magnific.

Hers is one of those cases of transition, from photographer and visual artist to AI production specialist; and that demonstrate that vision and human talent continue to be essential to take advantage of the possibilities of technology. He explained it by referring to the moments in which Freepik began to generate its first content made with artificial intelligence.

Melissa Diago, AI Production Manager at Magnific

Part of its mission at that time was dedicated to LoRAs (Low-Rank Adaptation), small artificial intelligence models that are coupled to other base models (such as Stable Diffusion or Flux) to teach them an artistic style. He assures that when it came to taking on the task and creating those own styles and galleries for the platform, he dedicated himself to researching, training, and was helped by his previous creative work.

“At first there was resistance, but then we realized that the style is still ours, the machine only supports it. “Taste does not come in the model, so we still need human vision”he commented to the attendees. And in this regard, he highlighted the need, on the one hand, to assume a “trial and error” work model, and on the other, to direct the work. “It is not advisable to limit yourself to staying with the first option that AI offers, because of things like that the Internet is plagued with slop,” he shared. “You have to guide the tools until you get something that really provides artistic value”.

And along these lines he recalled the importance of constant value, alluding to the already emblematic “avocado chair”, one of the collections of images used by OpenAI to present Dall-E, its first image generation model from text, at the beginning of 2021. “The things we can do now with AI are incredible, but true evolution requires a permanent update,” Diago explained.

Lesson 3: the value of attitude

The evolution of Magnific has not only transformed the brand and the product, but also the company itself, which now operates in a more complex and much more competitive environment than the one it found itself in when it operated as Freepik. The structure and team have had to be reorganized and adapted to meet a new type of creative needs, and this has been reflected, among other things, in a more robust sales team and a more direct relationship with the client.

Magnific is an example that integrating artificial intelligence is not just a matter of learning to use a series of tools or applying technological changes. Alejandro Gómez, Chief Technolofy Officer at Magnific, during his speech at Ahead. On a technical level, the difference between Freepik and Magnific is not that much, because the issue is still developing a technological product to solve a new problem.

Instead, the main challenge had to do with organizational culture. “I think the most complex thing has been keeping a cool head in the face of so much change and movement in the market. “It’s easy to get carried away and lose your way in the face of something that changes so quickly,” he explained. “The key has been to keep everyone aligned in the same direction.”. Furthermore, in statements to reason.Why He added that getting users to learn all the potential behind this technology to get the most out of it is also a challenge.

Alejandro Gómez, Chief Technolofy Officer at Magnific (center)

In this regard, and in a context in which AI-assisted programming has become commonplace, he assures that when it comes to incorporating new talent into the team, he is beginning to value the attitude of the professionals more than their technical capabilities. “The traditional engineer is being replaced by the engineer with AI, that is why, more than knowledge, we are looking for people with the attitude to learn and adapt“, he shared. “And also that they are oriented to the business, the product and the user, because that is what really adds value.”.

Months after officially leaving Freepik behind and reorienting the organization, business and brand towards artificial intelligence, the three Magnific spokespersons agree when attributing the keys to the process to people and human talent. They remembered the value of ideas, criteria and strategic vision. “We have always defended that AI gives you the tools, but creative capacity is what makes the difference“said Antonio Lasaga, Growth Lead at Magnific, to reason.Why. “I can generate images with AI but it wouldn’t come close to what my creative peers do. And that is what distinguishes a good result from something mediocre.”.