What's Truly Important for 2026: The AI Creator's Tool Purge

Welcome Back!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I just dropped a viral Reel breaking down what's Important versus Not Important in the Generative AI creator space right now.

The truth is, if you looked away for 5 minutes, your tech stack is already dead. Six months in AI is six years in any other industry. My job is to be the filter. Your time is too valuable to waste on models that are slow, buggy, or simply outdated.

Below is the full, detailed breakdown of what to STOP using and where to put your time and money to get ahead in 2025.

The 'NOT IMPORTANT' Tools (Drop These Now)

• ❌ GPT Image 1: Look, it was a good start, but that infamous yellow/green color tint issue is still there, and the model is lagging behind the newest releases in terms of creative control and fidelity. You are wasting renders here.

• ❌ Pika Labs: While they were innovators, the pace of other models (Kling, Veo) has surpassed Pika's output quality and feature set. There are better places to spend your credits.

• ❌ Grok (AI): It's improving fast, but it’s still playing catch-up in terms of core generative capabilities compared to the leaders. Keep it on your radar, but don't dedicate precious workflow time to it yet.

I'm not saying these tools never worked, but they are now actively slowing you down compared to the competition.

🧠 The 'IMPORTANT' Tools (Your 2026 Tech Stack)

This is where you dedicate your time and resources. These are the tools winning the leaderboards, offering essential new features, and driving the most professional results.

🎬 The Video Titans

• Kling AI: IMPORTANT. Currently #1 on leaderboards for following prompts. It excels at cinematic realism, smooth movement, and character consistency. If you need a clean, predictable output, this is your engine.
  

• VEO 3: IMPORTANT. Google’s powerhouse. Best-in-class native audio sync built into the generation process. It is expensive but delivers realistic, production-ready quality. (Heads up: VEO 4 comes out in December!)
  

• Sora 2: IMPORTANT & FUN. The quality is absurdly realistic, and the fact that it is free and easy to use makes it the ultimate tool for viral content creation. High realism + low barrier to entry = winning formula.
  Note that Sora is only available in the following countries and you might need a VPN: United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam
  
  Here’s my Sora Video that has amassed OVER 18 MILLION VIEWS on Instagram and Youtube in less than just 1 Week! 😲

All it took was entering a simple prompt like this: vertical 9:16, 24‑fps, ultra‑real look; A ring camera captured a very fat man measuring 3x3 smoking on a balcony, and the balcony collapsed and fell in with screams.

And BAM! You’ve gone VIRAL!

📸 The Image & Audio Must-Haves

• Midjourney V7: The Image King. Still the industry standard for artistic, professional, and consistent image quality. The new Style Reference Feature (SREF) is second to none for maintaining style and character across hundreds of assets.
  

• Seedream 4: IMPORTANT. Need fast, cheap, and reliable high-resolution? Seedream delivers native 4K images at speed. Perfect for scaling up your asset library quickly.
  

• Nano Banana: IMPORTANT. Google's model is hyper-consistent and best for quick ideation and product visuals. Use it for rapid prototyping and editing, especially with the imminent V2 drop.
  

• ElevenLabs: IMPORTANT. Essential for any creator. Voiceovers and the Isolator feature for cleaning up recorded audio are non-negotiable for professional sound design.
  

• Suno: IMPORTANT. The best and easiest tool for creating high-quality, non-copyrighted AI Music beds for your video content.

The 'VERY VERY IMPORTANT' Future of Workflow

You can have the best generators in the world, but if they don't talk to each other, you'll never scale. The new frontier is workflow integration.

• ⭐ Flora AI (and Weavy/Freepik Spaces): This is where the magic happens. These platforms allow you to create full, complex workflows that connect multiple generators, analyze output, and manage prompt variations. Stop generating assets one by one—start building a generative pipeline. This is VERY VERY IMPORTANT.
  

• ⭐ Higgsfield AI: This platform's commitment to constantly shipping new features, coupled with its easy-to-use interface, makes it an essential tool for rapid testing and experimentation. A critical component of any effective AI workflow.
  

• ⭐ Runware AI: This is a critical infrastructure provider. Runware offers the best prices and stability, acting as an API provider for most major models that are then used by smaller, consumer-facing applications. If you are building any kind of generative app or large-scale pipeline, this is non-negotiable.
  
  

🔥 SECRET HACK: The FREE Midjourney Sandbox

You're a follower, so you get the secret weapon. You know how Midjourney's style and aesthetic are the best? Well, Meta has licensed that technology, and you can access a version of it entirely for free through Meta AI (via your browser, not the app!).

It's a "lite" version of the full power, but it has a built-in feature called "Style Reference Seed" that lets you apply a consistent aesthetic across your generations, just like SREF on Midjourney. Use this for quick, professional-grade concepts without spending a dime on credits. Go get those free, high-quality aesthetics!

The Final Verdict: Follow the Filter.

Keeping up with this pace is a full-time job. Don't waste your energy on outdated tools.

My job is to test them all so you don't have to.

Stay creative,

Phil Franco