Founder Kerby Martino on how exactly.ai has transformed his business

Kerby Martino has trained an exactly.ai model on the illustrations which his business uses across marketing campaigns, their website, and social media. He spoke to us about generating results in seconds that are usable and consistent with his brand.

Frustrations with traditional illustration

Let's be honest, photographs of coworking spaces aren’t the best way to build an emotional connection, so these illustrations are crucial for my business. They help me demonstrate what people can get from renting an office with incub8space.

We tried bringing people into the space and photographing them, but it was difficult to get a relaxed atmosphere—the illustrations offered the perfect way to convey the message of a collaborative and engaging space. Plus, the contrast of drawn characters in an office photograph is really playful and eye-catching.

So, I committed to this style across all our marketing materials and now I faced the challenge that I didn’t have in-house illustrators. I was consistently relying on freelance designers, and when those freelancers were busy, I had to turn to platforms like Fiverr. This led to unwieldy turnaround times—three days if we worked with someone familiar but over a week when working with a new illustrator because they had to adapt to our new style.

The longer I have to wait for illustrations, the more revenue opportunities slip away, directly impacting business growth. I'm still paying for the building and staffing costs, but I simply can't bring in more people, leading to missed opportunities for hosting new clients and expanding our services. It's frustrating because of course these illustrators are all fantastic - it is just a slow process - and I need a lot of illustrations.

AI felt like the perfect answer. I love working with talented illustrators, but keeping up with the volume and speed I need just isn't realistic without an entire army of them. Plus, most illustrators prefer to work in their own style, rather than adapting to my brand's specific look.

So I turned to other AI tools like DALL-E and Midjourney. However, these tools generated generic images and they lacked the ability to reflect my brand's unique style. While I could get line-art out of them, the subtle playfulness expressed in the faces of our illustrations was missing.

I had heard of exactly.ai before but hadn’t really connected the dots. One day, while searching Google for 'how to make your own AI model,' I came across it again. I gave it a shot and trained my model, but at first, I was disappointed.

Perfecting the model

The model did manage to replicate our style, and it was much better than either DALL-E or Midjourney. In fact, some results made it onto our website. However, I learned that line art is challenging for AI to master due to its need for precision and minimalism and subtle details. So, I sought advice on how to further improve my model.

So, who better to contact than the CEO!

As a coworking space we were mainly interested in generating images of people at work and boardrooms which the original model I had trained was struggling to get consistent results with. exactly.ai had updated their training process so they retrained my algorithm for me and I was amazed with the results - they were incredible.

Now what took a week can now be done in a matter of minutes, my company can update its website and generate marketing assets on the fly, saving us so much time.

Generating assets

I always make sure to be upfront with illustrators when commissioning their work. I tell them, 'I'm going to use this to train an AI model for my business.'

I've been met with mixed responses. There is a lot of scepticism in the art community, especially given the negative perception of AI tools like DALL-E and Midjourney and the fear of stolen images. Unlike these tools, exactly.ai allows artists to have control over how their work is used, providing transparency and giving them the choice to participate willingly.

I believe AI can be a force for good—especially tools like exactly.ai—because they give artists the choice to monetise their style. While I primarily use custom-trained models for incub8space, I see incredible value in using public exactly.ai models for my other ventures. These public models are perfect for finding a new artistic style, which I can use to make assets with the speed of AI.

My son, a 14-year-old illustrator, still isn't convinced that AI isn't some kind of evil overlord stealing from artists. He's incredibly talented and passionate—maybe a bit stubborn too—but I get where he's coming from. I keep reminding him that AI is just another tool, one that can empower creativity if used right. While I haven't convinced him yet, at the very least, it keeps our family dinners lively!