Magnific CEO Joaquin Cuenca believes artificial intelligence is ushering in a new era of creativity, one in which AI serves as a collaborator rather than a replacement for human creators.
Speaking at the Upscale Conference in San Francisco, Cuenca described how Magnific has evolved from its origins as Freepik, a search engine for free images, into a comprehensive AI-powered creative platform designed to help users generate films, advertisements, marketing campaigns, and other visual content. The company’s recent rebrand reflects that transformation, signaling a shift away from content discovery and toward content creation.
Cuenca also outlined Magnific’s approach to AI agents, arguing that many agent systems remove too much control from users by attempting to generate finished outputs autonomously. Instead, Magnific has developed AI-powered workflows that break creative projects into a series of manageable steps, allowing users to guide and refine the process at every stage. The company is also embracing Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to directly access Magnific’s creative tools.
Looking ahead, Cuenca predicts that AI will dramatically expand the creative economy – the so-called “no collar economy” – by lowering barriers to filmmaking, design, and storytelling, allowing more individuals and brands to become content creators while increasing demand for creative professionals who can shape compelling narratives and experiences.
Core Takeaways
From Search Engine to Creative Platform: The rebrand from Freepik to Magnific reflects the company’s shift from helping users find free images to providing AI-powered tools that help creators generate films, campaigns, advertisements, and other original content.
Human-Centered AI Agents: Magnific designed its agents to create customizable workflows rather than finished creative outputs, allowing users to move faster while keeping control over images, videos, and campaigns.
MCP Connects AI to Creative Tools: Magnific’s MCP integration allows AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to use Magnific’s tools directly, turning the platform into a creative engine that can be accessed from multiple AI environments.
The Rise of the No-Collar Economy: Cuenca argues that AI will lower the barriers to filmmaking and other creative work, enabling more brands and companies to become studios and expanding demand for creative talent.
Key Quotes
Why Magnific Rebranded from Freepik
“For the past two years, we have been changing what we made at the company. Freepik started as a search engine to find free pictures on the internet. The name was extremely fitting for that purpose.
Then the last two years we have been creating tools so that people can create new things. So it’s a space where you go when you want to make a film, when you want to make an ad, when you want to make a campaign. So the name was not reflecting anymore what we did for our users, and that’s why when we changed the name, and it landed so well.”
AI Agents Should Assist Creatives, Not Replace Them
“Agents are usually architected in a way that takes away control from the user. You give the agent a long-term task, the agent executes on the task, and gives you the output. We thought that was not going to work for our users, for creatives, because people want to shape the ad. They want to shape the video, the image.
So we created an agent that creates a workflow that you can customize to make a film. We try to simplify work as much as we can, but still we want the human to be in control of what gets created, to shape the final piece, to give their opinion.”
Why Creative Work Requires Human Oversight
“If you try to one-shot the final video, you will find that there are many, many things in the middle that don’t work out. You discover them when you see the outcome. You understand that a few things were underspecified, or you were not clear, or the AI didn’t understand you.
It always works kind of 80% of the time, or 80% of things are there, but then you have no control over the other 20%. We create many, many little steps so that you can steer the AI to get to 100% of what you want.”
AI Will Expand the Creative Economy
“People thought that cameras were not a creative tool, that they were taking away creativity. It took us a few years to understand that the camera is a tool that people use also to express their creativity in different ways. With AI, it’s exactly the same. AI is a tool.
We think this new technology is going to allow many more people to enter the creative industry because it’s going to lower the bar. Brands will become studios. There will be many more opportunities for people that work in filmmaking. We think there’s going to be an expansion of the no-collar economy.”
