Workshop: Using ChatGPT & Claude Design for Podcast Cover Art

One of the hottest topics in podcasting right now is the use of AI generated audio.

The industry is grappling with the ethics and disclosure around putting an artificial human voice in your ears. Is the content any good? Do listeners like it? Should you tell them?

But producing a podcast is more than just the audio file. Cover art, chapter art, and other promotional graphics are key to setting the brand of your show.

Just like with audio, there are shortcuts to making AI generated artwork, and we've all seen the examples. On one hand, I'm glad small businesses are producing more marketing material for their Instagram feed. On the other, I keep seeing the same flyer design over and over. The same gradient backgrounds. The same isometric illustrations. The same vaguely 3D blob behind a sans-serif headline.

I'm not sure exactly how this affects user trust or the weight of a company's brand, but seeing the same design across multiple businesses has to have some psychological impact on marketing and advertising.

And here's the thing about podcast cover art: that square thumbnail is the only visual a potential listener sees in their feed. It's your entire visual brand to most listeners. Generic AI artwork in that slot is a different decision than using AI for a sales deck or a blog header.

I'm sure at some level the major audio platforms are scanning for AI generated episodes, but still not penalizing the creator like we see with YouTube. If that happens, scanning cover art and chapter art would be the obvious next step. It's the lowest hanging fruit for tagging a podcast as AI generated.

In my workshop video, I'll walk through using ChatGPT and Claude to create cover art for your podcast, and I'll work through the pros and cons of each, with a twist of how to produce more unique designs that aren't just shipped on auto pilot.

At the end of the day, you should think about three things: the impact AI has on your brand, how scalable this approach actually is for your show, and whether the output works for your audience.

Otherwise, you could just hire a human.