OpenAI
October 8, 2026
Startup
Pollo AI turns creative ideas into campaigns with OpenAI
With GPT‑5.6, GPT‑6 Astra, and GPT‑Image‑2.5, Pollo AI helps creators turn bold ideas into detailed images and cinematic video ads.
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Company size: Startup
Region: Asia-Pacific & Oceania
Industry: Technology, Media, Entertainment & Sport
Products: API
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Pollo AI(opens in a new window) was founded on the premise that people should be able to turn their creative ideas into finished images and videos without needing production expertise. Even with generative AI, creators and marketers can struggle to navigate different tools and choose between models to get the result they want. Some may even abandon their projects in frustration.
“We want to do for video what Canva did for design. We want to make it easy enough that more people can actually use it, not just the ones who already know how,” explains Bill Zhu, the founder and CEO of Pollo AI. Today, Pollo AI serves more than 26 million users who use the platform to create videos, ads, and visual content.
“As OpenAI’s models have improved, more of the workflows Pollo wanted to support have become practical inside the product. That means users can start from simpler inputs, spend less time figuring out the process, and get to stronger outputs more reliably.”
—Bill Zhu, Founder and CEO, Pollo AI
The team’s first breakthrough was video templates. Now, 30% of creator sessions start from these templates or trending-format workflows. Building on this success, the company’s latest offering is Pollo Agent. It uses OpenAI models, including GPT‑6 Astra and GPT‑Image‑2.5, to provide a fully guided workflow for video creation, including this post-apocalyptic adventure from a Pollo AI user.
Pollo Agent interprets the user’s rough ideas and visual references, and then develops storylines, scene flows, and scripts. CTO Peter Zhou says OpenAI models stood out for their ability to understand ambiguous creative inputs and their multimodal capability, sharing: “GPT‑5.6 performed especially well there.” The team also said they value the OpenAI API’s stability and release cadence.
To balance reasoning depth, speed, and cost, Pollo AI uses GPT‑5.6 for routing and GPT‑6 Astra for more challenging work, such as developing a narrative or planning scene revisions. This model mix lets the system match the level of reasoning to the task based on the user’s prompt. Pollo AI reports that users spend more than 50% less time choosing or switching models, giving them more time for creativity.
Pollo AI tests generative models against real user prompts and workflows, evaluating output quality, consistency, stylistic range, speed, and cost. GPT‑Image‑2.5 was selected to handle image generation, helping creators make posters, storyboards, and campaign visuals.
“If we receive any task from a user to generate an image, we always use GPT-Image-2.5. It’s especially good at working with different types of characters and letters.”
—Peter Zhou, CTO, Pollo AI
Pollo AI’s primary users are content creators, and the platform is especially popular for creating micro dramas with both AI and human actors. However, more marketers and business owners are starting to use Pollo AI to develop video content quickly and easily too.
Pollo’s Photo to Video Ads tool in its Marketing Studio suite uses OpenAI models to turn a still image and prompt into a short video. It’s designed to help small businesses and DTC brands generate product ads for social media in minutes rather than days.
One Pollo AI user wanted to use a product photo to make a fragrance ad that felt luxurious. The static photo alone could not convey that mood, and a professional video shoot was beyond their budget.
Using Photo to Video Ad, the user turned their starting image into a roughly 15-second video ad. The tool generated velvet textures, warm spotlights, and close-ups of the bottle to establish the mood across the sequence and ended it with the fragrance framed against deep red fabric.
Another customer, a jewelry brand, wanted a bold editorial campaign image, but its budget could not stretch to a high-concept studio shoot.
Using Pollo Agent and GPT‑Image‑2.5, the brand was able to turn its creative vision of its statement jewelry on a model seated beside a cheetah into reality. The tool framed the scene with dark drapery and warm lighting and ensured that the brand’s jewelry products were highly visible.
The customer got a finished luxury campaign visual with lower production effort, time, and cost compared to live shoot.
Pollo AI also makes it easy for customers to start with a product photo and leverage OpenAI models to turn it into an image that’s far more creative. For example, a beverage brand wanted its peach soda to feel playful and imaginative in an advertising campaign, but a standard studio product shot could not capture what the team had in mind.
Using Pollo Agent and GPT‑Image‑2.5, which brings sharper details and faster generation to creative workflows, the team transformed a simple bottle image into a snowy miniature landscape, complete with a train, lizards, and sparkling droplets. The finished image created a playful scene the brand could use in its campaign.
Pollo wants AI video to become part of everyday content creation over the next 12 months. For Zhu, that depends on making it even easier to turn an idea into an asset ready to post, test, or use in a campaign, something Pollo AI is enabled to deliver with the continued improvement of OpenAI models and image generation.
“We think the AI shift in content creation will favor products that make creation more repeatable from the start, with stronger formats, less trial and error, and a simpler workflow around the models themselves,” he says.
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