AI Pulse – December 2025

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AI Unlocked for Promo: Canva’s Editable Magic, Gemini’s New Brain & OpenAI’s Smart Chat!
Smarter GPT-5.1 Models with Personalised Flair
OpenAI has rolled out its enhanced GPT-5.1 Instant and GPT-5.1 Thinking models. These new versions feature ‘adaptive reasoning,’ meaning they can decide when to ‘think’ longer for complex queries, leading to more accurate answers. Plus, ChatGPT now offers new customisation options for its tone and style, which will apply across all your conversations for a consistent experience.
Seamless Voice & Visuals in ChatGPT
ChatGPT Voice has been upgraded to a fully integrated experience. This means you can now effortlessly switch between speaking, listening, seeing images, and reading text all within the same chat. It’s like having a real-time conversation partner that understands and responds in multiple ways, rolling out globally on both mobile and web.

These updates from OpenAI mean your team can now interact with AI more naturally and get more refined, accurate content. The enhanced personalisation ensures that AI-generated text truly reflects your brand’s voice, while the integrated voice and visual capabilities make brainstorming and content creation faster and more dynamic. This is a game-changer for speeding up creative processes and client communication.

  • Use Case 1: Quickly generate personalised marketing copy for new promotional product launches. For example, instruct ChatGPT to ‘Write three engaging email subject lines and accompanying body paragraphs for a new eco-friendly water bottle range, in a friendly yet professional tone for ANZ corporate clients.’
  • Use Case 2: Use the voice integration to rapidly brainstorm design concepts for bespoke client merchandise. Speak your ideas aloud, and have ChatGPT instantly summarise them or suggest visualisations for apparel or tech gadgets.

Gemini (Google AI)

https://gemini.google.com/
Gemini 3: Google’s Most Intelligent AI Yet, with Dynamic Interfaces
Google has launched Gemini 3, hailed as its most intelligent AI model. This update brings significantly sharper reasoning, advanced understanding of multiple data types (like text, images, and video), and ‘generative interfaces’. These interfaces can create dynamic, tailored visual experiences directly within the Gemini app and Google Search.
Introducing Gemini Agent for Automated Complex Tasks
A new experimental feature, Gemini Agent, allows the AI to handle complex, multi-step tasks by seamlessly connecting to your Google apps. Imagine asking Gemini to ‘organise my inbox’ or ‘research and book a mid-size SUV for my trip next week under $80/day using details from my email’, and it leverages Gmail and Calendar to get it done.

Gemini 3’s enhanced intelligence and ability to process various media types means it can provide more sophisticated insights and content tailored to the promotional products market. The new Gemini Agent is particularly exciting for automating tedious administrative tasks, freeing up your team to focus on client relationships and creative strategy. Its advanced multimodal understanding will be invaluable for visual merchandising and campaign planning.

  • Use Case 1: Develop comprehensive client proposals by asking Gemini to ‘Analyse this client’s brand guidelines (from a linked document), recent marketing campaigns (from a website URL), and suggest 5 innovative promotional product ideas, including mock-up descriptions and potential branding locations.’
  • Use Case 2: Automate lead nurturing by setting up Gemini Agent to ‘Draft personalised follow-up emails for new enquiries after a trade show, pulling company details from their website and suggesting relevant product categories based on industry trends discussed.’
Imagination Era’s AI Magic: Editable Designs & Media Generation
Canva’s ‘Imagination Era’ update introduces a raft of new AI-powered tools within its ‘Creative Operating System’. Key among these is ‘Magic Media’, which lets you generate stunning images and videos from simple text prompts. Crucially, the AI now creates *editable* designs, meaning you’re not stuck with static images but can fine-tune generated elements, colours, and text.
Affinity Professional Design Suite Now Free with Canva
Canva has made its powerful Affinity suite (Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher) available for free with a Canva subscription. This gives users access to professional-grade tools for vector editing, advanced image manipulation, and sophisticated layout design, offering a comprehensive creative toolkit.

These Canva updates are a dream come true for the ANZ promotional products industry, especially for visualisation and design mock-ups. The ability to generate editable AI designs means faster iterations for client approvals and more creative freedom. Combining this with the now-free professional capabilities of Affinity, your team can produce high-quality, branded merchandise visualisations and marketing collateral with unprecedented speed and ease, even for complex bespoke projects.

  • Use Case 1: Generate multiple creative mock-ups for branded apparel or corporate gifts in minutes. Simply type a description like ‘Create a stylish branded polo shirt for a tech company, featuring their logo subtly on the sleeve and a pattern inspired by circuit boards, editable for colour changes.’
  • Use Case 2: Design comprehensive digital presentations for client pitches, using AI to instantly create engaging slides with product images, infographics from data, and consistent branding. Then, easily refine any AI-generated element to perfectly match client feedback.