How to Generate and Edit Visuals in ChatGPT

Executives don’t care about photorealism—they care about speed, cost, and results.

OpenAI’s new GPT-4o image generation unlocks all three.

For the first time, business teams can go from concept to fully rendered visuals in seconds, with no prompt engineering degree required (actually that’s not a thing).

Need custom sales collateral? Done.

Want product mockups for investor decks? Easy.

Testing ad creative variants before spending $10K? Now feasible—in a Slack thread.
And because it runs directly inside ChatGPT, the barrier to adoption is virtually zero.

For leaders in marketing, product, design, and customer experience, the creative timeline has collapsed from days to minutes—transforming visualization from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage that delivers immediate business value.

How to Generate and Edit Visuals in ChatGPT

The new vision capabilities of ChatGPT-4o turn ideas into polished product images

You might have noticed the Ghibli-style images popping up all over the Internet. These images are being generated largely by ChatGPT and its new image creation capabilities.

Studio Ghibli is a renowned Japanese animation studio founded in 1985 by directors Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki. Based in Koganei, Tokyo, it's known for creating acclaimed animated feature films with distinctive artistic styles, compelling storytelling, and thoughtful themes.

Creating high-quality visual assets is slow, expensive, and heavily dependent on external resources—design agencies, internal creative teams, or freelancers. Most teams can't move fast enough to keep up with market demands.

GPT-4o’s image generation feature enables cross-functional teams to:

• Rapidly prototype product designs, packaging, or UI concepts before any code or spend

• Accelerate the production of marketing collateral, including thumbnails, ad creatives, and campaign imagery—no need to wait on creative teams.

• A/B test visual ideas before launching them, shortening creative feedback loops

• Localize visuals for regional markets in minutes

• Personalize outbound sales and customer success visuals at scale

Now add one more layer: direct natural language editing. You can generate an image and then say, "Add a red jacket to the dog" or "Make the background a cityscape at sunset"—no Photoshop or design tools needed. This bridges the gap between technical workflows and human imagination.

Here’s the prompt I used to create the feature image for this newsletter.

Create a wide image that portrays how ChatGPT creates images for business. Make the image photorealistic and look natural, with dramatic lighting in a modern office. 

Why GPT-4o Is Different From Diffusion Models

Most image generators (like DALL·E 3 which is OpenAI’s previous vision model or Midjourney) rely on diffusion models—they start with visual “noise” and iteratively refine it into an image. This process is accurate but slow and hard to manipulate after creation.

GPT-4o uses a unified multimodal architecture—it understands text, images, and audio in a shared context window. It can generate images more interactively and supports real-time image editing, making it closer to a more collaborative visual assistant than a static rendering engine.

This allows for conversational iteration, image history awareness, and rapid context switching—all critical for business users who want fast feedback loops and control without deep training in design tools.

How It Works Inside ChatGPT

Using GPT-4o image generation is simple:

1. Open ChatGPT (Pro or Team plan).

2. Select a model from the dropdown that supports image creation like ChatGPT 4o.

3. Type a natural language prompt like:
   “Generate a professional-looking product photo of a smartwatch on a white background.”

4. To edit it, just follow up:
   “Make the watchband leather. Add a reflection on the surface.”

All changes happen through conversation. No layers, no masks, no interfaces—just language.

ChatGPT, Photoshop for Non-Designers

GPT-4o doesn’t just generate images—it removes friction from idea to execution. In an environment where speed wins and visual content is currency, the ability to generate, revise, and personalize imagery with a few sentences is a competitive advantage. No creative bottlenecks. No production delays.

[Actually, I will say that the rendering process for an image is painfully slow, but much faster than trying to create one from scratch with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.]

If your team is still waiting on design cycles to test a concept or launch a campaign, you’re already behind. The next wave of operational efficiency won’t come from new hires—it’ll come from smarter workflows powered by tools like this.

You don’t need to be a designer. You just need to know what you want. GPT-4o handles the rest.

Optimized Prompts for High-Quality Business Images

Below are three example prompts designed to yield visually high-quality and specific image outputs for business contexts like marketing, UI design, and presentations. Each prompt includes a clear description and stylistic guidance, followed by a brief note on why it is effective.

Product Photo of A Smartphone

A high-resolution product photo of a new smartphone standing upright on a reflective black surface under studio lighting, with a dark blurred background. The phone has a sleek, thin-bezel design and its screen displays a vibrant app interface. Soft lighting and subtle reflections highlight the device's premium features, creating a crisp, realistic image—perfect for marketing—in a wide aspect ratio.

Why it works: This prompt is very specific about the product and setting. It mentions the smartphone's position, background, lighting, and even screen content, which guides the AI image tool to generate a detailed, high-quality result tailored for a tech advertisement rather than a generic phone image.

UX for a Finance App

Design a mobile app interface for a personal finance budgeting tool. Show a clean dashboard screen on a smartphone, featuring a summary pie chart of expenses at the top and a list of recent transactions below. Use a minimalistic, modern style with a white background, clear typography, and accent colors (blue and green) for charts and icons. The layout should look like a polished UI/UX design ready for presentation.

Why it works: This prompt clearly describes the app type, layout, and visual style. By specifying the content (charts, transaction lists) and design elements (color scheme, typography), it gives the AI concrete guidance to produce a realistic and polished UI mockup rather than a vague interface.

Professional Stock Art

An isometric illustration of a collaborative office workspace, created in a flat design style for a business presentation. The scene shows a modern open office with employees at their desks, a team meeting around a conference table, and a large screen on the wall displaying simple bar charts. Use clean lines and a professional color palette (blues, grays, and white) to convey a corporate look. The detailed yet uncluttered isometric perspective should clearly depict teamwork and productivity, suitable as a slide illustration.Studio Ghibli, Inc. is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has expanded its portfolio to include various media such as short subjects, television commercials and two television films.

Why it works: This prompt sets a clear scene and style (isometric flat design) with defined content elements. It provides details on what to include (people at desks, meeting, charts) and the color palette, helping the AI generate a coherent and professional illustration that aligns with typical presentation visuals.

Impact of ChatGPT Images

Venture capitalist, Balaji Srinivasan, notes use cases for ChatGPT images going forward in a Twitter post, recently. Here are some insights on how he thinks this new capability will evolve.

• Simplifying Visual Filters - The era of custom-coded Instagram filters is ending. Now anyone can transform images with simple keyword prompts like "Studio Ghibli," "Dr. Seuss," or "South Park" style.

• Revolutionizing Digital Advertising - Ad creation workflows can now be largely automated, dramatically reducing the time and resources needed to generate multiple creative variants.

• Reimagining Literature - Public domain books from Project Gutenberg could be transformed into comic book panels, making classic literature more visually engaging and accessible to new audiences.

• Enhancing Presentations - The days of bullet-point-only slides may be numbered as presenters can now easily generate relevant, high-quality images for any slide deck.

• Transforming Web Design - Placeholder images can now be generated in site-specific styles as visual Lorem Ipsum, streamlining the web development process.

• Integrating with Social Media - Soon, every upload button on social platforms could have a "generate image" option alongside it once the technology becomes more accessible.

• Changing Image Search - Image search interfaces will likely incorporate generative options alongside traditional search results.

• Shifting Creative Value - As visual styles become incredibly easy to replicate—even easier than frontend code—creative distinction will need to come from other aspects beyond just visual aesthetics.

BONUS: Vectorizing Your Clip Art

Now you’ve seen ChatGPT in action, what if you want to make that artwork usable for something other than the web? You need higher resolution and the ability to scale the image.

This is a common use case for me. I often create images that need to be scaled for signs and tradeshow booths. When you try to scale most artwork generated from diffusion models and other AI models is not scalable. That’s why I need vector images.

A vector image is a graphic composed of mathematical paths and shapes (lines, curves, polygons) rather than pixels. Unlike raster images (JPG, PNG), vectors can scale infinitely without losing quality.

Why Convert to a Vector Image?

Converting an image (like an illustration or logo) to vector format provides several benefits:

• Scalability: No pixelation when resizing for print or digital use.

• Editability: Easily modify shapes, colors, and components in tools like Adobe Illustrator or Figma.

• Smaller File Size: Often more lightweight for web or app use.

• Professional Output: Required for print-ready materials like posters, signage, and promotional items.

How to Convert an Image to Vector Format Using Vectorizer.AI

I found this website and I’ve been playing with it to vectorize my artwork.

1. Prepare Your Image

Ensure the image is high contrast and clean. Flat illustrations or line-based art work best (e.g., logos, icons, isometric designs).

2. Visit the Website

Go to https://vectorizer.ai

3. Upload Your Image

• Drag and drop your PNG or JPG file.

• Supported formats: JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF.

• Max size: 20MB.

4. Preview the Vector Output

Vectorizer will automatically process the image and display a preview:

• Left: original image

• Right: vectorized version

5. Adjust Settings (Optional)

Use the sidebar controls to refine the result:

• Detail Level: Increase for complex images.

• Color Simplification: Reduce to fewer color layers for easier editing.

• Smoothing: Clean up jagged lines.

• Background Removal: Optional for isolating shapes.

6. Download the Vector File

Choose your preferred format:

• SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) – best for web or design tools

• PDF – good for print

• EPS – compatible with professional print tools

7. Edit or Use as Needed

Open the vector in a tool like:

• Adobe Illustrator

• Figma

• Canva

• Inkscape (Free)

You can now adjust shapes, colors, and layouts as required.

I think the combination of ChatGPT and Vectorizer is a powerful combo for anyone with good taste—but without the technical chops to build from scratch.

I appreciate your support.