How Baidu’s AI‑Powered UGC Publisher Redefines User Creation Experience

Introduction

The industry is continuously exploring AI‑generated content tools, and AI‑driven creation is becoming mainstream. Baidu APP’s UGC Publisher AI reconstruction serves as a case study to illustrate how deep integration of AI capabilities with design thinking can systematically improve user creation experience and lower the creation barrier.

Design Strategy

In 2024, Baidu APP’s UGC Publisher received a full AI overhaul, adding an “AI Creation” feature that integrates with multiple publishing scenarios, boosts usage, and aims to become a smarter, more efficient AI creation assistant.

Creation Scenarios

1) Internal View

The publisher already has basic AI capabilities. Future work will enhance customization, model fine‑tuning, content regeneration, and deep editing to improve understanding of user intent, content optimization, and diverse creation.

2) External View

New generation AI models bring deeper reasoning and more precise user‑need detection, enabling AI to act as a true collaborative partner rather than a mere tool.

User Feedback

1) User Analysis

The current creation flow drives user participation and yields conversion results, but further improvements are needed in three stages:

Before Creation: Enrich homepage recommendations to better match user interests and improve conversion efficiency.

During Creation: Simplify the workflow by reducing operation layers and shortening paths.

After Creation: Enhance post‑creation feedback to encourage continuous creation and close the creation loop.

Design Opportunities

More Diversity: Offer multimodal rich‑media templates (image, video, text, topics, landmarks) and a modular content library to support varied expression.

Easier Onboarding: Provide new‑user guidance, inspiration cards, and one‑click generation to lower the entry barrier.

Clearer Process: After publishing, the system recommends inspiration cards for re‑creation, presents staged outputs to explain AI logic, and offers transparent feedback.

Core Interaction & Visual System Reconstruction

The AI creation experience is upgraded across three phases: pre‑publish inspiration, efficient in‑process creation, and instant post‑publish feedback, emphasizing staged thinking and feedback optimization.

Supporting More Diverse Content Forms

1) Multimodal Rich‑Media Templates

A modular library supports images, videos, pure text, topics, and landmarks, enhancing expressive richness and system extensibility.

2) AI Inspiration Cards

The AI assistant recommends themed inspiration cards based on user intent. Six card types are provided: Photo, Topic, Hotspot, Gameplay, Template, and Generated Content.

3) Thousands of Creation Modes

Five major gameplay types cover over a thousand diverse creation modes, catering to varied user interests and inspiring creativity.

Making Creation Easier

1) New‑User Guidance

Clear onboarding helps users quickly locate entry points and understand conversational creation, reducing learning time.

2) Inspiration Pull & One‑Click Generation

The AI assistant offers diverse gameplay and smart recommendations, allowing users to generate content with a single click, boosting efficiency.

3) Intelligent Editing

AI provides smart editing suggestions; users can apply them instantly to refine and expand their works.

4) Draft Saving

During generation, users can save drafts to avoid interruption, ensuring continuous inspiration.

5) AI‑Assisted Image Editing

Integrated AI photo‑editing meets the full‑chain need from basic edits to intelligent creation, enabling higher‑quality outputs quickly.

Building Clearer Feedback

1) Staged Output Presentation

The system breaks generation into visual stages, automatically collapsing completed stages and showing summaries, allowing users to expand any stage for detailed view.

2) Quick Publish Action

After generation, a single click publishes the content and immediately displays results.

3) Transparent Post‑Publish Loop

Publishing retains the conversation context, shows clear status, and guides users to the next creation round, forming a continuous creation loop.

Conclusion

The AI‑driven UGC creation paradigm shifts toward a “AI‑powered + user‑led” model. Baidu APP’s AI reconstruction focuses on real user needs, aiming to let every user express ideas effortlessly, move from “no idea” to “outstanding creation,” and enjoy the creative process.