How to create AI Thumbnails for YouTube with Photo AI

Want MrBeast-style thumbnails without hiring a designer? With Photo AI, you can generate custom YouTube thumbnails in minutes featuring yourself anywhere using AI.

🧠 Step 1: Create or Select your model

Start by select an existing one you’ve already made:

Or create a new model first:

Go to [ Create new AI model ] in the sidebar. Upload around 20 photos of your model, this could be yourself or someone you’ve hired.

In about a minute, Photo AI will train a photorealistic, personalized AI model that looks just like them.

You can reuse this model for photos in the future.

🗂 Step 2: Open the “Photo Packs” Tab

Scroll down and click on the AI Thumbnail Tool photo pack. This is pre-optimized for bold facial expressions and high-conversion poses perfect for YouTube.

Tap the photo pack and confirm:

It will now start running the photo pack and generating AI thumbnails. Once it’s done it’ll look like this:

On purpose most images have bright colorful backgrounds that are easy to remove. Just this color as a background doesn’t make the thumbnail very interesting though.