Fifteen-plus years turning creative problems into shipped outcomes
AI-integrated production, broadcast and editorial video, and brand systems, built with a product manager's eye for what actually moves the needle: views, speed, and adoption. The work below is craft and decisions, not just deliverables.
Traditional Media fused with AI
Replacing 2-Week Turnarounds with a Same-Day AI Pipeline
A DoD scholarship spot with no stock footage, no stock imagery, and no licensed talent. I built a fully AI-generated character, kept her consistent across three scenes with start-and-end-frame generation, and carried the spot through every government approval gate. Delivered in one day instead of two weeks, with the entire shoot budget eliminated.
The tools generate. The judgment about what to build, and what's still broken, is the work.
How I Built a Content Engine for 10M Organic Views
Built repeatable content engines at Cisco and Semester at Sea that drove over 10 million combined organic views with zero paid budget. I treated growth like a product: study what people search for, engineer the hook into the first thirty seconds, measure retention, iterate. Semester at Sea grew from 100 subscribers to more than 30,000.
Driving AI Adoption Across a GOV Consultancy
One of six people selected to help a VP deliver company-wide time efficiencies with AI. I ran discovery with multimedia teams across LMI's contracts, mapped their needs against FedRAMP-approved tools, and reported progress to the C-suite. The result, the Digital Backpack, became a company-wide AI resource that cut my manual content tasks 40 percent.
Replacing Two-Week Turnarounds with a Same-Day AI Pipeline
A Fully Custom AI-Generated Spot for the SMART Scholarship
THE CHALLENGE: The Department of Defense SMART Scholarship Program needed a promotional spot with three hard constraints: no stock footage, no stock imagery, and no licensed talent. Every element built from scratch. The traditional path meant travel to DC, several days in a hotel, contracting a director of photography and renting his equipment, hiring a sound operator, casting talent, and building three separate sets across a two-day shoot. Roughly two weeks and a five-figure production budget before a single frame was delivered.
MY ROLE: I owned the project end to end: creative concept, pipeline design, art direction, animation, edit, and finishing. I also carried it through every approval gate, presenting concepts and cuts in internal reviews with the program manager, the marketing and communications leads, and the Department of Defense contacts for the SMART program.
WHAT I BUILT: I designed a college-age student as a fully AI-generated subject and placed her across three scenes tracking the scholarship arc: applying for SMART, receiving the award and attending college, and beginning her civilian career as a STEM professional. Still images were generated and art-directed for each scene, then animated into motion inside Figma Weave, a node-based pipeline that keeps the entire workflow in one governed environment. Scene transitions used start-and-end-frame generation to keep the character visually consistent across every cut, the hardest technical problem in AI video today. Finishing was done in Premiere Pro and After Effects.
THE RESULTS: A fully custom, fully AI-generated DoD advertisement with zero stock elements, approved through the complete government stakeholder review process. Once the approved stills were locked, the finished video was delivered in one day against a traditional two-week timeline, and the entire travel, crew, talent, equipment, and set budget was eliminated. In market, the campaign drove a 27% year-over-year increase in completed applications, the second-highest lift of any awareness channel. The pipeline is now a repeatable template: locked character, locked brand treatment, new scenes on demand.
“I had the pleasure of working with Adam, where he brought my creative concepts to life through engaging, detail-oriented videos that elevated the program’s social media presence. Adam is not only highly skilled and professional, but also a friendly, collaborative coworker who truly understands how to bring digital content to life. He consistently delivered high-quality work aligned with our goals. I highly recommend him to any team seeking a talented and dependable multimedia expert!” -Kenzie G
Driving AI Adoption Across a GOV Consultancy: The Digital Backpack
THE CHALLENGE: A vice president at LMI was charged with delivering measurable time efficiencies across the company using AI. The obstacle was not the technology. It was that teams across dozens of government contracts were using different tools, did not know what was approved, and had no shared resource for what AI could safely do in a FedRAMP-governed environment.
MY ROLE: I was one of six people selected from across the company to work directly with the VP on the initiative. I owned the multimedia track: I went out to every group with multimedia positions across LMI's contracts and ran discovery interviews on what tools they used, what AI tools they had tried, and what they wished they had. I mapped those needs against what was FedRAMP approved, met weekly with the team on the technical build, and reported business development progress directly to the C-suite VP in our recurring reviews.
WHAT I BUILT: The team turned that discovery into the Digital Backpack: first an interactive SharePoint database of approved AI tools and workflows, later expanded into a full internal site. After launch, I went back out to the multimedia teams to walk them through the Backpack and the tools now available to them, closing the loop from discovery to enablement. Also, I made the site video.
THE RESULTS: The Digital Backpack became a company-wide resource, featured almost weekly in LMI's Blueprint email to the entire business. For my own content workflows, the AI integrations it enabled cut manual content tasks 30% manual content tasks, 20% database setup. The bigger result: a regulated DoD contractor went from scattered, uncertain AI usage to a governed, discoverable toolkit that teams actually use, built by listening to them first.
THE CHALLENGE: Two organizations, the same problem: Cisco's Learning Network and Security teams and Semester at Sea both needed sustained audience growth on video with no paid promotion budget. One-off viral hits would not do it. Both needed a content engine: repeatable production tuned to what audiences were actively searching for.
MY ROLE: At Cisco, I produced hundreds of videos across four and a half years covering networking fundamentals and security products. At Semester at Sea, I was Associate Director of Multimedia: I hired, trained, and managed the videographers and student assistants on each voyage, built the marketing plan before they boarded, and directed every edit in-house.
WHAT I BUILT: The same engine in both places: search-intent research driving titles and topics, a hook engineered into the first thirty seconds, audio quality treated as non-negotiable, and retention data feeding back into every next video. At Semester at Sea I also drove adoption of AI tagging across an 80,000-asset archive, improving search efficiency 50 percent with no added headcount.
THE RESULTS: Over 10 million combined organic views with zero paid promotion. Semester at Sea grew from roughly 100 subscribers to more than 30,000, with top videos passing 2.3 million views. Several Cisco videos remain among the company's top-performing YouTube content today. The lesson I carry into AI work: distribution and retention are systems problems, and systems can be engineered.
“Working directly with Adam as a Marketing Assistant and Videographer was a great opportunity for growth in my career as a young professional. Adam is an organized, consistent manager who also knows how to be hands off and allow the people he managers creative freedom and autonomy. He was always supportive and gave detailed, intentional feedback on each project I created. It was awesome to work with him!” -Brooke B - Semester at Sea
10M+ Organic Views Across Cisco and Semester at Sea, No Paid Budget
What people say about working with me.
“Working directly with Adam as a Marketing Assistant and Videographer was a great opportunity for growth in my career as a young professional.”
— Brooke B., Semester at Sea
“Adam Valuckas is an exceptionally talented visual designer, and he always delivers high-quality work on time.”
— Rebecca C., Cisco Systems
“Creative and personable, Adam has a keen knack for breaking down different multimedia tools for those of us that don't have those skills!”
— Koty E., Semester at Sea
“Working with him is not only productive but also enjoyable. He seamlessly integrates feedback and ideas, making the creative process smooth and efficient.”
— Yasmine A., Cisco Systems
About Adam
I've spent 15+ years at the intersection of editorial, enterprise production, and emerging technology. Built content engines at Cisco. Architected a 60-year media archive at Semester at Sea. Now I build the AI-integrated production workflows that modern creative teams actually need.
Most creative directors can't architect a system. Most systems architects can't art direct. I've spent a career building the fluency to do both and the last several years applying it specifically to AI-powered production.
MBA from Western Governors University. Adobe Certified Professional in AI-powered design. I also run @AdamValuckas on YouTube, covering AI tools and productivity for working professionals.
FAQ
-
Adam Valuckas is a creative technologist and AI production specialist with 15+ years of enterprise creative experience across Cisco Systems, Comcast, LMI, Semester at Sea, and The Baltimore Sun. He specializes in AI-integrated creative workflows, generative video, and the product thinking behind the tools that creative teams rely on.
-
A Creative Technology Director bridges creative production with technology and product strategy: art direction, visual systems, AI tool selection and implementation, content operations, and the workflows that let a team produce at scale. It's the rare role that needs both artistic judgment and systems thinking in one person.
-
Yes. Adam is open to senior, fully remote roles in AI creative strategy, creative technology, and product at companies building AI video and creative tools. Use the contact form to start a conversation.
-
Yes. Adam takes on project-based engagements including AI tool evaluation, generative workflow design, creator research, content strategy, and creative operations. Engagements are scoped per project. Use the contact form to start a conversation.
-
Adam works daily in node-based platforms like Weavy and ComfyUI, with image and video models including Google Veo, Kling, Midjourney, Nano Banana, and GPT Image, finished in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. He thinks in layers: orchestration platforms versus the underlying models, and which combination fits the job. He holds an Adobe Certified Professional designation in Firefly and Generative AI.
-
Case studies and work samples are at adamvaluckas.com/work. Adam also publishes on AI video tools and workflows at youtube.com/@AdamValuckas.