It's OVER for Thumbnail Designers

6 Oct 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:49

In this segment of his YouTube video, Eric Siu explains how he leveraged AI tools to dramatically improve YouTube thumbnail performance, raising click‑through rates from roughly 3.5‑4% to 7‑8%. He describes an iterative workflow where the first AI‑generated thumbnail often falls short, prompting a second, third, or even fourth pass, each taking about 5‑10 minutes. While the AI accelerates creation, Siu stresses that creators must actively refine and iterate rather than passively accept AI output or rely on others to do the work. He warns against a hands‑off approach—whether from a brand team or a boss—because without personal engagement the potential gains are lost.

Chapters

My click-through rates before were like 3.5%, 4% on a YouTube video. Not good, right? Now they're like 7, 8%, which is double the click-through rate, which is like 100 people see it, you know, 4 people might click. Now it's up to like 7 or 8 people, right? Which is when I have my, my little AI skills create these, these thumbnails, the first pass doesn't work, the second pass doesn't work. Sometimes, sometimes I need to go to the third or fourth pass, but I might spend 5 to 10 minutes, but the performance is a lot better. Um, and I'd rather spend that time than kind of just like waiting for the work to be done, right? So my point of saying all this is that sure, use AI, but at the same time, you can't just sit and not do anything, right? Which is kind of what happens— is happening right now when I look at my brand team and they're kind of like, they're kind of trying to figure out what to do. But also, if your boss comes in and kind of does it for you and then hands it over to you and you're still not doing anything with it, that's also not good too.