Black Forest Labs and BurdaVerlag have developed the first AI-augmented comic. Their case study demonstrates how AI was successfully integrated into the production process as part of the popular LissyPony series.
BurdaVerlag is enhancing its AI platform AISSIST by integrating enterprise-grade AI audio tools into core publishing and media workflows through a strategic partnership with ElevenLabs. AISSIST will offer industry-tailored audio solutions, spanning use cases from transcriptions, text-to-speech, audio production and many more, to the development of voice agentic solutions for internal and external applications.
Launched internally in 2023 and now used by over 2,500 employees, AISSIST became available to external companies in July 2025. The platform combines technologies from leading AI providers in a single, easy-to-use interface, supporting text generation and editing, document chat, translation, audio transcription, image creation, and automated multi-step workflows.
With voice integration, AISSIST enables users to tap into the frontier of AI audio research, powered by ElevenLabs, a leading AI voice research and deployment company. ElevenLabs develops AI audio models that generate realistic, versatile, and contextually-aware speech across 32 languages and power the conversational voice agent platform. This partnership combines Burda's expertise in publishing with ElevenLabs' advanced voice technology. Furthermore, both are collaborating to integrate conversational agents into AISSIST, making the platform more intuitive, accessible, and dynamic in the field of audio. As digital interfaces increasingly move toward voice, Burda is taking a decisive step to ensure publishing and media teams can adopt these capabilities quickly and effectively within an enterprise solution.
“We’re putting the engine for modern audio straight into AISSIST. It lets Burda’s teams create and scale content instantly, across formats and languages, with advanced voice and agent AI at the core."
Mati Staniszewski, Co-Founder & CEO of ElevenLabs
"The strategic partnership with ElevenLabs marks a milestone for AISSIST and our vision of a future-oriented AI platform. By cooperating with ElevenLabs to integrate audio tools and conversational agents, we are enabling an even more efficient workflow for our users.“
Rebecca Gottwald, COO at BurdaVerlag
