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When it comes to creating engaging and entertaining videos, today’s problem isn’t a lack of tools.

It’s that many of the video creation tools available are too complex for the average user, have a steep learning curve, and generally require some kind of technical knowledge or previous experience to get the most out of them.

At least, that’s been the case until now. 

But thanks to powerful AI video generation tools, creating a video from scratch no longer requires a team of script writers, film cameras, and fancy video editing tools.

In fact, you can create a realistic and engaging AI video in just a few steps.

We’ll explain how to make an AI video in five quick steps and will even provide a pro tip on how you can produce a full video with just a few prompts and a powerful AI video tool.

5 steps to make an AI video

Never created an AI video before? We’ve got your back.

First, you’ll have to choose an AI video generator. Then, follow the steps below:

1. Write your script 

Step one is to create your video script. There are a few ways you can go about this.

The classic process here is to write the script yourself or hire a professional script writer from a freelancing platform like Upwork.

But since you’re already using AI to create the video, why not use an AI script assistant to draft your video dialogue? All you need to do is provide your AI script writer with a few prompts and let it do its thing. You can always jump in and edit from there.

But to further automate your script writing process, you may want to opt for an AI video tool that offers a document-to-video workflow. In Colossyan, for example, this feature allows you to get your video drafts off the ground more quickly by transforming your already existing content into a video draft in under 60 seconds. 

Document-to-video allows you to skip the script writing process all together. Here’s how it works: 

2. Select or custom-make your AI avatar 

Now that you’ve got your script ready, it’s time to choose your presenter.

In this case, look for an AI avatar, a representation of a human who will act as the narrator, host, or actor in your video.

Some AI video content creation tools let you add more than one AI avatar to a scene, using side-view avatars to create conversations between different characters. 

Spend some time finding the right avatar for your project and customizing it for your needs. You’ll want to think about your audience and what kind of avatar will connect and resonate. Many tools offer dozens of stock AI avatars with all different clothing styles, ethnicities, ages, and professions to help you do just that. 

If you’re creating a workplace training video for the health care sector, for instance, someone dressed in a nurse’s uniform or semi-formal attire is probably a better fit than someone wearing a T-shirt and hoodie or set of mechanic’s overalls.

Some AI video creation platforms even provide support for you to create your own custom avatar, allowing you to add your face and voice to your AI-generated videos.

3. Choose your language, voice, and accent 

Now it’s time to take a look at how your AI avatar sounds. How much you can customize this aspect will depend on the artificial intelligence video production tool you’re using.

Colossyan, for example, lets you choose between hundreds of different voices and offers some local languages for enhanced localization based on your audience. Videos for a UK audience can be outfitted with a British accent, for instance. 

You can even translate your video into over 70 different languages, helping you serve a variety of different audiences without hiring a team of translation experts. Plus, the translation process is fully automated, meaning you just need to click a button. No need to refilm scenes in a different language. 

4. Edit your video 

At this point, you’re almost ready to use your AI video generation tool to render the first version of your video.

But first, you’ll probably want to do some video editing here to polish up transitions, smooth out any audio issues, and edit dialogue to make the story flow better. You can also add additional on-screen text and images to further jazz up your video. 

Editing video is an art in and of itself, so if you’re new to editing, we’d recommend you check out our dedicated guide on how to use an AI video editor.

5. Generate your finished AI video 

Step five isn’t much work at all. 

Simply hit “Generate” in your AI video creation tool, save your video with a memorable file name (not “new_video_finalversion_#426”), and get ready to share, upload, or embed it!

Pro tip: How to make an AI video in one step 

Let’s be honest, creating a full video from scratch in just five quick steps is pretty impressive – especially when compared with the traditional process of storyboarding, filming, editing, sound design, and so on.

But there’s an even easier way.

We’ve already discussed how Colossyan’s document-to-video feature can further speed up this process, but the tool’s prompt-to-video feature is another way to create that same AI avatar video with just a few simple text prompts.

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For instance, if you enter “Five-minute introductory tutorial on how to use Slack,” Colossyan will automatically generate the corresponding video, complete with realistic AI avatars and background imagery.

You can use Colossyan to create the final video or as a scratch pad for working out ideas, which you can then flesh out using our AI script writer and customizable video creation suite.

Use a premade template to make an AI video

Another easy way to get off the ground quickly when crafting AI video is to start with a premade template.

Colossyan comes with dozens of professional video templates with diverse use cases like these:

• Data privacy
• Harassment prevention
• Sales training
• Strategic planning

Check out our wide range of video templates.

Making an AI video: FAQs 

Still got a few burning questions about how to make a video using AI? 

Let’s answer them right here.

How long does it take to make an AI video? 

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. 

You can create an AI video using Colossyan’s document-to-video feature in as little as 60 seconds. However, a good ballpark for most AI video creation is anywhere between 30 minutes and 8 hours, depending on your content. 

This is significantly faster than traditional video production, which can take five days of planning, scripting, storyboarding, scene design, editing, and audio engineering for just a few minutes of content.

Can I make an AI video for free? 

Yes, there are plenty of free AI tools available. 

When it comes to creating AI video, most professional, high-quality video generation solutions require a paid subscription. But many of them also offer a free version or trial option.

Take Colossyan, for example. Our most affordable paid plan comes at $19 per month, but you can try it for free to make sure you’re happy with aspects like video quality and customization.

What kinds of videos can you make with AI? 

You can use modern AI video creation tools to create many different types of videos.

Here are just a few of the most common AI video types and use cases:

• Synthetic AI video
• AI avatar and talking head videos
• Animated videos
• AI-edited videos, such as using AI to cut short video clips from long videos
• Educational, eLearning, and workplace training videos
• Employee onboarding content
• Sales and marketing collateral
• Product explainer videos 
• Music videos
• Internal communications and corporate memos 
• News and information 

Can I make an ethical AI video? 

That depends on what you consider to be ethical. In the context of AI-powered video, one major ethical concern is using a real person’s likeness.

For example, if you create a deepfake video using a celebrity’s face and voice, this could be considered unethical if you haven’t received their explicit consent to do so.

But that doesn’t mean that all AI videos are unethical.

Take Colossyan, our AI video maker. Every AI avatar in Colossyan is based on a real-life person. We pay real actors to create AI avatars (with their explicit consent, of course). We don’t generate AI humans from scratch.

You can even create a custom AI avatar using your own face and voice, eliminating ethics concerns altogether.

What is the best software for making AI videos? 

There are a number of great software solutions for making AI videos.

Some of our favorites include Animaker (for animations), Opus Clip (for repurposing long-form videos into short, shareable visuals), and Colossyan (for generating videos using AI avatars).

How do you convert text into videos using AI? 

There are a number of powerful AI tools that can help you quickly and easily turn text into videos.

Here’s what the step-by-step video creation process looks like in Colossyan, our AI text-to-video platform:

1. Draft your script (or have our AI script writer help you out).
2. Choose your AI avatars or create your own.
3. Select your language for the voiceover.
4. Incorporate design elements like brand colors and fonts.
5. Generate your AI video.

Make your first AI video for free with Colossyan 

Creating and publishing AI videos isn’t as hard as you might think.

With a powerful, user-friendly, and intuitive text-to-video generator like Colossyan, you can get off the ground quickly with a professional template, draft a great script with AI, and publish your first engaging video to your YouTube channel or company intranet within minutes.

Try out Colossyan yourself for free.

Creating talking head videos used to be a time-consuming and costly activity. You had to have some notion of how to use professional video recording and editing tools, and it took dozens of takes to get your dialogue perfect.

Now, thanks to powerful AI video creation tools, you can make these informative videos in a matter of seconds using a talking avatar. Some solutions even allow you to clone your own face and voice to create talking avatar videos with a digital twin of yourself.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the world of talking avatars and explore what they look like, when and where to use them, and how to create your own custom avatar for talking head videos.

But first, let's take a quick step back and look at what talking avatars are.

What is a talking avatar, and how does it work? 

A talking avatar is typically an AI-generated character or digital representation that generates speech from text input. They often display facial movements and hand gestures as well.

A talking avatar may be entirely a computer algorithm generation, or it may use a combination of photo and video to portray a realistic digital representation of a living human being. The best talking avatars tend to be the latter.

AI video generators use this powerful modern technology – including  AI protocols like natural language processing – to interpret and understand text, convert it to speech, and add natural inflections and expressions based on its interpretation.

What does an AI talking avatar look like?

AI talking avatars look just like real people. Well, the good ones do.

Here’s an example of one of Colossyan’s AI avatars, to give you an idea:

An AI avatar can show a full body, an upper body (as in the above screenshot), or just a head and shoulders. The presentation entirely depends on the software solution you’re using and your own preferences.

Your avatar presentation options will depend on the AI video tool you use. For example, Colossyan allows you to create scenario-based videos with avatars in conversation mode. Additional features like gesturing and customizable clothing allow your talking avatars to feel extra humanlike.

Why might you need a custom talking avatar? 

Many platforms offer pre-designed talking avatars you can choose from to help get your projects off the ground quickly. However, even with tools that offer plenty of options (Colossyan has over 150 AI avatars, for example), you may want a talking avatar that is even more personalized. 

If you’re in need of a custom talking avatar that looks a certain way, you may want to create a custom avatar of your own. This can be a great option for those creating corporate videos, as a custom avatar of a recognizable brand representative will allow you to scale your content creation efforts while still ensuring your videos feel personalized. 

There are a few uses cases where this may come in handy:

• Internal announcements from the CEO
• Customized sales messages
• Scalable YouTube video creation

With Colossyan, you have two options for creating a custom avatar. If you have access to a film studio with a green screen, you can create your own professional-quality AI avatar that can be used with any background. If not, our Instant Avatar feature allows you to create a dynamic custom avatar quickly using just seconds of footage.

Additionally, many tools – including Colossyan – support voice cloning, meaning your custom avatars will not only look like the real-life version of the person, but sound like them too. And, even if you clone your voice in English, you’ll still be able to translate it into 29 different languages. 

Where to use AI talking avatars 

The benefits of using AI avatars are far-reaching and extend to a number of different workplace settings. Here’s an overview of some of the top use cases. 

Employee training and onboarding 

Studies show that great employee onboarding programs boost long-term retention by as much as 82%.

The problem? Most onboarding processes are clunky, poorly documented, or non-existent.

Employee training videos using AI avatars are a good solution for this problem since they’re fast and easy to produce. They’re also easy to update when processes or reporting lines change. In other words, you won’t suffer the common problem of out-of-date training materials.

Marketing content 

Video is a powerful format to use as part of a content marketing strategy, and talking avatars enable you to produce these videos at scale.

Here are a few examples where AI avatars are useful in marketing videos:

• Product demo videos
• Scenario videos that discuss customer problems and solutions
• Side-by-side comparisons of your product and a competitor’s 

Sales enablement 

Sales enablement is another great use case for AI talking avatars.

You can use AI to create custom outreach messages for target prospects or support sales with product explainer videos.

Additionally, talking avatar videos are an engaging way to deliver sales training content because they move beyond the written word to provide contextual examples that help your salespeople develop skills.

Check out this sales training created using Colossyan: 

Customer education and support 

AI-powered video content can simplify complex concepts, encourage feature adoption, and boost user satisfaction.

You can use AI avatars to create a variety of customer education content, such as:

• A video-based onboarding sequence that introduces new users to your product
• A series of use case-specific videos to help customers in particular industries get the most out of your product
• Personalized customer support videos for better ticket resolution, especially when communicating with customers in a language that your support team doesn’t speak

Internal communications 

Finally, a talking AI avatar can be an effective way to distribute internal communications to your team.

You can use these communications to announce business updates, develop upskilling and training videos, or distribute messages in multiple languages.

If your talking avatar app allows you to build your own custom avatar, you can create videos for internal distribution that use your own voice and face for a more personal touch.

How to create a talking avatar with Colossyan 

With Colossyan, you don’t have to create video avatars from scratch. We have over 150 high-quality AI-generated avatars ready to help you craft engaging content.

Since we’ve based our avatars on real actors, you can’t customize aspects like facial features, but you can change their voice, language, and accent. Some avatars come in multiple versions, allowing you to use them in different contexts. 

Take our avatars Lisa and Ryan, for example. They both have multiple outfit variations – including more casual and formal options – available so you can use whichever option suits your use case best. 

But if you’d like to create an avatar based on yourself or one of our brand spokespeople, you can use our new instant avatar feature. Here’s how it works:

1. Record a 20-second video clip of yourself 
2. Clone your voice, or select the stock voice you’d like your instant avatar to have  
3. Preview your avatar and add it to your video scenes
4. Generate your final video product

Use your AI talking avatar to make your first video 

Now that you’ve chosen and personalized your AI avatar (or created a custom avatar), it's time to generate your first AI video.

Here are the general steps to follow to put your avatar to use:

1. Pick a template: The best AI video creators come with pre-built templates to help you get off the ground quickly.
2. Write a video script: You can either draft a script from scratch or use an AI script assistant to write one based on prompts. Some tools also offer prompt-to-video and document-to-video workflows to help automate this process as well. 
3. Generate a voice over: Your AI video generator’s text-to-speech function will allow you to generate a realistic voice over without having to touch a mic. 
4. Edit as required: You can review your video and make edits to the script, voice and accent, and AI prompts until you’re happy with the result.
5. Generate: Once you’ve successfully generated your new AI video, it’s time to share it with your audience. 

11 top features to prioritize in an AI talking avatar platform 

To effectively use talking avatars to create compelling training, sales, and marketing videos, you’ll need a quality AI video creation platform.

There are a few great ones out there, but they don’t all provide the same features and functions. Some offer basic functionality and quality, while others are incredibly realistic and offer many helpful features beyond simple video generation.

Here are 11 of the top features we’d recommend prioritizing when searching for an AI talking avatar platform:

1. Multiple avatars, voices, and accents: The most effective platforms provide dozens of different characters to choose from, as well as the ability to customize their voices and accents.
2. Languages and translation features: Instantly translating your video into multiple languages is a huge benefit for creating sales and marketing collateral that targets several regions.
3. Pre-built templates: More is better here. Templates help you avoid starting from scratch each time you want to produce a new video.
4. Support for multiple documents: You should be able to import a PDF or PowerPoint file to use as the background for your video. 
5. AI script assistant: You should look for features that allow you to answer a few simple prompts for a generative AI engine to create a full script.
6. AI prompt-to-video: Some solutions take prompts a step further and allow you to craft the whole video by answering a few questions about what you want it to look and feel like. This can save you a lot of time when creating a video draft from scratch. 
7. Side-view avatars: Most talking avatars are front-on only, but some tools like Colossyan have side-view avatars available, which allows you to create a realistic conversation between characters. This is crucial when creating scenario-based videos. 
8. Screen recording: Being able to record your own screen and overlay it with an avatar is invaluable for creating product demo videos.
9. Collaboration features: You should keep an eye out for platforms that offer shared workspaces, custom permissions, and commenting and tagging features.
10. Custom avatars: The ability to create your own AI avatar is a great way to align with branding.
11. Subtitles: Adding subtitles to your talking avatar videos improves accessibility.

Colossyan: Your source for AI avatars for training and onboarding

Talking avatars are a powerful modern way to create videos at scale. A good talking avatar looks and sounds fairly realistic but doesn’t come with the costs and time investment that traditional video shoots and edits entail.

Colossyan, our AI video generation platform, supercharges workplace learning content creation processes by helping learning leaders boost engagement while ditching the cumbersome old-school video production methods. 

Try it out for yourself today.

Structured content authoring is an important digital marketing tactic that any budding content creator should understand. With the recent rise of personalized, data-driven marketing, strategically structuring your copy during the authoring stage has become a crucial best practice.

In this blog article, we’ll explore what exactly structured content authoring is, why it matters for modern marketing efforts, and how beginners can incorporate more structure into their content to improve clarity and cohesion.

What is structured content authoring?

Structured content authoring is the practice of creating, managing, and publishing content in predefined structures or templates using XML and other markup languages. 

Unlike traditional, unstructured content creation, structured content is modular, so you can easily reuse, repurpose, and distribute it across different channels and formats.

Why having structure is crucial for scalable content creation

Enhancing your content presentations’ consistency and coherence can give you a serious leg up when producing content at scale – whether you’re a technical writer, subject matter expert, or marketing manager. By organizing information into standardized, reusable components, your teams can ensure that your technical documentation and other content maintains a reliable structure for readers.

Structured content also allows for more effective content management and scalability, especially for large organizations in life sciences and regulatory industries that need to ensure that their content is both accurate and easy to find. 

With structured content authoring, you can quickly search for and assemble individual components like product specs, safety warnings, and compliance information into new documentation.

The benefits of structured content for businesses

Investing in structured content won’t directly improve your content’s quality, but it will make your content easier to find, organize, and produce – and those are just the internal benefits. Here’s a closer look at how building structured content can benefit your business:

Greater content reusability and repurposing

One of the largest advantages using structured content is the ability to reuse and repurpose content components much more efficiently via single-sourcing.

For example, you can extract and reuse a product feature’s technical description in various pieces of downstream content like user manuals, support articles, product brochures, and even customer-facing blogs and social media posts.

You can also apply this to content localization. Your teams can quickly create localized document types to support your technical writing and ensure that users across the globe have access to the same level of support.

That’s one of the major pros of investing in structured authoring tools. Instead of having your writers create new copies from scratch across these formats, you can simply have them reuse structured content modules saved in a central component content management system (CCMS). 

This can save you a massive amount of time, effort, and resources while preventing duplication and inconsistencies across your content library.

Enhanced SEO and discoverability

Structured content also lends itself more to search engine optimization (SEO) due to its standardized format and built-in metadata. The ability to consistently apply keywords, descriptions, titles, alt text, and schema markup to reusable content modules enhances website and asset visibility to search engines and improves their crawlability and search rankings.

This content also helps automation and optimization scripts execute more reliably across site pages that share unified content structures. By analyzing the data on these pages, you can find high-performing content pieces that are ideal for repurposing using the templates your teams have already created. 

This also helps your authors see which key phrases and messages resonate with your audience, making it easier to create new content based on what’s already been successful in your business.

Streamlined workflow and collaboration

Now, let’s talk about time savings – or more specifically, how you can speed up your time to market with new content. The structured authoring process simplifies the processes of writing, reviewing, and approving new content by standardizing formats, components, terminology, and models across your teams.

Modern CCMS platforms also include intuitive collaboration features that can help you manage content versions, permissions, comments, workflows, and even translations to assist with content localization. By taking advantage of these tools, you can enable even large global teams to repurpose approved modules at scale instead of engaging in redundant review processes for every new piece of content.

Improved user experience and engagement

Since structured content separates format and structure from content using templates and modular components, it inherently creates a more adaptable and user-friendly experience. Your content will display clearly across devices and platforms with consistent presentation layers that use the same validated content source.

You can also improve your content personalization by mixing and matching content blocks that are tailored to different user segments’ needs and interests. By creating more targeted, relevant content instead of relying on generic one-size-fits-all copy across your pages, you’ll be able to more effectively engage your users.  

Tools to help you get started with structured content authoring

Ultimately, structured content authoring isn’t possible without the right authoring tools. And we don’t mean basic word processing software like Microsoft Word. There are several different authoring platforms that are available on the market today.

Here are some platforms we recommend you check out to start taking advantage of the authoring process:

Content management systems

Popular content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla offer built-in structured content capabilities to support creators who want to make their content easy to find, publish, and index across search engine result pages. 

With common features such as custom fields, taxonomies, reusable content blocks, and templates, these platforms can help you quickly publish and organize your content in one place. 

The best CMS for your business will ultimately depend on your budget and personal preferences. However, we recommend that you find one that offers the features above for the most effective experience.

Metadata management tools

Tools like Schema.org, Yoast SEO, and Semrush make it easier to incorporate metadata into your structured content elements. Adding metadata to each new content page enhances its SEO and ensures that its components are more discoverable online, which supports the overall content lifecycle. You can automatically apply this metadata using the templates in your CMS of choice to speed up the publishing process.

Content authoring tools and platforms

Here’s where the tools start getting a little more hands-on. If you’re serious about structured content authoring, you’ll need dedicated content authoring tools that help you execute your content strategy.

For example, tools like Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, and Kentico provide advanced features like automation and XML-based modular structures. These platforms also give content teams access to reusable content blocks, intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, and integrations with other CCMSs. In other words, they’ll have everything your teams need so they can spend their time creating content rather than wasting hours on technical work.

In addition to these established platforms, another noteworthy tool that significantly aids in structured content authoring is our very own Colossyan. 

With Colossyan’s document-to-video feature, you can simply upload a document with the information for your video, and in less than 60 seconds, Colossyan will generate a video draft complete with a realistic AI avatar, images, and animations to get your first draft off the ground.

Whether you create videos from scratch, a template, or document-to-video, using Colossyan will ensure that your video content follows a clear and easy-to-understand structure. This modular approach to producing video content with AI is similar to using templates in written content and promotes both consistency and easy content reuse.

From there, you can export video content to your learning management system and quickly build your company’s content library for learning and development. It’s really that easy. Plus, Colossyan even offers an AI assistant that can help you write and edit your script.

How to ensure that your structured content is useful and high-quality

Even if you’re able to get started with structured content authoring and produce content at scale, it won’t matter if your content is ineffective. Fortunately, the same set of rules that apply to normal content creation also apply to structured content.

You can ensure that your content is both high-quality and scalable by following these tips:

Conduct thorough audience research

Understanding your target audience’s needs, preferences, and behaviors with thorough research will directly inform not only your content’s quality but also how you structure your content across your site. Research-based insights help you ensure that your modular content elements align with your users’ expectations and preferences.

Develop clear content guidelines and templates

Developing comprehensive style guidelines and content templates are essential for maintaining consistency and high quality across your structured content pieces, especially for technical documentation that needs to maintain a high level of accuracy at scale. Within these templates and guidelines, you can lay out specifications for tone, formatting, terminology, and metadata schema for your content teams to follow.

Implement consistent content audits and reviews

Now that you have guidelines in place, you can stop worrying about content quality, right?

Not quite. Even after applying these guidelines, your content teams should still conduct periodic audits to assess your structured content’s effectiveness. Does it provide actionable insights? And does it require continuous optimization on a quarterly or yearly basis?

Along with user feedback, reference quantitative analytics to help you identify poorly performing content that you need to refresh or rewrite. These insights will equip you with the information you need to ensure that your content is never subpar.

Start creating structured content with Colossyan

With the right tools, you can start producing structured content in no time. And if you want to start leveraging video content in your business, there’s no better tool for it than Colossyan.

Colossyan’s video platform gives busy teams everything they need to produce high-quality AI-generated videos at scale. With its prebuilt templates, interactive video features, and customizable AI avatars and voiceovers, you’ll have everything you need to get started with structured content authoring.

Now, think about the challenge of maintaining this kind of consistency across different languages and regions. Fortunately, Colossyan allows you to to automatically translate your video content into over 70 languages – all while ensuring that the content itself stays the same.

Want to unlock the full potential of AI video creation and create scalable, fast videos for your business? Get started by creating your first video today.

If you’re curious what the future of video production looks like, look no further than AI-generated video. 

With advancements in generative AI, AI video generation has emerged as a more cost effective and efficient way to create video content at scale. No need for long filming schedules or costly editing processes – AI video generators allow you to create professional-quality videos in minutes. 

In this blog, we’ll walk you through what an AI video generator is, how it works, the benefits, use cases, and finally, introduce you to an industry-leading AI video generation tool you can get started with for free. 

What is an AI video generator?

An AI video generator uses artificial intelligence to automatically create video content without requiring human actors, filming equipment, or video editing skills. 

The inputs required to successfully use an AI video generator depend on the tool you’re using, but you may need text, image, or audio inputs in order for the tool to generate a comprehensive video output. 

However, some tools allow you to create polished video content by only inputting a prompt or uploading a document with the information you want the video to include. Adding an input is all you need in order to use an AI video generator successfully – the tool will add AI avatars, voiceovers, and subtitles for you. 

Understanding how AI video generation works

Generative AI is a relatively new technology, so it makes sense there’s some confusion and curiosity on how AI video tools actually work. 

When using an AI video generator, you might add your own script and have AI avatars serve as your narrators rather than using human actors. When you generate your final video product, artificial intelligence is what syncs your avatar’s lip movements to the words in your script. 

But on a deeper level, there are many different technologies at play in an AI-generated video. Here’s a high-level overview of a few of the key tech components: 

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

AI video generators use machine learning models that are trained on large amounts of data in order to understand textual inputs and pair them with visual concepts. 

Natural language processing is an important field of study within AI that focuses on the interactions between human language and computers. NLP allows AI video generators to produce natural sounding scripts and narrative structures that match the intended storyline. 

Text-to-speech (TTS) is an important subset of NLP, as TTS technologies allow for text to be transformed into natural-sounding speech that is used in voice overs and narration. 

Neural networks 

A neural network is a computational model that is designed to identify patterns and solve complex problems. Neural networks are a critical part of many different AI applications – including AI video platforms – due to their image recognition, NLP, and prediction capabilities. 

Some types of neural network architectures, such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), are particularly effective in producing high-fidelity images and videos, making them essential for video generation. 

3D modeling

3D modeling plays a vital role in AI video generators because it allows for the creation of realistic content featuring lifelike characters, such as AI avatars. 3D modeling is also what paves the way for interactive video content, enabling viewers to interact with objects in the video environment. 

Benefits of AI video content 

Not quite convinced to give AI video a try yet? Here’s an overview of three of the top benefits that come with implementing this new generative AI technology. 

More efficient and cost effective

Traditional video production is typically associated with long production timelines and high costs – two pain points that AI-generated video eliminates. 

Prompt-to-video script writing tools not only help make the process of coming up with material for your videos faster and more streamlined, but using additional features like AI avatars to serve as the talent in your content eliminates the need to hire actors and manually record them reading your script. 

In other words, AI video generators allow you to create professional-quality video content without even picking up a camera. Leveraging this technology is far more cost effective than traditional video creation, and also gives you the added ability to update your content in a matter of minutes without having to refilm anything. 

Allows for a high volume of video production

Planning, shooting, and editing video content can take weeks, which makes it incredibly difficult for organizations to scale their training video efforts. 

But by eliminating the need to manually film actors, AI video enables corporations and individual creators alike to rapidly produce high-quality content at scale. And because most AI video platforms have an incredibly user-friendly editing interface, your team can rapidly produce video internally without having to outsource video editing tasks. 

This way, instead of taking weeks to produce a video, AI video generators can produce a video of the same length in a matter of minutes. 

Highly customizable and personalized

When creating video content featuring live actors, there are natural limitations to the customizability of your content. 

For example, to create a video in five different languages, you’ll need five different actors who speak those languages to shoot your footage. And even if you have a multilingual actor, you’ll still need to record the footage in each language five different times. 

This challenge can pose huge cost barriers that hinder your ability to localize and personalize content to your audience. Instead, with AI video, your content can be automatically translated into nearly a hundred languages with the simple click of a button. Plus, you can further tailor your audio by adding different dialects and accents, or even consider AI dubbing. 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg for the ways you can personalize your AI video. Custom avatars, branding elements, and interactivity are just a few other ways people around the world are already using AI to customize their video content.  

Top use cases for AI video

While you might see AI-generated video on TikTok or other platforms, its use cases extend far beyond entertainment. In fact, there are numerous corporate applications for this technology that companies around the globe have already begun implementing to boost outcomes. 

Workplace training and development 

Too often, workplace learning and development consists of lackluster PowerPoints or outdated videos that haven’t been updated in years. But in order for training to be useful, it needs to be engaging and updated with the most relevant information. 

This makes workplace learning an excellent use case for AI video, and some tools – such as Colossyan – were built with this specific use case in mind. By taking advantage of Colossyan’s document-to-video feature, for example, thousands of enterprise-sized corporations have already started transforming their dull written content into impressive training videos that employees will actually want to watch all the way through. 

And best of all, updating this learning content when material changes no longer requires a large time investment. Simply click regenerate and you’re done. 

Employee onboarding 

New hires are often inundated with information during the employee onboarding process, which is why video is an excellent medium to relay material in an engaging way so that they’ll actually retain what’s important. 

Not to mention, AI video enables companies to routinely update and refine content as company policies or best practices evolve, ensuring onboarding materials are always current. Sleek, professional videos are one of the best ways to guarantee a top-tier onboarding experience for your new joiners. 

Here's an sample employee onboarding video created using Colossyan:

Sales enablement 

Sales enablement can be a large undertaking, although it’s one that can significantly boost your sales results – making it a worthwhile use case for AI video. 

For example, scenario-based training videos can be an excellent way to show sales representatives how to properly respond and make decisions in high pressure situations, but manually creating this content requires multiple actors and set designs. Instead, AI video tools allow you to create this type of content in a matter of minutes. 

AI can help you scale your sales enablement efforts, and incorporating screen recordings into your AI videos can also be helpful in keeping salespeople up to speed on the product they’re selling. 

Challenges and limitations of AI-generated videos 

Because generative AI is largely uncharted territory, there are a couple of ethical and technical challenges to keep in mind as you move to implement this new technology. 

Technology misuse 

Because AI can create video content around any input, there’s a large potential for misleading content. This includes deep fakes – which are often created maliciously to make it seem like an individual said things they never actually did. 

This can contribute to the spread of misinformation, which is why it’s crucial that AI-generated content is created responsibly. 

Video quality

On a more technical level, AI-generated content can sometimes feel overly artificial, sometimes sparking an “uncanny valley” feeling in viewers. 

Fortunately, many AI video solutions offer realistic AI avatars with highly synchronized lip movements to mimic actual human speech. This helps the content feel more human-like and less robotic. 

The future of AI video generation

While we can’t predict the future of AI video generation, there’s no doubt that it will be bright. 

New capabilities – such as interactive features like branching – will soon allow viewers to interact with their AI media as they watch, and allow the content to adapt in real-time to better suit audience preferences. This “choose your own adventure” structure will make it easier for anyone to create realistic scenario-based videos that used to be limited to video games. 

Simply put, the possibilities are endless and the potential for innovation is enormous. AI video generation is changing the way millions of people around the world are creating content, while also opening up new forms of storytelling. 

Get started with an AI video generator using Colossyan

Now that you’ve read up on all that an AI video generator can do, the next step is trying one out for yourself. Fortunately, you can try Colossyan completely free. 

Colossyan is an AI video generator that utilizes AI avatars as narrators, allowing you to simply input your script and allow a digital human to do the talking. Plus, Colossyan allows you to automatically translate your videos into over 70 languages and accents for better content localization.  

Our tool was specifically designed with workplace learning in mind, making it an excellent fit for employee onboarding, training, sales enablement, or communications. With over 150 avatars of all different ages, ethnicities, and professions, Colossyan supports endless use cases. 

Don’t just take our word for it – give Colossyan a try today. Or, if you’re looking for more information, schedule a time with our team of experts to learn more.

So you’ve decided it’s time to spruce up your online learning material. You want to ramp up content production, but you might not have the internal tools or expertise to do so efficiently.

That’s where authoring tools come in. This specialized software helps those in charge of eLearning and corporate training produce high-quality training materials at scale.

There’s no shortage of great tools out there, though, which makes choosing the right solution a major task in its own right.

In this article, we’ll help you find the right tool for your needs. First, we’ll explore the different types of authoring tools, help you determine whether you need one in the first place, and guide you through the selection process. Then, we’ll look at the 10 best authoring tools for workplace eLearning content production.

What are eLearning authoring tools? 

eLearning authoring tools are a specialized type of software designed to help you produce digital educational content. This content can be an animated or AI video, long-form written material, interactive visual content, or simple image-based content like a PowerPoint presentation.

Authoring tools come equipped with features that support learning content creation, such as the ability to create interactive content, integrations with learning management systems (LMSs), responsive design elements, templates, and compliance with content standards like SCORM.

Authoring tools, LMSs, and eLearning software 

Many people confuse these three kinds of tools for one another. While they all support digital learning and, in many cases, work together seamlessly, they aren’t the same.

Here are the main differences:

• An authoring tool is a software solution for designing and developing learning content.
• eLearning software is where educators deliver learning content and learners access it.
• An LMS is like an eLearning platform but with more comprehensive features, such as engagement analytics, advanced course management, and compliance and certification support. 

However, there is some overlap between these categories. For example, some of the best LMS platforms also offer built-in content authoring functionality, which may remove the need for a separate authoring tool.

Do you need an authoring tool? 

Before you start looking at the various options available to you, it’s worth asking whether an authoring tool is actually right for your needs.

Here are a few signs that you might need to invest in content authoring software:

• You have an eLearning tool or LMS that doesn’t have authoring capabilities.
• You are struggling to deliver training content on time or keep training content up-to-date.
• You don’t have an in-house content developer or instructional designer (and either don’t have the budget for one or aren’t interested in hiring one).
• Your team is growing quickly, and you need to deliver more training quickly. 
• You’d like to create more interactive, complex training content.

Do some of those apply to you? If so, eLearning authoring software may be right for you. Let’s take a look at how you can benefit from investing in one of these tools.

Also read: What Is Structured Content Authoring? A Guide for Success

The benefits of an authoring tool 

The biggest benefit that an authoring tool provides is the ability to deliver high-quality online learning experiences quickly and at scale. With specialized tools to streamline the learning course creation process and custom templates to kickstart content development, you’ll be publishing more online courses than ever.

Authoring tools also make iterating and editing existing content easier – which means you don’t have to start from scratch when you have a small update to publish.

The best eLearning authoring tools integrate with the world’s most popular LMS platforms and adhere to SCORM and other technical standards, making it fast and easy to publish new learning content.

Types of authoring tools and their uses 

One of the tricky things about finding the right authoring tool for your needs is that no two software solutions are equal.

We can, however, break them up into a few different categories:

Cloud-based vs. on-site tools

Most of today’s solutions are cloud-based authoring tools, meaning you can access them from any web browser.

There are, however, a few offline solutions out there, which means you’d need to install them on your device and ensure compatibility with your operating system (such as Microsoft Windows or Mac OS).

Stand-alone vs. built-in authoring tools

Stand-alone authoring tools are software solutions that specifically help with eLearning course creation. They might integrate with other platforms, but they don’t offer other features like a learner-facing portal.

Built-in authoring tools are the opposite of stand-alone tools – they are authoring suites built into an existing software solution with a broader feature set. Typically, you’ll find these in LMSs, which are a natural fit for built-in content authoring tools.

HTML5 vs. Flash authoring tools 

HTML5 and Flash are two different “languages,” or technologies, for creating content.

Flash was common in the past, but HTML5 is more effective today. It’s easier to use, offers better support for multimedia formats, works better on mobile devices, and provides greater security and accessibility.

You shouldn’t need to know how to code in either of these languages because the best content authoring tools provide intuitive user interfaces and often use drag-and-drop elements to reduce the learning curve.

What you should do, though, is opt for an HTML5-enabled tool.

AI authoring tools

AI is steadily integrating into learning content authoring software. While some legacy tools are beginning to use AI to speed up workflows, others use AI as their foundation for content creation.

Colossyan, for instance, is an AI video generation platform specifically designed for workplace learning use cases, such as employee onboarding. Colossyan uses realistic AI avatars to generate interactive videos across many different workplace scenarios, which makes it an incredibly useful AI authoring tool. 

Interactive content authoring tools 

Interactive content authoring tools allow you to produce learning content that learners can engage with directly. Rather than passively consuming content, such as watching a video, interactive content users can complete quizzes, engage in simulations and assessments, or navigate branching scenarios (sort of like a “choose your own adventure” story).

Gamified content authoring tools 

Some content authoring tools offer gamification features to improve learner engagement, such as quizzes and challenges.

However, you’ll need to implement other gamification features – like points, scoring, and leaderboards – in your LMS to make this strategy effective.

How to choose the right authoring tool 

Ready to look for your first authoring tool? Start by following these six simple steps:

1. Determine your content creation needs

Your first step is to clarify what you’re looking for from an authoring tool. Do you need to create interactive videos, infographics, or gamified training? Does your content need to be SCORM compliant, and does it need to support mobile learning? Does the authoring tool need to integrate with any existing software tools?

Create a checklist of key requirements and features to reference as you consider your options.

2. Prioritize key features

Next, comb through your list and highlight any nonnegotiable features. You can cross off any authoring tools that fall short of offering these features. 

3. Consider compatibility and integrations

As you start shortening your list of potential solutions, look at their compatibility with other tools.

For example, do you need your authoring tool to integrate natively with your LMS? Or are you fine with exporting content from your authoring tool and manually importing it into your LMS? 

4. Look into collaboration features

You’ll next want to consider how each authoring tool supports collaboration, especially if multiple members of your team will need to create content within the tool. 

Take Colossyan, for example. Our AI video authoring tool provides a number of powerful collaboration features like custom shared workspaces, adjustable user permissions, and commenting capabilities. 

5. Assess pricing

Now, it’s time to start looking at pricing. Most authoring tools require a monthly subscription, but you should pay attention to content creation limitations and choose a plan that fits your needs.

Pricing for Colossyan, for instance, changes based on how many minutes of video you wish to generate each month.

6. Test and trial

At this point, you’ve probably either chosen an authoring tool or created a shortlist of two or three potential options.

Many software providers will offer a free trial (check out ours here). A trial is a great way to see what value the tool provides and make sure you’re happy with aspects like usability and user-friendliness.

Once you’ve finished your trial, all that’s left to do is sign up for a paid plan and set your training content production into full swing.

10 eLearning authoring tools to consider 

Now that we’ve covered what you need to consider when evaluating a new authoring tool, it’s time to better understand the options out there. 

Without further ado, here are the 10 best eLearning authoring tools you’ll want to consider. 

1. Colossyan

‍

Colossyan is our generative AI video authoring solution. It's the perfect tool for content creators looking to create learning materials with AI avatars.

With a user-friendly interface, dozens of premade templates, and over 100 different voices and accents for customized voiceovers, Colossyan can help you produce realistic video content at scale. 

This allows learning and development teams to not only create content quickly, but to create better content. Plus, using AI avatars means you won’t need to rerecord your videos when material changes. Instead, simply update your script and regenerate your video.

Here are just a few of the advanced features on offer for content authoring:

• Over 150 high-quality AI avatars, plus the ability to create your own custom avatar
• Hand gestures to add context to video tutorials
• A built-in screen recording tool
• Text-to-speech, text-to-video, and document-to-video workflows
• Automatic subtitles and captions
• Translation into 100+ languages and dialects 
• Interactive features like multiple choice quizzes
• Side-view avatars for more realistic conversational scenarios 
• A collaborative digital workspace for content production
• SCORM export 

All of this starts at just $19 per month.

2. Articulate Storyline 360

Storyline 360 is a simplified tool from Articulate, an eLearning and content creation platform. It's well-known for its ease of use, customizable templates, and interactive content elements like quizzes and clickable hotspots.

3. iSpring Suite 

iSpring Suite is an eLearning authoring tool with a Microsoft PowerPoint-inspired interface. If you’re accustomed to PowerPoint, you’ll be able to use iSpring Suite without issue since its layout is almost exactly the same.

An LMS called iSpring Learn is also available, so if you buy both, you can benefit from a single monthly bill and seamless integration between the two.

4. Vyond 

If you’re looking to use animations as your main learning content format, Vyond is the authoring tool for you. You don’t need to have any technical animation experience to use it since it’s specifically for non-designers. Vyond also offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, as well as a vast library of predesigned assets.

5. BranchTrack 

BranchTrack excels in its ability to create interactive learning content, especially for branching scenarios where the learner’s experience depends on how they interact with the content. This tool supports SCORM and xAPI standards and also integrates with a number of popular LMS tools, which makes content delivery easy.

6. Kotobee Author 

Kotobee Author is an authoring tool for creating interactive ebooks and EPUBs. You can import existing written content, such as a PDF or Word document, and start editing, formatting, and adding interactive elements such as questions, widgets, video and audio, and clickable images. 

7. Classcraft

Classcraft is an authoring tool for the educator that focuses specifically on classroom learning. It’s known for offering engaging gamification features and integrating with a wide variety of education-centric software tools. It also provides behavioral management functionality and support for parent engagement.

8. Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate is a leader in virtual reality learning content. It allows you to create immersive, 360-degree content that adds a unique experience to your learning materials.

9. Chameleon Creator 

Chameleon Creator offers both content authoring and hosting on a single platform, which makes it a great all-in-one solution for ease of use. It’s also SCORM compliant and offers reporting functionality to help you understand how students are progressing and how you can deliver more engaging, effective learning content. 

10. CourseLab 

CourseLab is one of the few free authoring tools out there. Its functionality is a bit more limited than other options on this list, but its “what you see is what you get” editor makes authoring learning content fairly easy. It’s also compliant with both SCORM and Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee standards.

Colossyan: The video content authoring tool for all your needs

Authoring tools are critical to have in your learning management toolkit, whether you use them to produce animated videos, interactive infographics, or multimedia content.

If you’re planning on using video content, consider Colossyan for your needs. It’s one of the most accessible and affordable platforms around for creating realistic, interactive, and engaging AI-powered videos.

Don’t just take our word for it – check it out for yourself today.

Video is a fantastic medium for delivering employee training, whether it’s for onboarding or continuing development. 

However, creating training videos can be time-consuming, costly, and just plain difficult to manage in-house. For that reason, many businesses turn to dedicated training video production companies to plan, film, and edit workplace training materials.

But where should you turn? And if you don’t have the budget to employ a full scale training video production company, what are your options? 

In this article, we’ll help you answer both of those questions. We’ll discuss 10 of the best training video production companies around, dive into the common alternatives to a video production partner, and explore how AI video production can be a game-changer for creating employee training content.

The top 10 training video production companies 

Each of these 10 training video production companies offers a unique spin on the concept. Some produce animated videos, some focus on film production, and some can even support wider video marketing efforts like product demo video creation.

1. Colossyan 

Unlike the other training video production companies on this list, Colossyan utilizes generative AI to help corporate teams create top-notch training content using AI avatars and voiceovers. 

This makes Colossyan an extremely cost efficient option, as you won’t need to hire actors, editors, and directors to produce your video content. You can also say goodbye to long timelines typically associated with video production, as all you need to do is select a template, add your script, and you’ll have a professional-quality video generated in just a few minutes. 

The benefits of leveraging AI for your training videos doesn’t end there. Need to create video content in more than one language? With Colossyan, you can translate your videos to over 70 languages in just a click. 

Other key features include: 

• Document to video: Upload any training document to transform it into a visually engaging video. 
• Interactivity: Check that your trainings are effective by adding knowledge checks to your content.
• Conversation mode: Add multiple AI avatars to conversational scenes for realistic scenario-based training. 
• Avatar hand gestures: Highlight important parts of your training and increase engagement with gestures. 

Big-name brands like Novartis, Paramount, and Continental are already using Colossyan to create corporate video content. Interested in learning more? Schedule a demo today. 

2. Venture 

Venture offers training video production services specifically for SaaS companies and fintech companies.

Beyond professional training video production, the agency also creates animated explainer videos and videos for social media ads.

Venture’s client list includes international brands like Box, Eurostar, and Amazon. The company can support a wide range of tasks beyond shooting, including scripting and storyboarding.

3. OneDay

OneDay is a personalized video automation platform that helps businesses create videos for marketing, sales, customer support, and internal training.

The platform offers some helpful back-end analytics for understanding how employees are engaging with your training content, which opens up the opportunity to provide additional personalized training to those who might be struggling with the material.

OneDay also includes a number of thoughtful features that aid video creation, such as:

• A live teleprompter
• A script generator 
• Customizable themes and music tracks 

4. NextThought 

NextThought is a corporate training video production company that can assist with video content production across various use cases, such as safety training, new employee onboarding, and corporate communications.

What makes NextThought a unique option for creating effective corporate training videos is that it provides access to subject matter experts in various industries who can star in your videos and lend a trusted face and voice to your workplace learning content.

NextThought primarily serves customers in the following industries:

• Healthcare
• Logistics and trucking
• Non-profit
• Telecommunications
• Consumer goods and retail
• Manufacturing and construction 

5. Demo Duck

Demo Duck is a corporate video production company with a diverse range of services. 

Demo Duck specializes in training videos, assisting with both corporate learning content – such as retail training videos – and e-learning platform content. Demo Duck also offers both live-action and animated videos, as well as a unique twist that blends the two formats into one.

For example, Demo Duck helped Newsela, an e-learning content and assessment platform, create a hybrid animated live-action video:

6. Vidico

Vidico is a popular video production company that has helped enterprise companies like Square, Spotify, and Airtable create training videos, crowdfunding videos, social media content, product walkthrough videos, and more.

What makes Vidico a unique option is its breadth of available video types. Yes, Vidico can serve your immediate need to create employee training videos, but it can also be a suitable option for other content types, such as customer case studies or testimonial videos, down the line.

One interesting service that Vidico offers is a free video marketing plan. After you provide a few pieces of information, you can take a simple quiz to help you determine what video marketing tactics would work best for you.

7. Inrehearsal

Inrehearsal takes a very different approach to video content. Rather than solely providing video production services, the platform instead helps companies manage workplace learning. Think of it as a Masterclass or Netflix for crowdsourced internal training videos.

Inrehearsal itself also heavily invests in content development, from video training to podcasts to curated events, and partners with industry experts and thought leaders to do so.

8. Blue Carrot 

Blue Carrot is a media production agency that creates marketing and ad videos, animated explainer videos, and e-learning and training videos. The company’s offering appears to focus more on animation, though it also offers live-action video filming and editing.

This agency uses a waterfall project management methodology that supports you in early-stage activities, such as instructional design and storyboarding, and owns video production and voice recording.

To run this process, Blue Carrot provides all its clients with a team of experts, including a creative producer, a sound designer, and a storyboard artist.

9. Archipelago Productions 

Archipelago Productions is a Canadian video production studio with a wide variety of specialties, including:

• E-learning video production
• Case studies
• Product ads
• Social media campaigns 
• Corporate communications 

A major e-learning campaign that Archipelago Productions has supported is the Shopify Plus Academy. The studio designed this video series to help Shopify Plus merchants expand their knowledge of ecommerce and online sales.

Beyond video production, Archipelago Productions can also support pre-production tasks like concept development and wardrobe design, as well as post-production activities like sound design and color grading.

10. Yum Yum Videos

Yum Yum Videos is an animated explainer video production agency. One of the benefits of working with animated video is that it's easy to edit and update as internal policies or processes change.

While its main focus is on creating customer-facing explainer videos that help potential buyers get a feel for how your product or service works, the agency can also support internal training videos.

Yum Yum Videos has over 12 years of experience in the video production game and a solid international portfolio of enterprise-grade companies, including American Express, Google, and RedBull.

Alternatives to a training video production company 

Not convinced that outsourcing to a training video production company is the right move for you? Here are four alternative options that many organizations find success with:

1. Build an in-house team 

Putting together an in-house video production team will give you much more control over the video creation process.

At high production volumes, creating videos in-house can be more cost-effective than outsourcing to an agency, especially if you rent equipment. However, most organizations don’t produce training videos often enough to justify the time and financial investment required to set up a team with sufficient expertise and experience.

It’s a double-edged sword. Assembling an in-house team requires a large investment in terms of both equipment and employee development. The upside, though, is that you end up with better-equipped staff, which leads to a more engaged and capable workforce.

2. Work with freelancers and contractors 

If you’re confident in planning and orchestrating the video production process, then you might be able to create effective, high-quality videos using contract workers and freelancers.

These contractors are likely to be highly specialized in a given role, such as manning the camera or editing your footage into a final clip. As such, you’ll need to manage several heads and be confident in overseeing the process from ideation to final approval.

3. Try your hand with students 

Film students present a more affordable option that can produce decent results – depending, of course, on your goals and the students’ experience level. Plus, you can help film students gain valuable hands-on experience in the process. 

Again, you’ll need to be confident in managing the whole process and will likely need to bring some of your own video production experience to the table since film students are still learning.

However, this can be a great option if your budget is limited or if you’re looking to create some demo videos to use as inspiration for a more professional production down the line.

4. Leverage AI video production tools 

Perhaps the best alternative to working with a training video production company is to leverage modern AI video generation tools. 

For instance, with Colossyan, our AI video creator for workplace training, you can:

• Generate a full video from only a few prompts
• Choose from over 150 diverse avatars to align with your audience demographics
• Use an AI assistant to create or edit a video script
• Record your screen to demonstrate how to use workplace software
• Produce compelling voice-overs for your training videos in a range of accents and languages
• Increase interactivity by implementing regular knowledge checks

AI video is a solid alternative to traditional training video films, and a much more affordable and time efficient option that can be used by your internal team. In fact, many AI video generators have an easy-to-use interface that even allows those with no video editing experience to create professional-quality videos. 

Let’s explore when and where generative AI tools can be useful during the training video production process. 

Does AI video make sense for your training? 

Many companies create employee training videos using the traditional video production process. You create a storyboard, film each shot, edit the shots together, and add voice-overs, soundtracks, and maybe even effects in post-production.

The problem with this standard approach is that it’s costly and can be far too slow to be effective. Often, by the time the video is ready to roll out, the information within it is already out-of-date.

That’s where AI video generation wins.

To understand whether AI video is the right choice for you, ask yourself these questions:

• Are we spending more than we would like on training video production?
• Is the training video production process long and cumbersome?
• Are some of our training videos already outdated?
• Would we create more training videos to better support our team if video production were faster and more cost-effective?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then AI video generation is likely a good option for you and may be an effective alternative to hiring a video production agency.

Colossyan: Your solution for efficient training video production

Partnering with a training video production company is a great way to produce professional-quality training content without investing in video equipment or hiring employees with the right expertise and experience. It can, however, be a costly and time-consuming exercise, and it often means you end up with training content that’s out-of-date and too expensive to update each time a process or role changes.

AI video generation platforms like Colossyan present a more affordable, agile, and realistic alternative for today’s fast-paced brands. With Colossyan, you can quickly start with our pre-built templates, add and enforce internal brand guidelines, and even deliver training content in several languages and accents at once. Plus, Colossyan allows you to create scenario-based training videos in minutes – allowing you to boost learning outcomes in the process.

Discover how Colossyan can help you deliver better training videos in hours, not weeks.

Interested in learning how to create engaging videos with the help of artificial intelligence? You’ve come to the right place. 

In this article, we’ll show you exactly how you can leverage AI avatars to generate high-quality text to speech videos at scale. 

What is text to speech?

Text to speech (TTS) is a technology that transforms written words into spoken language. But that’s just the high-level overview. AI text to speech technology also enables users to audibly present text-based material that caters to those who struggle with reading or simply prefer listening to information. 

Text to speech has a variety of other uses, too, including generating voiceovers for videos, providing audio output for those who are blind, and improving the accessibility of digital content.

How does text to speech work?

Converting written text into natural-sounding speech requires sophisticated computer algorithms and synthetic AI voices working together in tandem. This is what the TTS process looks like from start to finish: 

Upon receiving written input from the user in the form of documents, web pages, or other text-based content, the TTS system first analyzes the text on multiple levels. Then, it examines the synthesis of the audio for factors such as sentence structure, punctuation, and formatting to determine the appropriate pronunciation and intonation for each word and phrase. 

Finally, once you wrap up the text analysis, a TTS system can narrate the text using pre-recorded or computer-generated human voices based on your preferred language and voice characteristics.

The benefits and applications of text to speech

Text to speech has proven invaluable across multiple domains due to its diverse benefits and use cases. Here’s a closer look at two key advantages: 

Improves content accessibility 

A primary advantage is its ability to promote accessibility by allowing those with visual impairments or reading difficulties equal access to written information through synthesized audio. 

It can also serve as an assistive technology by aiding those with learning disabilities, dyslexia, or cognitive impairments through enhanced reading comprehension, proofreading support, and overall literacy development. 

Improves content scalability with digital avatars

While you can use text to speech technology to create voice overs for your video content, you can also create realistic video content at scale by pairing a text-to-speech voiceover with a digital avatar, which can be used to replace human actors in your video content. 

The advantage of text to speech avatars is you can update their script in seconds, without needing them to memorize a new script or manually refilm video footage. 

How to easily make text to speech avatar videos

Using a talking avatar today is much easier than it was just a few years ago. And, as a result, the global text to speech market is growing at a rapid pace; in 2021, the industry was valued at $2.8 billion and is projected to reach $12.5 billion by 2031.

You don’t need to craft the perfect text prompt or write code to create an AI presenter. Instead, with a dedicated AI avatar tool like Colossyan, all you have to worry about is the creative process – such as whether you want to use custom avatars or prebuilt avatars. 

Colossyan allows you to choose from a diverse library of premade AI avatars that match your target audience, or you can create your own custom avatar from scratch. 

From there, you’ll add your script to Colossyan’s text to speech generator, which will instantly produce high-quality audio of the avatar “reading” the words aloud with the avatar lip-syncing with the audio in real time, making your videos more visually realistic. 

Now that we’ve walked through this process at a high level, let’s take a closer look at how you can use one of Colossyan’s text to speech avatars to create your own videos in just a few minutes:

Step 1: Decide how your AI avatar should look

There are many different use cases for text to speech avatars, so you may want to start by considering how you want your AI avatar to look. Based on your message, you’ll want to evaluate your options for the avatar’s general age, gender, and visual style (casual, corporate, or sporty).

Fortunately, Colossyan offers an array of stock AI avatars, or if you’re looking for a text to speech avatar of yourself, you can create your own custom avatar in under a minute using the tool’s instant avatar feature. 

Alternatively, you can select a video template that matches your use case and start creating your text to speech video from there using the talking avatar the AI video generator selects for you.  

Step 2: Consider your target audience

While Colossyan supports a diverse number of use cases, determining the precise type, purpose, and content topic for your video is key. Consider the core knowledge area, like marketing, software, or health, as well as the audience’s demographics, interests, and learning styles. 

You should also take additional factors into account like calls to action; objectives like generating leads; and the delivery style, such as explainer, persuasive, or conversational. This might determine whether you include interactive quizzes or conversations between avatars within your videos. 

Finally, it’s always helpful to consider the culture of your organization: Are you a startup or enterprise? Do you have a laid-back culture or a more traditional corporate environment? Keeping this in mind will help you achieve the right tone and realize the full benefits of video content.

Step 3: Add your text 

The most important part of creating a high-quality text-to-speech video is having a good script, as this will dictate what your AI avatars say. 

Colossyan offers two features to help get your video scripts off the ground – prompt to video and document to video. 

With prompt to video, simply input what you want your video to be about, specify video details, your audience, and desired tone, and allow Colossyan to do the rest. 

But for those who already have a document with information they’re hoping to transform into a visual piece of video content, Colossyan’s document-to-video feature is worth checking out. 

Once you upload your document as a PDF, PPTX, TXT, or DOCX, Colossyan will create a video draft of your material, complete with an AI avatar, voiceover, and images – all in less than 60 seconds. 

Here’s how it works: 

But regardless of the feature you use – or even if you decide to hand write your script from text – it’s important that you input well edited copy into your AI video generator in order to receive the best possible output. 

Step 4: Select a voice for your text to speech avatar

Colossyan Creator offers robust language and accent choices so you can get uber-specific about what your AI avatar should sound like. In fact, you can even clone your voice, if you’d like your custom avatar to sound like you. 

Within Colossyan, you can experiment with accents in your selected language and choose the best cultural fit. Then, you can adjust the pitch, cadence, pronunciation, and emphasis on certain words or parts of a sentence. Once you’ve selected all of the options, you can go back and tweak them as needed until you’re satisfied with the result.

Step 5: Choose your language

Once you’ve explored the options for designing your avatar, the next important step is selecting your AI character's language. If you’re using Colossyan Creator, you’ll have the option to choose from an extensive list of over 100 supported global languages. 

Even better, there's no need to re-record your audio in a different language, as Colossyan automatically handles the translation for you. This kind of functionality is especially helpful for fast-growing companies that need to adapt to a globalized audience.

Step 6: Review your final video product

To achieve the highest quality results from your text to speech video, you’ll want to carefully review your video draft before generating it. 

This means playing through the audio while following the video script and analyzing how accurately the synthesized narration conveys its intended message, tone, and brand voice. 

During the video editing process, you’ll also want to check for clear pronunciation of key industry terms, names, and places and evaluate the AI avatar’s delivery for its overall clarity, flow, and emotion.

Once you’ve checked all those boxes, you can turn your attention to added elements like background music, subtitles, or any fun visual elements you want to include. After that, you’re all done!

Step 7: Export and use your text to speech avatar 

Once you’re satisfied with the result, export the video or audio file featuring your text to speech avatar. You can export these speech avatar videos as a standard MP4, or you can export them as a SCORM file and upload them to your learning management system. 

Once you’ve successfully exported your video, you can start using them for all kinds of use cases, including video presentations, marketing materials, or educational content for customers and employees.

How quickly can you generate a text to speech video with an AI avatar?

The speed at which you can create a text to speech video really depends on the tool you’re using and the length of the video you’re creating. But with Colossyan, creating high-quality text to speech videos is significantly faster than producing videos the traditional way. 

Whereas creating a traditional video might take weeks of scripting, filming, and post-production editing, this same process takes a matter of minutes using Colossyan. And once you’ve finished editing your video, you’ll typically have your final generated video in just a few minutes. 

What can a text to speech avatar do?

Text to speech AI avatars can serve all kinds of use cases. Here are some tasks that a text to speech avatar can perform, depending on your needs:

1. Educational material: By incorporating talking avatars into your eLearning platforms, tutorials, and training materials, your video content can provide more ways for learners to engage with a subject than by just reading the text alone.
2. Voice acting and narration: A talking text to speech avatar can create top-notch voiceovers and narrations for different media assets like videos, presentations, and audio content. Narration can make a big difference for the accessibility of your visual materials.
3. Digital marketing and social media: These realistic avatars can also be utilized for marketing campaigns and social media promotions. Or, you can include them in animated videos that feature unique facial expressions and natural-sounding voices.
4. Explainer videos: Text to speech avatars also serve as helpful tools for producing explainers and how-to videos like product demos or SOPs.

Create custom AI avatar text to speech videos with Colossyan

You don’t need to sit through hours-long recording sessions, transcribe your audio files, and try to use multiple programs to generate your text to speech videos. With Colossyan, you can manage your entire video creation workflow in one place and use the platform’s best AI presenters to act as your on-camera talent.

Want to start creating text to speech videos for your organization? Try it for free or book a demo with the Colossyan team to learn more.

Creating engaging video content typically requires significant time, effort, and expense, but advancements in artificial intelligence have made the process much easier and more efficient. If you’ve done any research into the top AI video generation tools, chances are you’ve encountered Synthesia. 

Synthesia boasts an impressive array of avatars and features that helps it stand out among competitors. However, some users have found that Synthesia doesn’t fully meet their needs or specific use cases. 

Whether you're looking for a tool with more proactive customer service or simply exploring AI video generators for the very first time, you’re in the right place. Engaging videos are essential in modern communication, enabling teams in various industries to easily convey ideas in a visual format.

In this blog we’ll walk you through the top Synthesia alternatives to consider, complete with pros, cons, and pricing. 

What is Synthesia?

Synthesia is a popular AI video generation platform that allows users to create high-quality videos from text input. Leveraging advanced technologies such as AI avatars, text-to-speech, and video editing, Synthesia enables the production of professional-looking videos without requiring equipment.

The platform is widely used in many different use cases, including client onboarding, employee training, customer education, and marketing.

Important features to look for in a Synthesia alternative

Every Synthesia alternative has a different array of features to offer, making it difficult to decide between them. Here are three important criteria to keep in mind during the evaluation process. 

Avatar and voice quality

Synthesia has gained popularity as an AI video generation tool with high-quality AI avatars and voice synchronization. As such, you’ll most likely want to be sure to evaluate the AI avatar and voice options for each tool before coming to a decision. 

Some tools offer a better selection of stock avatars, which might be helpful for those who need to create videos featuring a range of professions and ethnicities. Ensuring your tool has realistic avatars and avatar flexibility – such as hand gestures and side views – is also key in getting the most out of your tool. 

Other video generators also offer add-ons like custom avatars, voice cloning, and automatic translations, which are all capabilities worth considering when comparing the different tools on this list. 

Key use cases 

Some Synthesia alternatives are focused on serving the needs of a specific audience – such as Learning and Development teams – whereas others are built around more broad marketing and communications applications. 

When evaluating a new AI video tool, you’ll want to consider how your industry or use case might change the features you require in a video solution. For example, if you plan to use your videos on an eLearning platform, you’ll want a tool with SCORM export capabilities.

User interface and ease of use

AI video generation tools help teams overcome traditional barriers to entry – such as high production costs – typically associated with video content. 

But in order to further simplify the video editing process, you’ll want to opt for a tool with an intuitive interface that’s easy to use. That way, anyone on your team can create videos – regardless of their video editing skills. 

Top 7 Synthesia alternatives in 2025

Without further ado, here’s our list of the top Synthesia alternatives for 2025. 

1. Colossyan

Colossyan is an AI video tool that helps teams turn text into engaging professional videos featuring AI avatars and voice overs. As far as Synthesia alternatives go, Colossyan is at the top of the list for good reason, as the platform allows users to create videos without any prior video editing experience.

With dozens of features – and more being added monthly – Colossyan is constantly listening to customer feedback to continue pushing the envelope with its features and AI avatars. Interactivity, side-view avatars, and SCORM export are just a few examples of features that give Colossyan the edge over Synthesia. 

Here’s how Colossyan works: 

Colossyan was specifically designed to support the creation of workplace learning content, including employee onboarding, customer education, and internal communication – to name a few use cases. 

Key features 

• 200+ avatars: Easily ensure your presenters perfectly match your material. 
• Custom avatars and voice cloning: Enhance the personalization of your videos with custom avatars, created in studio or at home. 
• Multiple avatars per scene: Give your scenario-based training videos a boost with conversational avatars.  
• Interactivity: Add multiple choice questions to your videos to check your audience understanding. 
• Document to video: Simply upload a file and Colossyan will transform any document into a video draft – complete with AI avatars and narration – in under 60 seconds. 
• SCORM export: Utilize your Colossyan videos on an eLearning platform by exporting them as a SCORM file. 

Potential drawbacks 

• Media library: Colossyan has fewer music options compared to some competitors, but we're working on improving this by exploring new providers.

Pricing

• Starter plan: Start creating videos for as low as $19 per month for 10 minutes of video. This plan includes an AI script assistant, no watermarks, and full video rights. 
• Business plan: At $70 for unlimited minutes and videos, Colossyan’s business plan includes 45 instant avatars and 9 voice clones. Add up to 3 editors on the business plan.
• Enterprise plan: For companies scaling their video creation, the enterprise plan includes 4K video, SCORM export, a dedicated customer success manager, and more. Contact our sales team for pricing. 

Over half a million AI videos have been generated using Colossyan. But don’t just take our word for it – try it risk-free to ensure it meets your team’s needs. 

2. Elai.io

Elai stands out as an AI video generator with many of the standard features that equip corporate teams with tools for video creation. This includes video templates, automatic translations, and extra features like prompt-to-video. 

Just like many other Synthesia alternatives on this list, Elai also offers custom studio avatars for those with the ability to get recorded in studio. However, Elai also takes custom avatars one step further by allowing you to create a custom avatar from just a selfie. 

Key features 

• 80+ stock AI avatars
• Automatic translations
• Voice cloning 
• Prompt-to-video capabilities 
• Interactivity

Limitations 

• Not as many AI avatar options as other competitors 
• No screen recording feature 
• Restrictive video editor interface may limit your content per slide 
• Online G2 reviews say the platform is often unstable and crashes unexpectedly

Pricing 

• Basic plan: Starts at $29 per month for 15 minutes of video
• Advanced plan: Starts at $125 per month for 50 minutes of video
• Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing 

3. HeyGen

HeyGen is yet another tool looking to break into the AI video generation space using AI avatars and automatic translations. HeyGen’s use cases range from product demos, scaled outreach, to learning and development. 

That said, the tool is more focused on the production of AI marketing content than most of the other Synthesia alternatives on this list. Its automatic translation capabilities are also more limited than most competitors. 

Key features 

• Ability to export videos in different formats 
• Animated photo avatars 
• 120+ avatars 
• Face swapping

Limitations 

• Only translates to 40 languages 
• Some users say that HeyGen’s customer support is lacking, including its written support materials 
• Expensive for users creating over 30 minutes of video

Pricing 

• Creator plan: Starts at $29 per month for 15 minutes of video
• Team plan: Starts at $149 per month for 30 minutes of video
• Enterprise plan: Contact for pricing

Pro tip: Check out our Synthesia vs. HeyGen guide for a complete side-by-side comparison.

4. Hour One

Hour One’s goal is to support enterprise growth by helping corporate teams create, manage, and streamline their AI generated video content. The software’s videos also feature AI avatars, which can be used to create sales enablement, training, and ecommerce content. 

The tool uses its GPT-4 integration and document-to-video feature to help users bring their videos to life with minimal inputs. Hour One also prides itself on allowing users to create high quality videos with no editing experience.  

Key features 

• Document to video
• Voice cloning and custom avatars
• Collaboration features like comments, workspaces, and team roles
• API integration

Limitations 

• Some avatars give users an uncanny valley feeling where they don’t seem totally human
• Only one avatar can be used per scene, limiting the potential for scenario-based training
• No screen recorder

Pricing 

• Lite plan: Starts at $30 per month for 10 minutes of video 
• Business plan: Starts at $112 per month for 20 minutes of video
• Enterprise plan: Custom pricing 

5. DeepBrain AI

While some Synthesia alternatives are focused on serving the needs of a particular industry, DeepBrain AI claims to serve a range of unique use cases, including customer support, news media, and financial services. 

DeepBrain AI’s basic features are pretty standard, with templates, dozens of avatars, and translation capabilities, but its conversational avatars offer a point of differentiation. 

Key features 

• 80+ digital avatars
• Team collaboration in workspaces
• Video templates
• Conversational avatars

Limitations 

• Fewer AI avatar options compared to many competitors 
• No interactive features like multiple choice questions or branching
• Its text-to-speech feature is limited in detail and highly dependent on the inputs given

Pricing 

• Personal plan: Starts at $29 per month for 15 minutes of video
• Team plan: Starts at $89 per month for 30 minutes of video
• Enterprise plan: Custom pricing 

6. Veed

Veed is a robust online video editing tool that has added a selection of AI tools to its feature offerings. These AI features include enhanced eye contact, voice cloning, and audio cleaning. 

All in all, if AI avatars are the main priority for your video content, you’ll probably want to look beyond Veed. But if you’re looking for a video editing software with lightweight AI features, it could be worth exploring. 

Key features 

• Screen and webcam recording capabilities 
• Automatic subtitles and translations 
• Eye contact AI feature that redirects your eyes to the camera 
• Voice dubbing

Limitations 

• Extensive use of Veed’s AI avatars is limited to its most expensive plans 
• Some G2 reviewers say the platform itself feels unintuitive 
• Veed’s primary focus is traditional video editing, not AI video generation

Pricing 

• Basic plan: Starts at $25 per user/month 
• Pro plan: Starts at $38 per user/month
• Business plan: Starts at $70 per user/month
• Enterprise plan: Custom pricing 

7. Synthesys.io

Synthesys.io is another notable alternative to Synthesia, offering a range of features designed to enhance your video creation process. With standout features like AI voices, AI humans, custom avatars, and voice cloning, the platform has similar capabilities to many of the other Synthesia alternatives on this list.

Key features

• AI dubbing
• AI voice generator
• Image generator
• Image to video

Limitations

• No custom pronunciation
• Lacks background music capabilities
• No templates

Pricing

• Personal plan: $29 per month for 15 minutes of audio and video
• Creator plan: $99 per month for 40 minutes of audio and video
• Business unlimited plan: $130 per month for unlimited video generations

How to choose the best AI video generator to level up your content

Now that we’ve covered the main players in the AI video generation space, we hope we’ve left you with a better idea of which tool might be right for your team. 

If you’re looking for a tool that will enable you with everything you need to create workplace learning content – including interactivity, SCORM export, and conversation mode for your scenario-based training videos – then Colossyan is the one you’ll want to explore. 

And if you’re still unsure about which tool to move forward with, many Synthesia alternatives offer free trials for you to get your hands on the tool for yourself – including Colossyan. 

Interested in learning more first? Book a demo with our team instead.

Demo videos are one of the most important assets product marketers have in their arsenal today. 

A quality demo video can help potential customers quickly understand whether or not your product is a fit for them – and how it can help them solve a daily challenge – without having to book a call with a sales rep. It can also be a fantastic opportunity to showcase how your product differs from your competitors’ products.

But great demo videos aren’t born of themselves. They require careful planning, a strong understanding of customer desires, and, of course, a decent video software tech stack.

In this article, we’ll explain the importance of demo videos in product marketing in 2025 and beyond. We’ll also dive into how modern AI tools can help you streamline video content creation.

What is a product demo video? 

A product demo video is a video recording that shows off the features and benefits of a product that your company sells.

For a physical product, a human usually demonstrates the product, though 3D video product demos are becoming more popular as new technology arises.

For software products, companies usually capture demo videos using a screen recording tool. These videos often have audio voice-overs that explain what’s on screen, though a live actor or an AI avatar can also fill this role.

Does your company need (better) product demo videos? 

Among those who watch product demo videos, 73% go on to make a purchase. Pretty impressive, right?

Unfortunately, many organizations still stick to the traditional in-person (or video call) demo. Sure, these have benefits, mainly the ability to customize the pitch to the customer and start building a relationship. 

But a good product demo video doesn’t have to replace the sales demo. Instead, it can supplement sales demos as a sales enablement tool or lead generation device.

If you’re still weighing whether you need a product demo video or not, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Are our sales cycles fast enough?
• Are we converting in-person demos at a sufficient rate?
• Do our customers come to sales conversations with an understanding of how our product works?
• Do our customers get the hang of our product quickly once they sign up?
• Are any of our prospects signing up without talking to a sales rep?

If you answered no to one or more of these questions, then a product demo video might be a good opportunity for you to support and enable your sales team.

The benefits of product demo videos 

Let’s explore a few reasons why standard product demonstrations are better in video format:

Show, don’t tell 

Video marketing comes with a unique benefit: it allows you to show customers what you want to communicate rather than simply tell them.

You can demonstrate key product features and functions with a high level of detail in a short period of time – much faster and more effectively than you would be able to with a written landing page, for example.

And even during live demo video calls, it’s easy to get sidetracked and forget to showcase important parts of your product. Creating a product demo video allows you to retain more control over exactly what you show the audience and ensure you won’t forget anything. 

Create faster sales cycles 

The best videos compel prospects to buy, meaning they’re poised to hand over their credit card details before they enter your customer relationship management platform.

As a result, you can shorten sales cycles and make it easier for sales reps to achieve success.

‍Pro tip: Video can also be a fantastic medium for delivering sales training to efficiently boost your team’s skills. 

Give more power to customers 

A demo video allows customers to make purchasing decisions at their own pace. For those early in the product evaluation process, booking a live demo with a sales rep can be intimidating, and having to commit this step may prevent them from moving forward. 

Instead, a demo video allows customers to watch your video whenever they have five minutes to spare and allows them to replay certain sections for clarity. 

This gives more power to the customer in the sales process, providing them more autonomy in deciding whether a product is worth their while without feeling forced to move forward. Remember, everyone loves to buy, but not everybody likes to be sold to.

Showcase complex features 

A product demo video is a great opportunity to showcase more complex features you offer that competitors’ products don’t.

The tricky thing about new, more complex features is that they can be difficult to explain to prospects in writing or even during a live demo. But, because demo videos can be scripted, it’s much easier to ensure you’re explaining each feature in the simplest way possible. 

And if you don’t get that simplicity across in the first take, you can always update your script and re-record a second time. 

Drive traffic through search 

Finally, video can be another way to drive organic traffic to your website via search.

Video SEO is a largely untapped opportunity, especially compared to standard SEO tactics like blog content creation. By creating a series of SEO-focused demo videos, you can capitalize on unique video search opportunities that your competitors are likely neglecting.

How AI can improve product demo videos 

Product demos are an important marketing asset, but they come with one major drawback: they’re time-consuming and costly to produce.

It can take weeks to produce a single video between storyboarding, recording, editing, and approval. And if what you produce doesn’t get sign-off from above, it's back to the recording phase for even more takes.

But when you use AI to produce a demo video, you can wrap up the whole process much faster.

AI doesn’t need multiple takes to get a specific phrase right. And if your boss sends the demo back for revisions, you don’t have to record again from scratch. With the help of an AI video generator like Colossyan, you can simply provide a few additional prompts to the conversational AI engine and render a new video.

What makes this speed and scalability even more valuable is that products commonly evolve and change over time. New features emerge, teams remodel layouts, and some functions may even become obsolete.

With a traditional demo video, each time your product changes, you’ll likely have to film a new video from scratch. When using AI, you can make a few edits to your script – or your prompts, if you’re using an AI script generator – and publish the updated video in minutes.

Also read: How to Scale Your Digital Video Production Using AI

How to create an AI product demo video in 9 steps 

Never created an AI product demo video before? Here’s a quick nine-step guide on how to get it right the first time around:

1. Understand your audience 

Before you begin making product demo videos, you have to know who your target customers are. You should understand what challenges they face, the impact of those issues, and what solutions they may have already tried. 

Just like a live demo, a video demo should speak to your audience’s pain points and needs. If you’re selling in a competitive industry, showing your audience how you stand out from competitors is extremely important. But in order to understand your differentiation, you have to know your audience. 

2. Define your objectives 

You should decide what you want the demo video to do before you start. Is it a replacement for an in-person video call? Or is it just a lead-generating device? Should it cover main features that are applicable to all users or dive deep into a specific use case?

Remember, a video demo does not need to fully replace a live demo. You might decide to start with a video providing a high-level overview of your product and meet with the prospect for a deeper dive into the platform during the next step of the process. 

3. Pick a template 

Although using an AI video generation tool certainly allows you to fast-track your video by skipping the traditional production process, starting from scratch can still be time consuming. 

Fortunately, many AI video tools offer templates that give your video a strong foundation, and from there you can edit and customize it to perfection. 

4. Write your script

Now that you have the foundation of your video, you’ll need to come up with a script so that your AI avatar has something to say.

You can either write this yourself, or upload a document with the necessary information to Colossyan’s document-to-video feature, which will then transform your document into a video draft in under 60 seconds. 

But regardless of your script writing method, you’ll want to make sure it covers the points you identified when researching your target audience and addresses how your product's features solve those challenges. 

5. Choose your avatar(s)

Next, you’ll want to consider which AI avatar best suits your target audience. Most AI video generators offer dozens of different avatars to choose from – including a range of different ages, ethnicities, and professions – that you can use to your liking. 

6. Gather and design your assets

Now that you’ve selected a template, written a script, and chosen an avatar, it’s time to put everything together and compile any additional visuals. 

For a video demo, these additional assets might include a screen recording of your product, branded marketing assets, or customer testimonials. After all, you want your video demos to look and feel authentic to your own brand. 

7. Address any accent or language changes 

Selling to prospects in different markets can be difficult, especially when it comes to language barriers. Fortunately, software tools like Colossyan allow you to automatically translate your video content into over 70 languages, dialects, and accents. 

Just imagine how many more markets you could sell into with content in different languages. 

8. Add a clear call to action (CTA)

At the end of the day, the goal of all demos – live or video – is to inspire the prospect to action. This is why it’s so important to ensure that your demo video provides a compelling CTA for viewers, whether that’s signing up for a free trial or registering for a full-length custom demo with a sales representative.

9. Go live

Lastly, it’s time to finalize your demo video and generate it. From there, you’ll want to publish it on your website or video hosting service and potentially distribute it to customers via social media, email, and other communication channels.

Here’s a bonus tip: a good product video is never finished.

Creating demo videos that are actually effective requires you to regularly ask for customer feedback and monitor your performance metrics to ensure your audience is engaging with the material in the right way. 

Failure to constantly revise and update your product demo videos will leave you with content featuring outdated messaging and features. And old content isn’t going to help you win new customers. 

Effective product demo video examples 

Now that we’ve walked you through the process of creating a demo video, let’s check out some examples for a bit of inspiration. 

GoPro 

GoPro offers the perfect example of a product demo video.

It's a classy blend of product imagery and compelling marketing messaging that gives potential customers a 360-degree demo of the product in just over a minute.

What really makes video a great format here is that GoPro can record its product offering using its own product to demonstrate just how great its output looks.

Slack 

Slack has a 45-second quick-start guide that serves as a simple product demo video.

‍

This video shows potential customers exactly what Slack looks like and guides them through a step-by-step process to get started.

What’s compelling about this example is that Slack gives buyers an overview of how easy it is to set up in less than a minute.

Square 

Here’s another example of a physical product demo, this time from Square.

Here, Square introduces its new point of sale system – Square Register – in an effective one-minute video.

This demo video doesn’t show the product in an isolated environment. Instead, it demonstrates exactly how customers would use Square Register in a real-life scenario, which helps to promote psychological ownership. 

Asana 

Our final demo video example comes from Asana, a project management app.

This short clip introduces customers to Asana. It replaces the traditional static landing page by condensing all the written information that would otherwise be scattered across multiple sections into a short video demo.

What’s great about this demo is that it's not just a series of static slides with a voice-over. The narrator is present, but the product demonstration happens in real time as a team moves tasks from one stage to another and assigns them to users. This video helps viewers get a feel for how Asana works, not just what it looks like.

Colossyan: Your AI demo video generator 

Product demo videos are a powerful marketing asset. Many companies use them to supplement live sales demos, conduct sales training, or support their employee onboarding process.

We’ve already explored some of Colossyan’s features throughout this blog, but here’s an example of our very own high-level product demo: 

The traditional demo video can be costly and time-consuming to produce. But with an AI video generator like Colossyan, you can cut down video production timelines from weeks to hours. 

Interested in learning more? Book a time with our sales team to learn how you can create your own product demo video today.