The best AI video generators in 2023 | Zapier (2023)

Consuming video is easy. Producing good video is not. Putting together a script, getting all the footage, and editing everything to perfection—or as close as possible—can eat up enormous chunks of your time.

As it does for everything right now, AI has a few solutions to slash the time it takes to go from idea to MP4. I went in search of the best AI tools for creating videos, and as it turns out, there are already a ton of amazing options.

From smart video editing software to generative text-to-video apps, there are tools that will help you do whatever you want: be that running your own YouTube channel, creating more engaging content for social media, or repurposing content to keep all your business's online channels fresh. After a week of testing, here are my picks for the best AI video generators.

The best AI video editing software

• Descript for editing video by editing the script

• Wondershare Filmora for polishing video with AI tools

• Runway for experimenting with generative AI

• Peech for content marketing teams

• Synthesia for using digital avatars

• Fliki for social media videos

• InVideo for turning a script into video

What makes the best AI video generator?

The best AI tools for video creation help you increase your production quantity and value without increasing the time spent working on it. They cut the time it takes from script to final result by providing templates, tools to speed up editing, and shortcuts to polish audio and video.

There are three broad categories in this list.

1. Video editors with AI editing tools, meant for speeding up the editing process.

2. Generative text-to-video apps that take your prompts and generate a video output on the spot.

3. Video productivity apps that use AI to help you create content faster for multiple marketing channels or platforms.

Regardless of these sub-categories, here's what I looked for as I searched for the best AI video generator:

• AI. All these apps use artificial intelligence to power their features.

• High-quality video output. These apps should let you export video that can run beautifully on small or large screens. All the apps on this list export to 720p at worst and 4k at best, in a variety of aspect ratios.

• Customization. Can you add your own content? How much can you customize? Is it easy to make changes?

• Support and ease of use. Since AI video editing is a new-ish thing, I was looking for apps that beginners could use; that includes offering content to help you take advantage of all the possibilities.

• Unique features. Some apps bring their unique spin to video creation, or offer something that's useful to improve productivity, production value, or both.

I tested these apps over the course of a week. I started from templates where available, uploaded my own content, used the stock video and image libraries, and tweaked the visuals using either the timeline-based editors or simpler interfaces, depending on the app. Finally, I exported the video to see how it looked. In all the cases here, the process was significantly faster and less painful when compared with handling a project in Sony Vegas or Premiere Pro.

Best AI video generator for editing video by editing the script

Descript (Web for some features, Windows, Mac)

When I record video, I usually say much more than I'm actually going to use in the final version—far too much, actually. Like, in the region of 10 to 20 times more. That leads to watching a lot of raw footage, marking the timeline to save the best bits, and then having to move back and forth splitting tracks and trimming video. That's fun for the first hour, but when you're on a deadline and going over the midnight mark, things start looking bleak.

If you're like me here, Descript is a huge time saver. To begin with, it generates a transcript of everything you say along with a set of scenes, separating the video track automatically. Instead of scrolling through the timeline to split or trim the video, simply highlight the parts of the transcript that you want gone, and Descript edits it out for you. No more going back and forth on the timeline to see if the cut is well done: you can edit video just as you would a text document.

Once you've got the script under control, you can divide your video into scenes. To do so, type a forward slash in the script to separate each one. You'll notice this will split the video on the vertical timeline on the left. That allows you to add, for instance, some B-roll: click on the scene's image, and then on the media library on the top. You can search for high-quality stock video and add it to the project without leaving the editor window.

When you hit play, you'll see that Descript cuts to the B-roll exactly where you marked it. The user experience to implement jump cuts, visual elements, and SFX is the same, so you can mark the entirety of your script as you go, and then add all the good stuff later. This workflow is a huge time-saver. But if you prefer the classic timeline experience, it's still there: look to the bottom of the screen, and control your footage there.

Now that you have these editing powers, you can speak freely while recording, knowing you won't have to watch everything from top to bottom to extract all the gold nuggets. Descript offers more timesaving opportunities, too. With Zapier, you can connect it with thousands of other apps to move data and automate more parts of your video creation workflow. Here's a sample of what it can do:

Descript price: Free plan available with 1 hour of transcription and 1 watermark-free video at 720p. Creator plan starts at $12/month, offers 10 hours of transcription, and unlimited watermark-free video exports at up to 4k resolution.

Best AI video editor for polishing your video with AI tools

Wondershare Filmora (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android)

Wondershare Filmora has been around for a really, really long time. I remember using it over 15 years ago for the first time. Despite the age, it's not stuck in time—quite the opposite. It has a package of AI features that improve video quality without having to enroll in a pro course or dump dozens of hours into little tweaks.

So, what are these AI features? Here's the shortlist:

• AI smart cutout, letting you cut objects out of scenes by painting their area on the screen.

• AI audio denoise, for helping you keep background noise under control.

• AI audio stretch, to help you stretch music for eight seconds longer to match a cut to another scene.

• AI motion tracking, so you can identify and blur faces to maintain privacy (or paste funny faces to make meme videos—your choice).

• AI remove background, so you can paste an image of a runner jogging on the moon without the billions of space program investment (or risk of death).

• AI silence detection, for removing hesitations and making snappy jump cuts without hassle.

All these features are easy to use, coming together into a fully-fledged video editing app. If you have trouble using them, Wondershare has landing pages on their website to explain each one in depth. There are plenty of other creativity and productivity features, from a template library that quickly puts together a video based on your footage, to auto beat sync, which helps you keep your cuts aligned with the music blasting on your audio track.

You can make changes to the settings of your video when exporting, choosing the format, resolution, quality, and even frame rate. If you want to save time when publishing, you can connect your YouTube, TikTok, or Vimeo account to launch your video faster. One last handy feature I found: once you toggle Auto Highlight in the video export window, Filmora will generate a quick 15-second video highlight for TikTok or a 60-second one for YouTube shorts, in addition to the main file.

Wondershare Filmora price: Free plan available with video watermark. Cross-platform plan goes for $89.99/year, but if you're a Windows user, you can choose to buy Filmora for $109.99 (one-time payment) with 12 future updates included.

Best AI video enhancer for experimenting with generative AI

Runway (Web)

Runway feels like a magic wand. And, like everything in the wizarding world, magic depends more on the wizard, not so much on the instrument. There's an impressive set of possibilities here, but the actual outcome may vary a lot depending on how you use it. It's not as done-for-you as other solutions on this list: it will require tinkering before you get the results you want. But when those results come—saying it's amazing is selling it short.

The user interface has the vibe of a professional-grade video editing tool, but it's not too complicated to move around. The video tutorials are top-notch, explaining the features clearly with examples included. I was able to get started quickly, and I suspect you will too.

In addition to AI video polishing features (like those in Wondershare Filmora), Runway offers:

• Green screen, helping you completely change or remove the video background.

• A whole suite of generative AI tools such as text-to-video, image-to-image, and the possibility to train your own AI models for image generation.

• Object removal and replacement, so you can change the vase of a flower or turn a soccer ball into a melon.

• Image section replacement, where you can change parts of an image with text prompts. The results are anywhere between mind-bogglingly good to terrifyingly bad, depending on what you type.

Runway will burn the untrained, so make sure you set some time aside to learn all the ins and outs. Still, it'll take you less time to master than its bigger brother, the great and mighty Adobe After Effects, while offering a respectable set of possibilities in exchange.

Runway price: Free plan available with 125 video credits (used for AI features), 3 projects, and 720p export. Standard plan, at $15/user/month, offers 625 credits and lets you export up to 4k.

Best AI video generator for content marketing teams

Peech (Web, prefers Google Chrome)

Does repurposing content make you feel tired before you even start? I feel your pain. Looking at the same assets and pumping out content to obey every channel's target audience and technical specs sure is boring. Peech will speed up that process.

Peech Lite, the core product, requires you to add your brand kit to begin. Enter your logo and color scheme. Peech will use these assets to automatically brand all your videos. When you start adding your media, it will detect faces and prompt you to enter their name and role in your company. This way, every time this person appears in a future video, you'll see the name and role card close to their face.

Every time you add a new video, Peech will add these elements along with customizable subtitles. I like how you can highlight a few words and apply your brand colors to make them stand out. The first draft that the app offers is already pretty good, so you won't spend a lot of time making adjustments. You can cut straight to choosing aspect ratios and video length and get exporting.

In addition to these features, which are part of Peech Lite, there are two other products you can use to speed up video production even more:

• Peech Webinars lets you upload all your webinars into the platform and highlight bits you want to repurpose from the transcription. Then, export them as short TikToks or YouTube Shorts, all branded and ready to go.

• Peech Testimonials adds a few shortcuts to producing high-quality video testimonials. You can invite clients for a review via email, and they'll receive instructions on how to record it. Once they're finished, you'll get the final video with subtitles and your branding.

Peech pricing: Free plan available for 1 user, 2 videos per month, 5-minute upload limit, and watermark. Pro plan starts at $59/month, raising the cap to 10 videos/month, 50-minute upload limit, and no watermark.

Best AI video generator for using digital avatars

Synthesia (Web)

What do you do when you have to record training videos but everyone at the office is camera shy? If hiring a crew and an actor isn't an option, Synthesia is surely the second best: you can browse a library of dozens of digital real-looking avatars from all points of the world. Then, choose the voice that best matches the body, and you're ready to input your script.

The user interface is simple and focuses a lot on this core feature. Once you add the script, Synthesia will start working its magic to make the avatar move the lips and body in a convincing way. You can quickly translate the entire text into another language by clicking on a dropdown menu. The avatar will zip from English to French faster than you can say quoi?

You may be thinking: how perfect are these avatars? They're good, but still can't replace humans. If you're watching full-screen, you can catch a few unnatural movements. But get this: I was testing CRM software a few months back, and there was an onboarding video. At that time, I went through the whole thing blissfully unaware that the person on that video was an AI avatar. I only recognized the avatar when testing Synthesia for this list. Fooled me.

If you want to add more value to your knowledge base, these avatars will do a good job, at least until you have the budget and time to hire real people to do it. But if you're planning to use this on a presentation with a big screen, I'd say it's not ready for that—not yet, at least.

Apart from picking your favorite avatar, Synthesia lets you add extra scenes to the video, so you can add a few slides with text from a series of pre-made layouts. You can customize the text and the look, so it fits your brand. You can also upload your own footage and have the avatar sit on a corner of the video talking away as you demonstrate features on your app.

I tested three other AI avatar apps for this piece, but Synthesia is far-and-away the best one. The text-to-speech video generation is the best, and the avatar's movements are the most natural. It's at the bleeding edge as far as avatar-based AI video goes.

And while you get AI avatar sidekicks to do your work on camera for you, you can also get Synthesia to work with your other apps without effort. Connect Synthesia to Zapier and start automating:

Synthesia price: Personal plan starts at $30 per month including 10 minutes of video per month.

Best AI video generator for producing social media videos

Fliki (Web)

Fliki is great for creating videos ready for social media. The core of it is combining text-to-speech with your video, letting you control the rhythm and enunciation. And while it has a generative text-to-video option available on the paid plan, the best part about it is how much time it saves in producing video ready to post.

It's very simple to use. When you start a new project, you'll see boxes to input your script. If you click on the voice's name, you can browse a library of voices and pick your favorite one. To adjust the tone, pitch, and pauses, highlight the text you want to change and adjust the appropriate sliders. When you play it back, the differences are noticeable. I like how much you can change the feel of the voice with such simple controls.

Customizing your video is as simple as clicking on the image to the right of the text. There, you can either upload your own content, or browse a good match from a content library directly within Fliki. There may be a few hiccups when previewing the final result on the app, but once you render the video, everything will look as expected.

There are two other fields where Fliki is useful. One is for podcasting. You can create your podcast page right here, and write the podcast instead of recording your own voice. When your episode is ready, you can publish via RSS to major podcasting platforms. The other one is for creating audiobooks: add your book as a project to the app, add each chapter, and then write or paste in the text. Add finishing touches as necessary.

Fliki pricing: Free plan available with up to 5 minutes/month, watermarked video in 720p. Standard plan goes for $25/month, raising the limits to 180 minutes, removing the watermark, and bumping the quality to 1080p.

Best AI text-to-video generator for turning a script into a video

InVideo (Web)

Rather have an app take a script and get it done for you? Welcome to InVideo. Plug in your script, press generate, and wait for the results. Wait, what's that? You don't have a script? Ok, type in a prompt. It'll get a video ready, even if you only give it two sentences as inspiration.

InVideo is smart, but there isn't AI text-to-video here. Instead, the app takes your prompt, gathers the stock video that best matches your needs, slaps subtitles on it, and it's ready to fly. The first draft it produces is a great starting point. I wanted to get a video on the five best places to go on a vacation. It advised Paris as one destination and found Parisian footage to place in the video.

Despite the quick start, you'll have to tweak the video a bit to get a satisfying end result. Some footage was off the mark during my test. Thankfully, the editing tools are intuitive and easy to use, with a timeline at the bottom and a set of menus on the left side where you can edit layouts, colors, visual elements, and add or replace stock footage. Out of all of the possibilities here, the ones that stood out to me were adding music by mood, creating a heist-movie-style frame layout (you know, those that have a few video channels on the screen playing at the same time as the gang blasts through the vault door), and the template library, filled with plenty of ready-made slide layouts.

Overall, InVideo feels versatile, offers a solid set of tools, and saves quite a bit of time. It needs your good hand to make good stuff, but that isn't necessarily bad. It can plug gaps in your video creation workflow if you're strapped for footage but have a lot to say.

InVideo pricing: Free plan available for 15 minutes of watermarked video but no exporting (you can share a link, though). Business plan starts at $30/month, increases the limit to 40 minutes, adds 60 HD video exports, and removes the watermark.

What's the best AI video maker?

AI-generated videos are here—it's time to embrace them. The AI video generators on this list will save you time, smooth out your content creation schedule, and increase the final production value. Most have free plans or at least a free trial, so you can take a look before committing. Make sure to carve out some time on your schedule to see which one fits your and your team's needs. And then start creating.

Related reading:

• The best AI image generators

• The best AI productivity tools

• The best video hosting sites for businesses

• How to make DIY video for your business

  (Video) 3 Best A.i Video Generators Tools In 2023 That Will Blow Your Mind || A.i Video Editing Tools