AI-generated video can be well worth it for brands, and not just because it can save time and money by compressing parts of video production. The big opportunity here is to create, test, and learn from content at a much faster rate, giving you the upper hand over your competitors.
While AI-generated video can be faster and more economical than traditional video production, it doesn’t remove effort or cost entirely. Instead, it tends to shift these resources from hands-on physical shoots to skilled creative. Like any great content, effective AI video still needs great creative direction, strategic planning, and stringent quality control to achieve meaningful marketing outcomes.
So, it’s worth it, but it’s an art unto itself. If you’re just thinking of AI video as a cheaper or quicker alternative, you’re missing the point entirely.
What are the best use cases for AI video in marketing?
AI-generated video works best in situations where you need to create, test, and iterate content quickly. Previously, brands might spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on just one traditional shoot without knowing how audiences would respond to the final product. Today, they can spend one tenth of that on many pieces of AI-enabled content, make several variations or localizations, and increase their learning opportunities significantly.
This is why AI really shines when it comes to short-form paid social or ecommerce content: use cases where brands need to loop between data, creative, and decision-making as quickly as possible.
Just as exciting here is the potential to produce personalized content at scale. Brands can use AI to tailor creative to different audiences, locations, languages, products, interests, and stages of the customer journey.
For instance, AI might help a clothing brand make a summer-themed reel for its Northern Hemisphere audience and a winter-themed reel for its Southern Hemisphere audience; everyone gets served relevant content and is happy.
The potential is huge, especially as more small brands, with fewer resources to localize content, are looking to go global.
Where does traditional video work better?
There are still plenty of times when traditional video may work better than AI-generated video. These include high-trust communication situations like political messaging, or when a product’s small details, real-world behavior, or artisan provenance is its central value proposition.
For instance, if you were marketing high-end, handcrafted leather bags, you would need exact material fidelity, and a traditional approach would be a more appropriate choice. Similarly, if you were making user-generated content that hinged on the person’s authentic experience, using AI might damage customer trust.
AI video is a powerful tool, but it’s not a silver bullet: always carefully consider whether it makes sense for your unique use case.
How can brands use hybrid AI videos?
Hybrid AI videos combine real-world production with AI-generated elements. They can be useful in cases where parts of your content must be authentic, but your budget can’t cover traditional filmmaking.
For instance, many brands will shoot real products and then use AI to place them in a range of backgrounds, environments, and usage contexts. AI video generators often struggle to maintain consistency across very tiny or complex details, and will frequently warp text. Packaging can be difficult to generate as a result, meaning brands will frequently opt to shoot it the traditional way.
Similarly, brands use hybrid AI videos to generate extra B-roll footage, extend a set, or apply visual effects.
Hybrid AI can therefore be a good middle ground for brands that want maximum product accuracy while still taking advantage of AI’s potential cost and time savings.
How long does an AI video take to create?
AI video can expedite your production process, but it’s not an instant miracle. If someone is promising to create AI video content for you in a suspiciously short timeframe, it might be a sign that they’re skipping important parts of the process.
As you might expect, AI video production removes a lot of the more hands-on aspects of video-making, requiring fewer people and shorter timelines. Physical shoots are more logistically complicated: you’re juggling everything from talent to location to set design, props, and lighting. Most likely, your project will spend a significant amount of time in pre- and post-production as your team handles planning, approvals, editing, revisions, and licensing.
While AI video production can compress much of this process, there’s still a lot involved. First, you need a great creative strategy. Then you need to gather strong brand inputs and imagery, selecting high-quality licensed source images. Then there’s the copywriting, storyboarding, video prompting (an art unto itself), compilation, editing, and refining in professional-grade software. Don’t forget adding subtitles and music and getting approvals! Like any great content, effective AI-generated video takes time, skill, and effort.
Is AI-generated video cheaper than traditional video production?
AI-generated video can certainly be more affordable than traditional video production. In general, AI productions have fewer moving parts, both saving you money upfront and removing the potential for things to go wrong and lead to further, unexpected costs.
However, if you’re using AI video just because it might be a cheaper alternative, you’re not appreciating the full opportunity here: more experimentation and a greater understanding of your customers. Within the same timeframe and budget as a traditional ad, a brand could potentially test many pieces of content and learn far more. Moreover, your creative team becomes the competitive advantage, rather than your production budget.
Ultimately, the best-value method will always be the one that nets you the largest ROI, be it traditionally made or AI-generated!
Where can AI-generated video go wrong?
There are many ways that AI-generated video can go wrong when the production process is badly managed and lacks oversight.
First, poor source material and lax quality control will result in low-quality output. Customers can tell if your product is badly generated. Even if they don’t consciously notice distortions, anatomical failures, or continuity errors, your ad can still look somehow “off” (or worse, feel like AI slop) and damage their perception of your brand.
Second, you can be liable for copyright infringement if you use unlicensed inputs in your AI-generated content. This includes someone’s likeness or voice; fabricating testimonials can count as misleading or deceptive content under consumer law.
Inputs aren’t the only risk. You should also review AI’s outputs for any inaccuracies, misleading claims, offensive material, or accidental copyright infringement (e.g., similarities to other properties). False claims can become both a legal liability and a customer-trust issue: say, a real estate listing hallucinating an extra window, or an ad for a laptop demonstrating a capability that the real product doesn’t have.
Finally, even a perfectly managed creative process can’t save a piece of content if using AI was a poor choice in the first place. Avoid using AI if your content stands as real-world evidence (e.g., a testimonial). Your brand’s reputation will hinge on the quality, legality, and appropriateness of all the content you put out, AI-generated or not. That’s why it’s so important to invest in skilled creative at the outset to minimize these risks.
How can brands do AI-generated video well?
In the hands of an excellent creative team, AI can create refined, premium-looking content that respects intellectual property and elevates your brand’s perception.
When working with AI-generated video, your creative team should always:
- Start with clear creative direction, ensuring the story connects to marketing objectives.
- Use high-quality, licensed source material.
- Exercise best practices while prompting, e.g., using realism cues and explicitly telling AI what to avoid.
- Expect, and work around, certain inherent limitations; AI has trouble maintaining too many complex details in motion, and generating packaging, text, and hands.
- Carefully build and refine the video scene-by-scene, rather than generating an entire video in one prompt.
- Exercise stringent quality control, ensuring consistency between scenes, correctly represented products, and convincing proportions and details.
- Use tools like Photoshop, Figma, or Canva for the final cleanup.
- Observe platform rules when uploading AI-enhanced video to social media platforms. Some of them, like TikTok, require advertisers to disclose AI use.
Lastly, any marketing creative needs to be backed up by data. If you’re engaging someone to make AI-generated content for you, they need to be monitoring performance, learning from the data, and communicating it with you via comprehensive reporting.
Does Digivizer offer AI-generated video content?
At Digivizer, we’ve already helped brands take advantage of AI-generated video. We believe AI-enabled content is an exciting opportunity for brands: it’s helping them test more variations, develop more resonant stories, and better understand their customers. Our team of creative specialists and brilliant motion designers is using it to build brands, capture attention, and drive action.
Interested? Speak to Digivizer today about AI-enabled creative testing and performance marketing.
FAQs
Can AI video replace traditional video production?
No, AI video can’t replace traditional video production in every circumstance. AI-generated video works best in situations where your team needs a lot of creative variation at a more affordable rate than a traditional production could provide. Always carefully consider the best method for the task.
Is AI-generated video a risk to brand safety?
When AI-generated video lacks careful source selection and quality control, it can pose a brand safety risk like any other piece of content. However, these risks can be significantly reduced with an experienced and responsible creative team.
How can brands effectively use AI-generated video for their social media ads?
Brands can effectively use AI-generated video for social media ads that would otherwise be too expensive, slow, or numerous to produce traditionally. AI video is at its best when used for creative experimentation at scale: brands can test many variations of an idea and let data determine where to invest.
Can AI video be used for Meta and TikTok ads?
Yes. Meta and TikTok allow AI video in advertising, but they do have rules around its use. TikTok requires clear disclosure of ads that have been substantially modified by AI, and may restrict or reject undisclosed ads. Meanwhile, Meta applies its own labels when it identifies AI-generated content, and has self-disclosure requirements for political content.
