The content creation landscape is rapidly evolving, with AI tools that can participate in everything from collaboration and outlining ideas to developing drafts, creating interactive podcasts, and outputting complete video productions. While much has been said about the splashy cinematic capabilities promised by tools such as Open AI’s Sora and Google’s upcoming Lumiere, these are only part of the picture.
This article looks at three tools to take your scripts and output videos featuring virtual presenters. The AI avatars offered by Synthesia, HeyGen, and DeepBrain AI become your on-demand on-screen talent. While imperfect, these apps hint at exciting possibilities for the future of content production.
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Fast, low-cost alternatives to traditional presenter videos
It’s easy to understand why there’s a demand for AI-driven video creation. For starters, video content tends to have higher engagement rates than text and images alone. Studies have shown that viewers retain more information when it’s presented in a video format rather than as static text. Moreover, platforms like Facebook and Instagram prioritize video content in their algorithms. If you’re a content creator, that matters because reach and engagement are your bread and butter.
Traditional methods of shooting and producing videos require specialized expertise. Setting up a professionally staged and well-lit recording environment, presenting on camera, and doing post-production is a big undertaking that’s not always possible or practical. Text-to-video AI avatar platforms offer an alternative by automating much of the process of creating presenter videos, slashing costs and production time. This makes video production more accessible to DIY content creators and small businesses.
With these use cases and benefits in mind, let’s look at the three applications I tried and where I hope the category goes in 2025.
Synthesia: Great results, slow moderation
Synthesia is the most customizable of the three apps I tested and has the best AI. It outperforms the others in terms of realism, especially on the audio side. Script delivery is more human-like in its vocal timbre, inflection points, and facial expressions. Synthesia allows you to choose from a range of avatars, including Santa Claus.
Like the other apps, Synthesia supports translation to multiple languages, making it suitable for creating videos for a global audience. You can enhance your videos by incorporating slides, images, and screen recordings into your projects and adding background music and sound effects from the built-in library.
Synthesia is the only platform where every video is moderated by humans. Using my trial account, moderation took a couple of hours, which is too long to maintain a good creative flow. Like the other apps I tested, Synthesia can create a custom avatar based on your likeness. It does this by recording a video of you and then modeling your doppelgänger.
HeyGen: The easiest to use
If you’re dipping your toes into the waters of virtual presenter videos, HeyGen is a good starting point. It is easy to use and has a good selection of stock avatars. As with the other two apps, you can pair any available voice with the avatar of your choice.
Beyond the basics, HeyGen offers a good level of customization for its avatars. Each of the avatars has several looks you can choose from, and there’s an AI outfit generator feature. While not as extensive as Synthesia’s customization capabilities, HeyGen provides plenty of options to keep things fresh. I noticed a range in the quality of voiceovers. Some voices sounded more natural, while others were robotic. This isn’t unique to HeyGen, as the other two apps have varying quality levels in their voiceovers, depending on the voice you pick.
DeepBrain AI: Convenient social media templates
DeepBrain AI offers a user experience similar to HeyGen. Like HeyGen, it has a diverse library of stock avatars and backgrounds and a collection of social media templates. You can swap voices and pair them with your chosen avatar to achieve the desired tone and style for your video.
In terms of customization, DeepBrain AI falls somewhere between HeyGen and Synthesia. While it doesn’t offer the same depth of avatar personalization as Synthesia, it provides more options than HeyGen. You can create a custom avatar by uploading a photo. DeepBrain AI also allows you to customize elements such as backgrounds and branding, giving your videos extra polish.
The cost depends on your usage level
DeepBrain AI and HeyGen generally cost less than Synthesia. While all three platforms offer free trials and tiered subscription plans starting at less than $30 per month, DeepBrain AI and HeyGen provide more generous usage allowances. This difference in pricing becomes more pronounced as your video production needs increase, with Synthesia’s higher-tier plans costing more.
Why I want Google to get in the game
Google’s NotebookLM doesn’t output video, but its virtual podcasts are the gold standard for AI-generated audio dialog. A recent update allows you to interject and chat with the AI hosts. That’s awesome, and it would be better if Google added AI avatars and video output to the mix.
While Synthesia, HeyGen, and DeepBrain have carved a niche in the virtual presenter category, none can match the realism and dynamism of NotebookLM’s virtual podcasts. When and if Google moves into the AI avatar segment, I hope the functionality is attached to NotebookLM. NotebookLM’s ability to leverage personal datasets to create compelling content is unrivaled, and adding video-based virtual presenters would be a grand slam. And there you have my first wish list item for 2025.
It’s still early days for AI video production
While Synthesia, HeyGen, and DeepBrain AI offer viable solutions for AI-powered video creation, the technology is still in its early days. Realism and voice quality can vary, even within the same platform. With giants like Google poised to enter the arena, compelling developments will surely change the game for creators like artists and musicians. Let’s see what 2025 brings.
