How your brand sounds matters a lot more since digital selling and online interaction became the norm. Even the audio quality of routine online meetings can leave a lasting impression (which is why you should use a decent microphone).
For sales and marketing videos, voice actors make a big difference — which is why the best professionals are well paid for voiceover work. But now that AI voices have been trained to mimic human intonations and pauses, they can help brands improve the quality and quantity of lots of different types of audiovisual productions
Tutorials, Webinars and Demos
We all know that people generally learn more easily by seeing and hearing than by reading text. But it takes a lot of work to make a video about, say, how something works or what makes it different. Once you’ve recorded a video script, it’s not easy to change — even if the voice is that of one of your own subject matter experts.
AI voices, on the other hand, are tireless and always ready to record a professional-sounding version of your new script that you can download immediately. You can even use different voices for different audiences or different product lines.
Here are a few ways companies are using AI voices for applications and services.
E-learning
E-learning companies are one of biggest users of AI voices. It’s not hard to see why. There’s no end to the number of things people need to know which can be more easily learned if they are capably narrated.
Healthcare
Patients often find healthcare information delivered by their physicians to be stress-inducing and difficult to retain. Deliberate and immersive audiovisual presentations — affordably generated with AI voices — can help patients better evaluate their options.
Prototyping and rehearsing
I used to record scripts for our explainer videos myself — to check the pace, length, and style; and to assist the animators. Every edit required a new recording; I sounded increasingly flat with each iteration. AI voices aren’t as good as seasoned professionals. But they sound better than I do, and they don’t get bored.
Where to Learn More
Amazon and Google have text-to-speech tools you can try. Microsoft’s Azure lets you copy and paste your script into their publicly available converter to hear your script read back.
WellSaid Labs lets you try out their advanced voice generator. The company recruits professional voice actors to make hours of recordings from which their AI builds “voice avatars.” Some avatars are created to perform scripts in distinctive styles — such as, Mexican American, non-binary, or Western U.S. male. The free trial lets you work with different voices and try out the tools for correcting pronunciations and intonation.
Worth a look.
