Video and audio with AI: editing, subtitles and talking avatars

What can AI do with video and audio?

Only a few years ago, editing video meant expensive software and a lot of patience. Today AI takes care of many of the tedious steps for you. For example, it can:

• turn speech into text and add subtitles to a video automatically
• remove coughs, "um" sounds and long pauses from speech
• combine holiday photos and clips into a highlight video with music
• create a talking avatar, a computer-made presenter who reads your text aloud
• read text aloud in a natural AI voice, including in Finnish

This guide covers the main tools, two practical examples, and what is allowed and fair when it comes to people's voices and faces.

Get to know the tools

• CapCut – an easy video editor for phone and computer, with automatic subtitles, ready-made templates and background removal. Excellent for social media and family videos.
• Descript – edit video and audio through text. It transcribes the speech, and when you delete a word from the text, it disappears from the video too. Good for interviews, podcasts and training videos.
• Synthesia and HeyGen – talking avatars. You type the text and a ready-made presenter speaks it to camera in many languages. Widely used for onboarding and how-to videos.
• ElevenLabs – very natural AI voices and translation of speech from one language to another.
• Suno – makes a complete song, vocals included, from a short description. Fun for a party song, for example.

Most offer a free trial, but the best features and videos without a watermark usually need a paid subscription. Check the terms on each service's own website. You do not need every tool: for an ordinary family or social media video, CapCut is plenty, and the others are worth trying only when your needs grow. Note too that some services store uploaded videos on their own servers, so do not upload confidential material.

Example 1: a summer video for the family

Your phone is full of photos and clips from the summer, but nobody has time to look through them. Turn them into a two-minute memory video:

1. Open CapCut and start a new project.
2. Pick 20–40 of the best photos and short clips.
3. Try the automatic edit or a ready-made template that cuts the pictures to the beat of the music.
4. Add a title at the start, for example "Summer 2026 at the lake".
5. Save it and share it in the family WhatsApp group.

If you want narration, write a short text and record it yourself on your phone. Your own voice is always warmer than a machine. AI can help you with the words:

Example 2: an introduction video for a small business

A short video says more about your business than a long text. A good social media video is 30–60 seconds long and has subtitles, because many people watch with the sound off.

Here is how: ask AI for a script, film yourself with your phone and import the video into Descript or CapCut. Remove unnecessary pauses with AI, add automatic subtitles and check them.

An avatar video in Synthesia or HeyGen works well when you need many similar how-to videos, for instance for training new staff or in several languages. In marketing to customers, a real person usually builds more trust. More ideas are in the guide Marketing and social media.

Video basics that AI cannot fix

AI helps a lot, but it is hard to get a good result from poor raw footage. Keep these in mind when filming:

• Sound first. Viewers forgive a slightly blurry picture but not bad sound. Film in a quiet room and keep the phone close. An inexpensive clip-on microphone improves sound more than any app.
• Light from the front. Face the window rather than standing with your back to it. Daylight is the best light, and it is free.
• Portrait or landscape to suit the purpose. Portrait suits social media on phones; landscape suits TV and computers.
• Keep it short. Before filming, decide on the one thing the viewer should remember. Everything else is extra.

Once the video is ready, AI can help with publishing too: ask it to write a title, a short caption and a few suitable hashtags.

AI voices and voice cloning

Services like ElevenLabs can read text aloud so naturally that it is hard to tell it from a real speaker. Ready-made voices can be used freely within the service's terms, for example as the narrator of a how-to video.

Voice cloning means the AI learns a particular person's voice from a short sample and can then say anything in that voice. It is useful if you want your own voice to speak English, for example, or if an illness threatens someone's ability to speak. At the same time, it is one of AI's riskiest features.

Protect yourself from voice fakes

With the same technology, scammers can call you speaking in your child's or grandchild's voice: "Grandma, I've had an accident, I need money right now." The voice can sound completely real.

• Agree on a family safe word that only you know, and ask for it in any suspicious call.
• Hang up and call the person back on the number you know.
• Never transfer money in a hurry because of a call or message.

Read more in the guide AI scams.

Copyright: music and footage

The music libraries built into video editors usually contain tracks you may use on social media. A well-known hit from the radio, on the other hand, can get your video muted or removed. In business adverts, use only music that is licensed for commercial use. Check the terms for AI-generated music too. You can read more in the guide AI and the law.

Start small

Pick one thing: subtitle a single video in CapCut, make a family video, or hear how your own text sounds in an AI voice. Once you have the basics, you can move on to bigger projects. If you need pictures for your video, see the guide Creating images with AI.