Short video apps like TikTok have exploded in popularity, Instagram “stories” and similar features in other social media are used by millions of people, and YouTube has over 2 billion logged-in monthly users. This means both B2B- and B2C-oriented companies have to include videos in their marketing campaigns or risk lagging behind. In this article, we will show how AI video editing can help create cost-effective content and explain how you can include such a feature in your app.
Marketers are increasingly using videos
According to a survey, 87% of marketers report positive ROI from videos, and 96% expect to allocate more money for this channel. Moreover, 69% of the surveyed professionals who don’t currently invest in videos plan to start doing so in the near future. This means more time spent creating videos and more money to purchase licenses for products that could help create those videos.
The trend was there for a few years already but the pandemic spurred its development. People forced to stay at home had to entertain themselves, as a result, 96% reported an increase in the time spent watching videos. Brands quickly caught on and started putting out more content, especially since AI video editing made it easier to make.
On the other hand, this means increased competition that forces marketers to increase the standards for the quality of their videos. The apps that help them with achieving it will come out on top.
AI video editing in a nutshell
Simply put, the term “AI video editing” means modifying a clip using software empowered by artificial intelligence. This can include many things from automatically trimming the video file to adding various color filters, augmented reality masks, and other effects.
The most impressive example of this is probably the trailer for the horror movie “Morgan” made by IBM’s Watson supercomputer. However, even a modern smartphone is capable of running AI video software.
What AI-powered video editors can do
Automation
The already positive ROI on video marketing can be improved further, and one of the ways to do so is automating the routine and boring part of the job, thus decreasing the “I” in “ROI”. AI-assisted video editing apps can crop the clips, trim them, add subtitles, and do more. They can even give suggestions on how to improve the video. The marketer then has more time to spend on things that require a human touch.
Beautification
Videos with humans in them often require at least some makeup, e.g. a touch of powder to matte the skin a bit. With AI video editing, it becomes unnecessary, as the app will make the presenter look their best. Beautification features include skin smoothing, acne and eye bag removal, teeth whitening, and more.
Effects
This includes anything and everything, from AR face masks and LUTs (color filters, e.g. sepia or black-and-white), to animated avatars. Judging by the immense popularity of TikTok with teens and young adults, a company selling to this demographic should seriously consider using this feature.
Green screen
If the AI-powered video editor has a background subtraction feature, the user doesn’t need a chroma key: the app will automatically detect the person and replace the background with whatever is needed. This can be a blur, a static image, a GIF, or even a complete 3D environment. Imagine a person unboxing a pair of fins at the bottom of the ocean.
Slideshows
This is an easy way to turn a bunch of photos into a video. A user can take a few pictures with their smartphone or select the images in the gallery, and the app will do the rest. AI video software usually allows to then add captions, GIFs, music, and effects.
Live streaming support
Live streaming was a godsend in times of pandemic. It allowed some companies to survive and others — to improve their bottom line. For example, brands from the Estee Lauder family combined virtual try-on with online presentations as part of their COVID-related strategy, and as a result, the total sales of the conglomerate increased by 60%.
Some AI-assisted video editing apps can work in real-time, allowing users to modify the video in the process of filming.
How to enable AI video editing in your app
There are two major ways you can approach it.
The first is creating everything from scratch. It allows you to retain total control over the technical and creative aspects of the project. In addition, the technology itself could be leveraged to increase your company’s valuation should it go public. However, this path is expensive, lengthy (expect to spend from six months to over a year), and requires a team of professionals with rare skills.
The other is getting an AI video editing SDK. It doesn’t require a large initial investment, already has a diverse set of features, and can be integrated with an app in a day. But choosing the right one can be hard, there are licensing fees to consider, and the direction of the technology’s development is out of your hands.
As a side note, we have written an entire article on choosing the best video editing SDK, feel free to check it out.
As usual, which approach to choose depends entirely on your company’s specific business needs.
Conclusion
Marketers adapted to the changing consumer behavior and started putting more effort and money into the videos. With artificial intelligence and augmented reality, it became much easier to create such content. Thanks to specialized SDKs, AI-assisted video editing became affordable to medium businesses, as well as large companies.
So if you want to see how your app would work with such a feature, check out Banuba AI Video Editor SDK for free!
