This AI tool aims to simplify video editing, but it costs money
Confession: In real life, I’m not that tech-savvy, which is ironic since I write about AI.
As a reporter I like to write about the future of technology. As a consumer I like to wait until products are tested by first adopters.
That clearly puts me in the target audience of AI video editing startup Veed.io.
When Veed launched in 2018, it entered a market dominated by video editing software giants like Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Even they had younger competitors like ClipChamp and Kapwing. But AI has at least offered the promise of leveling the playing field across many product categories and industries, and now the race is on to see who can build the best mousetrap.
Video + feed
The idea behind Veed, a mashup of “video” and “feed,” was to create a video editing platform for everyday users. CEO and co-founder Sabba Keynejad was even more convinced about the name when he was able to get his hands on the domain veed.io, which he says sounds a bit like “video.”
“Veed is not for premiering, making movies or being a professional. It’s the opposite,” Keynejad said. “It’s for the newcomer, the person who’s just trying to get started.”
The London-based company started with basic video editing tools like adding text and cropping video. It has since added AI-enabled features like subtitle generation, video translation, background noise removal and audio enhancement.
The company also released Video GPT, a video creation tool that uses ChatGPT’s GPTs, which are custom AI chatbots built on AI company OpenAI’s chatbot technology.
The startup has 12 million monthly users, including 100,000 who pay for subscriptions. That includes business and enterprise users.
“What our users want to achieve and what we all want to achieve is great, professional looking videos“They look like an agency or a YouTuber did it,” Keynejad said.
Kicking the tires
I wanted to try Veed out for myself, so I took a quick video of my son in equine therapy with my iPhone 12.
I opted for the free version of Veed, but there are plans ranging from $18 to $70 per user per month that provide access to more features. After verifying my email address, entering my name, choosing a team name (it automatically selected “Lisa’s Team” for me), and answering a few questions about my video subscriptions, I was ready to go.
To start, I clicked on the “create project” tab and uploaded my video, which took about 30 seconds. Then I played around with what Veed calls Magic Tools, which include features like Auto Subtitle, which generates subtitles, Clean Audio, which removes background noise, and Magic Cut, which says it removes the ums and ahs that speakers make. (I didn’t have any of those tools, so I couldn’t try out that last one.)
Animation adds effects like fade-in, and also a Ken Burns zoom-in, named after the documentary filmmaker. I was impressed that the Ken Burns tool was able to focus on my son and the horse while slowly zooming in.
It took about 5 seconds to generate subtitles, and the transcription was actually quite good. The translation to Spanish and Norwegian was almost instantaneous.
I wanted to add stock music — they have a song called Happy Cartoon Story that’s just as happy as it sounds, but you have to subscribe to it. Also, videos made with the free plan have a Veed watermark in the right corner.
A spokesperson said that subtitles and stock music are available to free users, but are limited. In the 30 minutes or so I spent playing with this video, I reached the subscription limits for subtitles, translations, text-to-speech, dubbing, and avatars. You’ll also need to upgrade your subscription to get an embed code, but you can watch my video here.
Overall, though, Veed has made it pretty easy to “edit” the video, adding various effects including emojis, animated stickers, and gifs, as well as resizing it for social platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Veed plans to release a feature in a few weeks that will let you create an avatar of yourself, upload a script, and generate a video with an AI clone speaking on your behalf in your tone of voice.
Veed will also be releasing a tool called Document to Video, which will let you upload a presentation or article and turn it into a video with your avatar as the presenter. He hopes this will be particularly useful for enterprise users.
“A lot of people, even our HR team, if they put a PDF or some text on Slack or an internal message board, nobody ever reads it,” Keynejad said. “But they do watch videos.”
cattle $35 million raised from VC firm Sequoia Capital in February 2022.
