AI video and audio tools can turn a script into a voiceover, a presentation into a presenter-led video, or a long webinar into short clips. They can also clone a real person's voice or face, which is where most of the legal and reputational risk sits. This guide explains the main kinds of tool, what to check in the licence before you publish, the consent and labelling rules that apply, how credits-based pricing works and how to check quality before anything goes out under your brand.

Know which kind of tool you need

"AI video" covers very different products. Most business needs fall into one of five types, and several products do more than one.

  • Text-to-speech: a library of synthetic voices reads your script. Useful for narration, explainers and accessibility. ElevenLabs is a voice specialist, and Murf AI describes itself as a voice platform offering text-to-speech, voiceovers and dubbing.
  • Voice cloning: a model of a specific person's voice, usually your own or a presenter's. ElevenLabs offers both an instant clone and a professional clone; it describes the instant version as working from under two minutes of audio and the professional version as a more realistic, fine-tuned model.
  • Avatar video: a synthetic presenter delivers your script on screen, popular for training and internal communications. Synthesia is built around this format.
  • Text-to-video generation: a model generates footage from a prompt or an image. Tools such as Kling AI and PixVerse sit here, and some platforms bundle several models: InVideo's pricing page lists third-party video models including Kling and PixVerse alongside others.
  • Repurposing: software that turns existing material into video. Pictory says it converts text, blogs, scripts, slides, URLs and existing videos into videos, and can break longer content into short social clips. Castmagic describes itself as a content platform that turns video and audio recordings into other content assets through transcription, summaries and generated copy.

Start from the output you need each week, not from the most impressive demo. A team producing training modules needs a reliable avatar and multilingual voices; a marketing team cutting podcasts needs transcription, clipping and captions; nobody needs to pay for all of it.

Commercial rights and licence terms

Being able to download a file does not mean you may use it in an advert. Check four things in the terms and on the pricing page before you commit:

  1. Which plans allow commercial use. Free tiers often do not. ElevenLabs' pricing page shows a commercial licence from its Starter plan upwards, not on the free plan.
  2. What the model was trained on, and whether the vendor offers any protection. Adobe says its own Firefly models are trained on licensed content from Adobe Stock and public domain content, describes them as commercially safe, and states that Firefly outputs carry Content Credentials. The same page notes that the Firefly app also includes partner models from other companies, so check which model produced a given asset before relying on Adobe's description.
  3. Who owns the output and whether the vendor can reuse your inputs. Look for how uploaded scripts, voices and footage are stored and whether they train the vendor's models.
  4. Restrictions on use. Read the acceptable use policy as well as the licence, and check what happens to your custom voices and avatars if the vendor decides you have breached it.

Licence terms change, and they differ by plan. Save a copy of the terms that applied when you produced a campaign.

Consent for cloning a real voice or face

Cloning someone without permission is the clearest way to get into trouble, and the better vendors build consent checks into the product. ElevenLabs asks users of instant cloning to confirm that they have the right and consent to clone the voice. For its professional clones it goes further: "You can only create a Professional Voice Clone of your own voice. Even with their consent, you cannot clone someone else's voice." The other person can create and verify a clone on their own account and share it. Synthesia lists consent requirements for avatars and moderation at the point of creation among its core safeguards.

Even where a tool permits it, get written consent from any employee, actor or presenter whose voice or likeness you use. Agree what the clone may be used for, for how long, and what happens when the person leaves the company. A voice recording of an identifiable person is personal data, so your normal data protection duties apply to storing and using it.

Regulators are watching misuse closely. The US Federal Trade Commission has finalised a rule against impersonating government agencies and businesses and proposed extending protections to the impersonation of individuals, citing deepfakes and voice cloning; it also asked whether to cover firms that knowingly supply tools used for impersonation fraud.

Labelling AI content: platforms and regulators

Disclosure rules now come from two directions: the platforms you publish on and the law.

YouTube requires creators to disclose realistic altered or synthetic content, such as making a real person appear to say or do something they did not, altering footage of real events or places, or generating a realistic scene that did not happen. It does not require disclosure for clearly unrealistic content or for production help such as using AI for scripts, outlines or thumbnails, and it lists cloning your own voice among the examples that need no label. YouTube says creators who consistently fail to disclose may have a label applied for them or face penalties, including removal of content or suspension from the YouTube Partner Program.

The EU AI Act sets transparency obligations in Article 50. Providers of systems that generate synthetic audio, image, video or text must mark outputs in a machine-readable way, and deployers who publish deep fakes must disclose that the content is artificially generated or manipulated, with lighter requirements for evidently artistic, creative or satirical work. The European Commission's AI Act overview says certain content, namely deep fakes and text published to inform the public, should be clearly and visibly labelled, and points to a voluntary Code of Practice on marking and labelling AI-generated content. Check that page for when each obligation applies.

In the US, the FTC's rule on fake reviews and testimonials covers reviews that misrepresent that they are by someone who does not exist, such as AI-generated fake reviews. An avatar presented as a real satisfied customer is exactly the kind of thing to avoid.

None of this is legal advice. Read the source rules for the places you publish, and ask a qualified adviser if your use is borderline.

Credits-based pricing

Most of these tools sell credits rather than unlimited use, and the conversion from credits to finished minutes varies by feature.

To compare fairly, estimate the minutes you will produce in a typical month, including retries. Generative video in particular rarely gets a usable clip on the first attempt, and every attempt spends credits. Check whether unused credits expire, what top-ups cost, and whether higher resolutions or premium models cost more per second.

Quality checks before you publish

  • Listen and watch in full. Synthetic voices mispronounce names, brands and numbers. Check whether the tool lets you correct pronunciation before you choose it.
  • Check facts in the script, especially if an AI wrote or translated it.
  • Check translations with a native speaker before publishing a dubbed or multilingual version.
  • Look for visual artefacts in generated footage: hands, text on signs, logos and faces.
  • Confirm rights for every element: music, stock footage, fonts and any real person shown or heard.
  • Apply the right label for each platform, and keep any provenance data, such as Content Credentials, intact.
  • Keep records of consent, the licence terms, and which tool and model produced each asset.

Comparing the options

No single tool covers every job well. Decide first whether you need voice, a presenter, generated footage or repurposing; then check commercial rights on the plan you would actually buy, how the vendor handles consent, and how credits translate into the output you need. Our ranking of the best AI video and audio generation tools sets the main options side by side so you can compare them on those points.