AI vs. human: The future of video editing and how you can prepare

Video has grown to become one of the most preferred content formats. According to Wyzowl, 91% of businesses are using it to engage their audiences.

Image via Wyzowl

While creating high-quality videos often involves a lot of editing work, AI has greatly simplified this process. AI-powered video editors are one of the best AI inventions, assisting human editors with many editing tasks. 

These tools are so effective that many believe they can replace human editors. But is that really the case?

This article explores the evolving dynamics of the AI vs human video editing debate and offers insights into the future of video editing.

The role of AI in video editing

Let’s face it, video editing can be a tedious process with many repetitive tasks. If you’re not jotting down subtitles for your video project, you could be going through hours of raw footage looking for the right clip for a particular scene. 

All these mundane tasks greatly increase the editing time and make it difficult to create content for various video marketing platforms. AI is transforming video editing by automating many of these tasks, allowing human editors to edit videos more efficiently. 

Proponents of the AI vs human video editing debate would love us to believe that AI would replace human editors. However, now, AI technology manifests more as a helper than a replacement.

The best video editing software solutions leverage AI technology to automate the following tasks:

• Clip organization:

AI-powered video editors use advanced algorithms to identify and group raw footage with similar characteristics. For example, the tool can identify and extract footage that contains people or objects. 

• Speech-to-text transcription:

AI video tools use machine learning and natural language processing to convert the words spoken in a video into text. The text can be used as subtitles or closed captions for the video to make it more accessible to a broader audience.

• Color correction:

AI-powered video editing software can detect the exposure levels in raw footage and adjust it to achieve the right color balance. They automatically correct common color issues, such as white balance and saturation, to ensure the color scheme and tone in your videos are consistent. 

• Audio editing:

An AI video editor uses advanced algorithms to analyze a video’s audio to identify and remove unwanted sounds, such as background noises, hisses, and clicks. Such tools can also amplify desired sounds, such as music and speech, to improve the sound quality and make the content more understandable.

• Scene recognition:

AI video editors use scene recognition technology to identify specific scenes in a video. This is particularly helpful when editing sports and action content, as you can quickly identify the key moments and create a highlight reel.

AI vs human video editing: The precision of AI vs the creativity of human editors

The AI vs human video editing debate often comes down to two factors:

• The precision of AI
• The creativity of the human touch 

Which of these elements is more important to the video editing process? 

With the demand for video content the highest in recent years, many would urge that precision is more important in the video creation process. The precision of AI manifests as the speed and accuracy with which it performs tedious and repetitive tasks, such as:

• Color correction
• Audio editing
• Caption generation
• Clip organization 

Tasks that once required hours of manual labor can now be completed in seconds. This has greatly streamlined the video editing, allowing editors to create more video content for their online audiences.

AI also brings about great cost efficiency. By automating many manual and repetitive tasks, editors can keep the video editing cost low.

With AI’s efficiency and accuracy, what is the place of the human touch in video editing?

The place of humans is in their creative decision-making capabilities. This is the culmination of experience and intuition that AI algorithms haven’t fully grasped yet. 

The distinctive essence of human editors comes to life in the following situations:

• Emotional resonance:

A human editor understands the emotional significance of specific events in the video. As such, they can change the narrative flow to evoke specific emotions and improve video engagement. 

• Intuitive storytelling:

One area where humans win the AI vs human video editing debate is their intrinsic storytelling ability. Based on their experience, human editors know whether to make a scene last longer so viewers can appreciate the moment or edit out certain details to deliver a message quickly. 

• Ethical considerations:

While AI can overlook cultural sensitivities, human editors use their experience and exposure to protect the moral of the story while ensuring the content doesn’t offend anyone.

The future of video editing: Will AI replace human editors?

Instead of perceiving AI as a threat, let’s acknowledge it as a powerful tool that simplifies the work of human editors. As such, the AI vs human video editing discussion should not focus on whether AI will replace humans but on how these two can collaborate to improve the video editing process. 

As AI handles tedious and repetitive tasks, human editors can focus on the storytelling to ensure the message appeals to their audiences. Also, humans should avoid some video editing mistakes, as explained in the Attrock guide while editing videos.

As AI organizes the raw footage and filters the audio, human editors can review the footage for audience sensitivity. This collaborative effort will greatly enhance the video editing industry, allowing editors to create high-quality videos more efficiently.

But to get to the promised future, editors must do the following:

Invest in education and training
Editors must learn to use AI tools to perform specific video editing tasks. 

AI video editing tools are here to stay and the faster you learn how to use them the more effective you’ll be as a video editor.

Stay up to date with developments in AI technology
AI technology is evolving at a rapid pace. What AI editors can’t do now may become well within their capabilities soon.

As such, staying up to date with trends in AI development is essential to staying at the forefront of this dynamic field.

Final thoughts

As the demand for video content continues to rise, combining the power of AI technology with human creativity is the solution for meeting these expectations. 

Rather than fearing replacement, human editors should invest in education to learn how to use AI tools to streamline the video editing process. 

In essence, this means that the future of the industry is not a choice between AI and human video editing. Instead, it’s a dynamic collaboration in which the two complement each other.