You no longer need James Austin Johnson doing Donald Trump. These days, there’s an impersonation every time we open social media – not by people, but by artificial intelligence. From politicians to celebrities to company CEOs, there’s an AI spoof made every second, it seems.
And why not? It only takes a picture and a few soundbites to recreate someone digitally and have him or her spew whatever crazy we want them to spew.
Does that mean that AI is in the future of interviews, including customer testimonial videos?
Benefits of using AI for customer testimonials
Let’s first look at why generative AI would make interviews and testimonials a lot easier.
First of all, we shall assume that the interviewee has given full permission to use his or her likeness for AI. Legal issues aside, it’s unethical to recreate someone without permission, a topic into which we won’t – and shouldn’t have to – dive deeper.
The talent is often a very busy person. When we interviewed the CEO of Zoom, Eric Yuan, for a testimonial, we only had a 15-minute window in his schedule. Interviews have to be scheduled weeks in advance and there are occasionally cancellations and postponements.
With AI, the talent simply has to approve the script and we can create the footage in minutes. No need to schedule anyone. Including editing and any other post-production, the entire testimonial video can be produced within hours instead of days or even weeks.
As for budget, a professionally-produced interview or testimonial with one shoot day and editing would cost anywhere from $3000 to $30,000 or more depending on production value.
An AI testimonial would cost a few hundred dollars, maybe a thousand depending on revisions.
And with that budget, you can put that person anywhere. No need for location scouts, permits, or dressing sets. You can put your talent on a sailboat in the Bahamas, in space, or wherever.
In many ways, an AI customer testimonial or interview video makes sense.
Why you should NOT use AI for interviews and customer testimonial videos
Despite all the benefits, we here at Picturelab highly discourage the use of AI to create interview and customer testimonial videos.
And the reason is simple: authenticity.
Artificial intelligence is artificial. A testimonial loses its impact if it’s a robot talking to you. Would anyone know or care that the talent approved the script? Probably not. But they will care that a company used AI to have someone influential say nice things about it. It will have a negative impact on a company’s reputation and customer relationship. It’s a matter of trust.
Likewise, for any corporate communication, a CEO, or anyone speaking on behalf of the company, needs to take the time to do the interview instead of handing it off to your AI generators. Sincerity is key.
AI is changing the world of content creation, but it should not be used to create fake robots of real people. Even if the message is genuine, the overall impact will be negative.
Picturelab AI produces AI marketing content. We don’t do AI testimonials, but we do everything else. Visit our page and contact us for pricing and details: info@picturelab.com.