Google this week added to its rapidly expanding AI arsenal with a set of tools to generate talking-head videos. Use cases include product how-tos, support modules, or spokesperson-based video ads. This update adds avatars and other features to Google’s existing and underexposed Vids tool.

Before going deeper into those updates, let’s take a step back to examine the moment that Google Vids hopes to meet. When evaluating AI products and features – especially for SMBs – we often say that the best applications save time and energy around rote things that SMBs dread (think: marketing copy).

To add to that list, AI can shine in offering SMBs things that they’ve always wanted but felt were out of reach. The out-of-reach part includes things that are technically complex or take lots of time to produce. And the thing that sits at the top of that list is video advertising – a longtime holy grail in local media.

But two factors are converging to bring it within reach for SMBs. The first is greater ad inventory – brought by things such as streaming media and Amazon Ads’ efforts to provision it for SMBs. Greater surface area in streaming video means more supply, and thus lower cost and ad rates for SMBs.

And the second factor is AI. Under the category of generative AI, automated video creation is growing in quality and availability. This includes prompt-driven creative, scripts, virtual avatars, and other features –  a massive opportunity we’ve seen addressed already by emerging innovators such as Creatify.

Is SMB Video Advertising Approaching an Inflection?

Vanity Factor

That brings us back to Google Vids, and this week’s updates. The tool that was launched last year in Google Workspace now includes AI avatars, automated script editing tools, and image-to-video capability. It’s also launching a freemium tier that lets new users get a no-commitment feel for Vids.

Taking those one at a time, users can now select an avatar from a range of personas and voices. Like Creatify, this avatar can serve as the spokesperson for an SMB ad or educational video. And these virtual personas say anything you want them to say, with scripts that can be created and edited on the fly.

As for the script editing tools, Google Vids can now detect filler words (“um”, “ah”, etc.) Users can then click on those words in the transcript to remove them in seamless ways. This could resonate given that post-production is often the most tedious and time-consuming part of video-creation workflows.

All the above will be available to Workspace Business or Enterprise Starter users as well as Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. And as additional enticement, Google teased upcoming updates such as custom backgrounds (think: Zoom backgrounds) and aspect ratios (portrait, landscape, and square).

Next steps (our speculation) could also involve greater avatar personalization. One thing driving SMBs’ longstanding aspirations for video ads is a classic vanity factor. If they can put their AI selves front & center in a way that avoids uncanny creep, that could be the SMB killer app we’ve been waiting for.