The Most Essential YouTube AI Tools for Every Video Creator
Conor Eliot
AI generated content and AI powered tools promise to be the next frontier of content creation. And while ChatGPT has gained notoriety as a household AI name for its ability to spit out words faster than your average human, the opportunities AI can offer are beyond the written word. They extend to video creators as well.
In this article, we will walk you through the ways AI can make your video editing and content creation process more effective, efficient, and streamlined, including tools you can use in your process from start to finish for:
- Brainstorming
- Keyword research
- Thumbnail creation
- Analytics
- Clipping & editing
TLDR: What can AI do for video creators?
With so much hype around AI, it feels like one of the most popular buzzwords in our culture today. So just to catch you up, let's quickly define generative AI according to IBM:
"Generative AI refers to deep-learning models that can generate high-quality text, images, and other content based on the data they were trained on."
And while AI promises to transform nearly all of society, it is certainly a controversial innovation. When it comes to video creation and content creation specifically, there are many concerns about AI video creation depicting completely fabricated yet realistic scenes or unlawfully using copyrighted material. But when we take a step back from the extreme end of AI generated video, or content created purely with generative AI, it becomes clear that using AI tools can truly offer value to creators and YouTubers.
This AI powered opportunity largely lies in the potential to help YouTubers create videos with less tedious work. Because if you're a creator you know--between the planning, filming, video editing, and production of short form video for TikTok, there is a lot of work that goes into every video. The labor-intense nature of content creation and video editing can make it hard for YouTube creators to scale their platforms efficiently.
That's where AI powered tools can step in to pick up the slack. Let's explore how.
Here are some of the best AI tools that we recommend to YouTubers
When people think of AI video tools, they often think of AI generated video with tools like Synthesia that turn text to video, create voice cloning, or make AI avatars. But for the purposes of this article, we want to focus on the video production process for creators who are not using AI to produce the entire video, as there are several stages of the video creation process that can benefit from generative AI tools. Here are five places where we recommend using AI to make your YouTube content process more efficient and effective.
1) Ideas and brainstorming
The first question for many novice YouTubers who don't have a defined voice online is often: "What YouTube video can I make?" And, even as you gain YouTube experience and a larger following, the search for inspiration is ongoing--it's only natural that ideas run dry for creatives every so often. Plus, even if you have a surplus of ideas, for the purposes of building your channel, it's important to prioritize the ones that will resonate most with your viewers. But how can you know which ideas those are? AI tools can help you here, particularly some of the best AI tools such as:
2) Youtube keyword research tools
As an extension of the ideas and brainstorming topic, AI tools can help you create videos that get discovered and go viral by analyzing the algorithm to pull relevant keywords and predictions of what will resonate with your audience. These tools can help with SEO, discoverability, channel optimization, search ranking, and more. Check out AI tools like:
3) Thumbnail tools
The process of uploading to and posting on YouTube is time-consuming for many creators, as it involves designing a thumbnail, writing copy for the description, linking to all of the necessary channels, and more. This is a prime example of a process where AI tools can help creatives reduce their repetitive workload. There are numerous tools that can help you create visual AI generated content and produce compelling thumbnails with all of your branding. Some examples are tube buddy and VidIQ listed above, as well as:
4) Analytics tools
After putting so much effort into every step of creating a YouTube video, it's important to track metrics and closely follow your analytics to see what's working and what isn't. After all, it's well documented that YouTube content creator success stories like Mr. Beast focus a significant amount of their time and energy analyzing analytics to create more effecitvely. Many of the tools we discussed above can strategically help you track the success of your YouTube content creation, including:
5) YouTube video repurposing and clipping tools
Social media is an essential aspect of any YouTube creator's success. Many videos get traffic via shorter clips on platforms like TikTok. But, producing a large volume of video shorts from every full-length YouTube video takes a lot of extra audio editing and video editor work that can hold creators back.
OpusClip is one of the best AI tools to help with short-form video creation. Our tool helps you create ten quality videos with the click of a button--without any video editing software. Our generative AI tool can create videos that are proven to be the most viral clips from your full YouTube video, and they include subtitles in a variety of styles to match your branding. OpusClip also offers an Autopost to YouTube feature, which makes it easier than ever to post YouTube Shorts.
Conclusion: Let AI work
YouTube creators have an unprecedented opportunity to make higher quality content faster and with more research-backed strategies. All thanks to the potential offered by generative AI tools. To learn more about how you can incorporate time-saving strategies into your production process and make the most of each video through maximal social distribution, check out OpusClip.
Post one clip every day for free
Enjoy 90 free minutes for new users, plus 60 free minutes every month for everyone to create and post daily.
Use our Free Forever Plan
Create and post one short video every day for free, and grow faster.
About the Author
Conor Eliot
Conor Eliot has been working with creators since 2015. Fluent in Mandarin, he helped globalize the creator economy by connecting major Asian and Western brands with content creators in foreign markets. Recently, Conor spent two years leading Asia operations for TSM Esports, where he worked with some of Twitch's biggest creators. Seeing that non-gaming live creators were being massively underserved, Conor joined Opus, where he works with creators to push the boundaries on what is possible to do with the livestreaming medium.