AI has made our lives easier in several ways. The usage of AI writing tools has risen in every possible field in the last few years. ChatGPT currently has over 180 million users!
But a new era of AI starting, a step up from text. Last September, Google launched Audio Overview, a feature where two AI hosts start up a lively “deep dive” discussion based on your sources.
Recently, we’ve also covered AI Spokesperson tools, which allow you to create videos with avatars and not have to show your face.
Today, we’ll review a rather new platform, Akool, that lets you both create videos from templates and generate an avatar video. We’ll talk about its main features, pricing, pros and cons, and determine whether you should use it or not.
Let’s start!
Akool
Akool is a premium AI video suite founded by Dr. Jeff (Jiajun) Lu in 2023. Since its launch, it has supported over 10,000 companies.
Its AI-powered features go from Face Swap and Background Change to Talking Avatar and AI Support Agent.
We tested its key features to determine how good it is. Here are the results.
Key features
Dashboard
When you land on Akool’s dashboard, you’ll see a user-friendly interface with everything you need: live chat support, learning resources, tools and how much space you have left.
If you work with a team, the workspace feature allows you to create multiple spaces to keep things organized and separate from private projects.
The dashboard is dark and I was a bit disappointed to see there’s no light mode.
AI Video Editor
When you start working on the AI Video Editor, you have 3 options: start a video from scratch, use a template or generate an avatar video.
The templates are sorted through category and frame size. There are far more templates for social media size videos, although Akool doesn’t offer mobile apps to have a more real experience.
As to avatars, as you can see below, there are plenty and you can even choose different versions of the same avatar with different clothing. We’ll cover more of this feature in a minute.
To make your video more interesting, Akool also offers elements like brand logos, music and text.
On the right side of the editor, you’ll see AI tools such as image generator and background removal, which can be used outside the editor as well. There’s also the image upscaling tool which enhances image resolution.
Image Generator
Akool’s image generator generates images from text prompts or other images!
For those who have trouble describing exactly what they want, Smart Text is available inside this tool, so you can improve the prompt and get an image just like you want.
The image generator even lets you choose the aspect ratio of the image and if you are on a Pro plan, there’s an extreme speed mode to reduce the waiting time.
Background Change
With Akool’s Background Change, you remove and add another background to your product image to make it more appealing to sell. The background can either be a solid color, a template, an image you upload, or even an image you generate.
Akool keeps close all the images you generated within the Image Generator tool, so you can pick one of them for the background.
Talking Avatar
If you want to create a talking avatar video, head straight to this tool.
You’ll see the option of either choosing an avatar or generating one. This process is almost the same as generating an image. You can generate it with a description, generate an image, or directly upload an avatar image.
The same goes for the voice. There’s a list of voices, but you can also create your voice by cloning any sound you want.
Then, simply write a script or upload an audio and the avatar will say it.
This type of technology is great if you offer online training videos, want to elevate online shopping experiences or are seeking to grow your social media presence.
Talking Photo
Maybe you don’t want an immersive avatar. Maybe you’ll prefer to upload a picture and let it speak for itself. With Akool, that’s also possible!
The face recognized on the input will have a moving mouth and some additional facial expressions.
Face Swap
Akool offers face swap features both for images and for videos. Besides detecting a face and swapping it for another, the tool has an integrated re-aging option. There’s a slider that goes from -30 to 30 years so you can make the avatar look younger or older.
The result of the re-aging is a bit weird still, but maybe because it’s a new feature.
Personalized Video
Personalized videos are similar to a talking avatar video but are mainly designed for email marketing. This feature promises to create a virtually unlimited number of video variations based on your video input and the variables you set.
You can find it in the Video Campaign tab. Either upload a video or create an Avatar video. Then you’ll have your script and you need to select the variables that will change depending on who is receiving that email.
Finally, upload a file with your list of contacts, so Akool can generate the variations.
Jarvis Moderator
Jarvis Moderator is an Akool service, not to be confused with Jarvis, an AI writing assistant, now known as Jasper. It intelligently moderates multimedia content such as images, videos and text in various scenarios to reduce the risk of content violations.
Team features
Akool lets you add team members even on its free plan. You get to include up to 3 members on its lowest plan and 20 members on its highest. Similar to Google Drive collaboration options, you can assign three types of roles: admin, editor and viewer.
Languages supported
Akool supports pretty much any language and dialect you can think of!
This is particularly useful when creating a talking avatar, since it can speak in any language you want.
Other features
Akool offers an API to incorporate generative AI into your existing workflows.
It also has a Streaming Avatar tool to create a real-time conversational avatar.
Support and resources
You can contact the Akool support team via email or join their Discord group if you have any questions.
Akool also has a long list of learning resources. They upload YouTube videos each week and offer free webinars, blog posts and guides.
Be careful, though, when you check their FAQs section or chat with the bot, since the answers don’t always match what you are asking.
Pricing
Akool has 5 plans, one of them completely free:
- Basic: free. Get 3 customized instant avatars and upload files of up to 150M.
- Pro: $30 per month. Clone your voice unlimited times and remove the watermark.
- Pro Max: $119 per month. Get faster processing and upload quality of up to 4K.
- Studio: $500 per month. It includes 50 customized instant avatars and 1T storage for team use.
- Enterprise: custom.
It also has a referral program where you earn 200 Credits for every friend you refer who registers and uses at least 4 credits.
Akool Pros and Cons
Pros
Akool’s AI technology allows you to do wonders with videos and images. Thanks to its tools you can send modern and engaging emails to your subscribers.
It is open to feedback, so any suggestion or criticism you have can be easily shared with them via the feedback button located in the dashboard.
It also has a free plan, allowing you to test all its tools before purchasing a subscription.
Cons
Sometimes the avatars don’t lip-sync to the audio or their expressions and movements don’t match what they say.
The free plan has a very low-resolution limit, so you won’t be able to work with those nice pictures you have saved on your computer.
Verdict
Akool is an incredible platform from which anyone selling their products or services online can benefit. Whether it’s removing the background of the products you are selling, creating more engaging and personalized email campaigns or creating a video in no time, Akool has the tools to help you do it.
Of course, it’s still a new technology, so it has a lot to improve in terms of the avatars’ design, but, since Akool is open to feedback, I believe they’ll fix it quickly.
Have you ever tried an AI video editor before?
Tell us in the comments!
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