AI video tools promise fast, cheap production. But what you get back depends entirely on how much thinking you did before you hit enter.

In Episode 11 of Season 3's Intentional AI series, Virgil and Cole take on AI video generation, arguably the most complex and most hyped area of AI content creation. Video production has always been expensive, often running thousands of dollars per minute through traditional workflows. AI tools are pitched as the solution to that cost. The reality is more complicated.

The core question Cole raises early: are you using AI for speed, or for creativity? With video, that matters even more than with text or images, because the ability to edit what AI generates is extremely limited. You are largely working with what comes back.

Virgil tested three tools, Claude, Artlist, and Sora, using the same prompt and the same source article the series has been following. The results varied wildly. Some tools produced clean, factually grounded output that could serve as a foundation with additional editing. Others burned through resources quickly and delivered results that raised more questions than they answered (to put it lightly). Each tool had tradeoffs between creative quality, turnaround time, cost, and practical usability.

The pattern held across the board: AI video does not reward vague ideas. It rewards storyboarding, defined objectives, and clear constraints. The most realistic use case is not generating entire videos from scratch, but using AI for individual pieces -- a specific animation, a graphic element, a rough draft to react to.

AI video is getting better. But better does not mean ready.

Previously in the Intentional AI series:

Episode 1: Intentional AI and the Content Lifecycle

Episode 2: Maximizing AI for Research and Analysis

Episode 3: Smarter Content Creation with AI

Episode 4: The role of AI in content management

Episode 5: How much can you trust AI for accessibility

Episode 6: You’re asking AI to solve the wrong problems for SEO, GEO, and AEO

Episode 7: Why AI can make your content personalization worse

Episode 8: The real value of AI wireframes is NOT the wireframes

Episode 9: Just because AI can create images doesn't mean you should use them

Episode 10: The Super Bowl didn't sell AI, it exposed it

New episodes every other Tuesday.

For more conversations about AI, design, and digital strategy, visit https://www.highmonkey.com/podcast and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.

(0:00) - Intro

(1:04) - The good & bad of AI video generation

(1:30) - Are you using AI for speed or creativity?

(3:56) - Structure up front = your best friend

(7:28) - How Coinbase used simplicity to stand out

(8:42) - More Super Bowl AI narrative unpacking

(10:20) - We tested 3 tools for AI video generation

(11:47) - Testing Claude

(14:24) - Testing Artlist

(16:32) - Testing Sora

(19:03) - Closing thoughts & takeaways

(21:40) - Outro

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