AI video maker for small business: what it does and what to look for

Short vertical video is where attention is on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. For a café, a clinic or an online store, the problem is rarely ideas. It's the hours: writing a script, recording a voiceover, finding music, cutting it all together and adding captions. An AI video maker does those jobs for you, so a finished video takes minutes instead of an evening.

What an AI video maker does

The good ones handle the whole chain, not just one step:

• Script. Writes the lines for your business from information you already have, like your website.
• Voiceover. Reads the script with a natural AI voice, so you never record yourself.
• Edit. Cuts scenes to the voice, places captions word by word and keeps everything inside the vertical safe area.
• Music and sound. Adds a track and effects that land on the cuts.
• Branding. Uses your logo, colors and photos so the video looks like yours, not like a template.

If a tool only does one of these, you are still the editor. That's fine for some teams, but most owners want a finished file they can post.

Five things to check before you pay

1. 1Does it invent facts? A video that claims a discount you don't offer or a review nobody wrote is worse than no video. Look for tools that only use numbers, offers and reviews you gave them.
2. 2Does it need you on camera? If you want faceless content, make sure the formats work with screenshots, photos and text.
3. 3Can it read your website? Typing your business details into a form every time gets old fast. Starting from a link saves the most time.
4. 4Do videos look different from each other? Ten videos from the same template in a row look like spam. You want several creative formats and fresh lines each time.
5. 5Is the pricing predictable? Per-second or per-video credits are easy to plan with. Watch out for plans that hide exports or watermarks behind upgrades.

What it won't do for you

AI can make the video. It can't decide what your business stands for. You still choose which offer to push this week, which review to feature and which link people should tap. Ten minutes of that thinking makes every video better.

How Cliveo approaches it

Cliveo starts from your website link. It reads your pages, colors and logo, then turns them into 17 creative ideas, from a movie trailer parody to a customer review card and a limited offer. Every video gets a script, one of 5 narrators, original music and captions in 7 languages. Numbers, offers and reviews only come from your company details, and the AI can't change them.

Plans start at $9 a month for 350 credits, which is about 11 videos of 30 seconds. One credit is one second of video. See pricing for the larger plans.