How to edit Reels with AI (and what's still up to you)

6 min read ·

Editing with AI doesn't mean pressing a button and getting a viral video. It means getting the repetitive part of editing out of your way, the part that takes time and needs no taste, so you can spend your energy on what only you can decide.

What AI already does well

  • Transcribing what you say, with the timing of each sentence. With the text in hand, repetition and rambling are easy to see.
  • Finding silences and long pauses by measuring the audio, and suggesting where to cut.
  • Spotting parts that add nothing: the context intro, the idea said twice, the ending that drags on.
  • Pointing to the second where the video probably loses people, by reading the retention graph or the video itself.
  • Generating automatic captions.

What's still up to you

  • The tone. A pause can be a breath or the beat before a punchline. Only you know which is which.
  • What the video promises. AI can tell you the hook is weak, but the right promise depends on what you want your audience to feel.
  • Reshooting. If the best fix is saying the line another way, the camera is still yours.
  • The final call. Every suggested cut is a suggestion. Watch before you post.

A workflow that works

  1. Film the way you already do. You don't need to change anything to use AI for editing.
  2. Let AI make the first cut: removing pauses, the rambling intro and repeated parts.
  3. Watch the whole cut version, ideally on your phone, the way your audience will.
  4. Fix what went wrong: bring back a part that was missing, cut another that slipped through.
  5. Do what isn't cutting in your own editor: on-screen text, b-roll, music.
  6. After posting, check the retention curve. It's what tells you whether the edit worked.

Watch out for over-cutting

Removing every pause makes the video rushed and tiring. The goal isn't the shortest possible video, it's having no moment where the viewer has no reason to keep watching. If your speech sounds rushed after the cut, give it a little breathing room back.

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