Synthesia

Synthesia has built a strong position in enterprise video by solving a specific costly problem: producing professional training and communication videos at scale without cameras, studios, or on-camera talent. Used by a notable proportion of Fortune 100 companies, its primary use case is internal communication, onboarding, and L&D content where production quality matters but creative distinctiveness is secondary.

The platform converts a text script into a video with a speaking AI avatar. Users choose from 230+ stock avatars representing different demographics, or commission a custom digital twin for additional cost. Avatars deliver scripts with natural voice and realistic lip sync across 140 languages, making Synthesia particularly valuable for global organisations that need to localise training content without re-shooting in every market.

Avatar quality is high relative to the industry, though outputs remain recognisably artificial. In formal contexts like compliance training or product onboarding, this is generally acceptable. For external customer-facing marketing where authenticity matters, the uncanny valley effect can be a liability.

Pricing is based on minutes of video per month. The Starter plan at $29/month provides 10 minutes, which sounds generous until a single training module runs 5-8 minutes. The Creator plan at $89/month with 30 minutes is more practical for regular production.

Several important features are locked behind Enterprise: SCORM export for LMS integration and one-click translation. For L&D teams deploying to an LMS, the lack of SCORM on Creator is a meaningful gap.

The studio-quality custom avatar, creating a high-fidelity digital twin of a specific person, costs $1,000 per year per avatar and is only available to annual subscribers.