Will AI Eradicate Voice-Over Jobs?

Technology has opened a whole new perspective for voice-over workers, professionals, part-time, and enthusiasts who want to try themselves in an attractive job. With the breakthrough of the internet, in the mid-2000s voice-over and localization services started gathering people from all over the world connected with the business. By 2010 those services multiplied and started offering more jobs and opportunities than ever. Roughly 15 years later, technology struck back with artificial intelligence.

In the last year or so, we have seen more and more AI voice-over offerings around the web and social networks, with promo links jumping all over. There were some automated voice options in the past. However, they sounded artificial, robotic, and boring. AI is now improving on that, but still doesn’t dominate the market. Yet. So far, one can find different offerings with more or less success in giving voice to your work. After all, the trend started on social networks, and the younger generations were quick to embrace it. How does that sound to us, professionals? Terribly boring. And frightening.

However, new AI solutions tend to sound more natural and lifelike than those automated voice-overs from Instagram and TikTok. It is, therefore, completely natural for professionals to worry about their jobs. Should we be really worried? In short, we definitely should. Smaller jobs, meant for presentations and movies for a smaller audience, are already practically lost to AI. As I said previously, younger generations are already used to listening to artificial, boring voice-overs through social networks, and they see no difference in various types of performing. Some parts of the market are still untouched. The term ‘still’ is emphasized here.

Commercials for a wider audience are still done in a ‘classic’ way with real people reading the text, performing as best they can to satisfy customers. TV documentaries are still here, and some audiobooks as well. But the harsh truth is that AI is getting better every day, and it is cheaper than us, which means it is here to stay. And take most of our jobs. Big clients will probably go with ‘natural’ reading for some time, but the market is already shrinking, and lots of people will be out of jobs by the end of this decade. Maybe even most of us.

There are many suggestions on how to fight this. Sound more natural and cheerful, or dramatic, than ever, stop editing breaths and small mistakes, and make it sound more natural and conversational than ever. Many agencies are casting professionals to read for AI training, but where does that get us? One-time pay for the training, and – that’s it, we’ve put ourselves out of the job. Or, we can choose not to do it, but guess what – there’s always someone who will. It may not be the best training, but the AI will get trained. After all, the AI would not use your voice at all. The client would choose the voice that can interpret almost any language (it’s already available). So, what can we do?

Most agencies have already changed their terms and conditions, stating that they would never use our voices for AI. But that doesn’t cut it, as there would be companies disrupting the market by hiring people directly to read for the training. They don’t even need you to record in a professional studio. Some, like one of the largest voice-over directories, Voices.com, are trying to sell professional voices in a way that the artist gets compensated each time their voice is used. There’s also an option to try and contact larger AI companies directly and try to sell them your voice so you can charge them monthly, but – good luck with that.

The question remains: how can we survive in times like these? To be honest, it’s time to find more things to do as the voice-over market for ‘live people’ will keep shrinking. Maybe you’re lucky like me to speak the language that has so many quirks and is spoken by a small number of people (Croatian in its variants has less than 4 million native speakers, with around the same number of those living abroad), and your job might survive for a bit longer. Most spoken languages will, however, get the most training, and the market is going to shrink faster than you could imagine.

Always thoroughly read contracts, especially if you see that your voice might be used for AI training or cloning. Don’t fall into the trap as a friend of mine did some five years ago. She signed a contract with a large company that paid quite well for the reading. She, however, now can’t get a dime for any usage of her voice. And some ‘brilliant’ minds have already used her voice in commercials (even though it sounds completely unnatural). Also, invest in your skills, and that means new skills. Don’t know what you might be good at? Ask AI to help you find out what’s best for you…

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