I recently heard a series of political ads voiced both by real people and AI voices. They were the exact same scripts, and each one was voiced by both a real male and female, and then by an AI-generated male and female voice.

I have to admit, it was hard to tell that the AI-generated voices weren’t real. But happily, when each of the 4 scripts was tested publicly, people overwhelmingly preferred the real human voices. Why? Well, the site didn’t tell us exactly, but my guess is this: intent.

A real human can read through a script and determine the tone and intent of the author, and can deliver a performance in accordance with that. Can AI do the same? Perhaps not.

Take, for example, the following declaration: Great! Thanks so much. These few simple words can take on VERY different meaning depending on how they are delivered. Perhaps you are genuinely pleased with your experience and wish to express your happiness. But then again, maybe you were NOT happy with whatever just went down. Think about how you’d deliver the lines then. Maybe you’re angry, or maybe a little sarcastic. Maybe you’re about to meet your doom and your best friend is cutting bait, leaving you hanging. That would be an entirely different delivery.

Humans get all these nuances, and a professional voice talent knows how to effectively deliver each of them to really drive home the author’s point. We put ourselves into the script. We embody it. We own it. It’s just another reason you should #hirehuman.