Synthesia Review: AI avatars for training and explainer videos

Synthesia solves one specific, expensive problem: someone has to be on camera saying exactly the right words, in twelve language versions, and re-recorded every time the product changes. For that problem it is excellent, and cheaper than any alternative we have found.

We produced a five-video training series with it. Script to finished video took about twenty minutes per module, and the avatar delivery is good enough that test viewers did not comment on it being AI — which is the real bar for internal content. The avatar library is large and the language coverage is genuinely broad; we shipped the same module in English, Spanish, and Japanese without a voice artist.

Set expectations correctly. This is presenter-style content: talking head, slides, screen recording overlays. It will not look like cinema, avatars still gesture slightly stiffly, and anything that needs real human emotion — a heartfelt founder message, a sensitive HR topic — should still be filmed with a person. The templates make starting fast but can make a course library feel samey if you never customize.

Pricing starts around the high teens per month for a starter plan and climbs with seats and features; training teams should look at the corporate tiers. For a company replacing even a fraction of its external video production, the return is obvious.

For training, onboarding, and explainer content at scale, Synthesia is the category leader for a reason.