AI Director

The AI Director plans the edit of a recording for you, like a senior editor would. It recognises what kind of video it is (podcast, interview, talking head, tutorial, screen recording, vlog, product promo, talk or webinar, event montage, gaming, music performance, slideshow, narrated pictures, or something else) and edits it the way that kind of video is usually edited. It then shows you its plan, explains each choice, and makes nothing until you approve.

The AI Director has its own full-page workspace: the editor's Direct my video view (board 61). At the top of the editor, Direct my video and Edit it myself switch between the Director's workspace and the full timeline. Both work on the same edit: what the Director does is on your timeline, and what you change by hand stays. The workspace shows:

• Where it is: twelve steps along the top (recording, request, reading, brief, plan, checks, review, preview, approve, make, quality check, ready). On a phone: the step you're on, and four modes (Director, Preview, Changes, Approve).
• Left: the Director. Say what you want or what to change in your own words; earlier plan versions are there too.
• Middle: the live preview of the edit (nothing is rendered yet) and the story: opening, main part and ending, with the plan on one strip. Tap a part of the story to jump there.
• Right: every change, each with its switch, Why this?, Adjust and the moment on the video, the Shorts to make, and anything Davnai can't do yet (it says so and adds nothing in its place).
• Bottom: how many videos it makes, the export minutes, the checks, Open in the editor, Watch the preview and Approve and make.

Davnai Agent stays the quick helper on every page. When you ask it to edit a video, it shows one short card with Open in the Director (in the editor: Show it in Direct my video).

Anything about the whole edit (cutting, the opening, captions, music, transitions, templates, text and graphics, intro and outro, b-roll, Shorts, shapes, the look) changes the plan. Besides that, the Director's tools change your edit directly, just as you would by hand, as one step you can Undo:

• Change my background: "blur my background from 1:05 to 1:20", or a colour.
• Sound effects: "a whoosh at 2:10".
• Speed: a ramp up, ramp down or hero moment (slow in the middle) over a part; play a part backwards (up to 30 s).
• Cover a part of the picture: blur, a watermark or zoom past a corner, the top or the bottom.
• The sound of a part: louder or quieter.
• Pictures and clips over the video: mirror one, or move it to a corner and make it smaller or bigger.
• A colour look: "make it cinematic", or only on a part ("black and white from 2:00 to 2:20").
• Effects and stickers: "a VHS effect at 0:30", "a heart sticker when I say thank you" (shake, glitch, blur, VHS, light leak; arrow, star, heart, burst, circle, check, cross, speech bubble, sparkle, bolt).
• GIFs: "a happy dance GIF at 1:10" finds one and puts it in a corner (up to 3 at a time).
• Voice changer: deeper, higher, robot, radio or echo, or back to your own voice.
• Mix and move a picture or clip: a blend (screen, multiply, overlay, lighten, darken), "slide the logo from the top left to the bottom right" (keyframes made for you), green or blue screen made see-through, or remove the background of a clip (up to 30 s).
• Tracks: "mute the music", "hide the captions", "turn the sound effects back on".
• Beat sync: "line it all up with the beat" puts text, effects and stickers on the music's beats.

You don't need a plan first: ask for one of these as your first message and it's done on the edit straight away.

Some things are done by hand, and the Director opens the right tool at the right moment instead: recording your own voiceover ("talk over the market part" opens the recorder there), adding your own files, exact frame-by-frame moves, and fine colour sliders and LUTs. What it can't do yet it says, and nothing is put in its place.

Open a recording and choose Direct my video, or ask Davnai Agent and press Open in the Director. The workspace asks what you'd like. Say it in your own words ("make Shorts for TikTok", "tighten it, keep the jokes") or tap an idea. On Home, attach or pick a recording, type what you want and press Start; it opens the same way. When a plan is ready, Home shows it in Up next (Review the edit) and under Today → Needs you (Plan ready → See the plan). While Davnai Agent is talking about a video, a chip above the message box says AI Director · the video's name; press its × to ask Davnai about anything else.

Before planning, the Director needs the recording's transcript and AI suggestions. The first time, this takes a few minutes (longer for long recordings). A card in the chat shows each step (Listened, Finding the best moments, Your choices, Planning the story, Checking it before I show you) and What I found so far, and updates by itself; you can keep using Davnai meanwhile, and the plan follows in the same card. If a step can't finish (for example the AI service was busy), the card says why with Try again, instead of waiting.

Yes (batch E). Every recording gets one look at the picture after it's uploaded: Davnai finds the scenes, where your face is and how close, slides or screens, and how much moves. The working steps show Watched ("6 scenes; your face on camera 82% of the time…"), and What I found lists it too. The Director uses it to tell the kind of video apart (mostly slides is a tutorial or talk; you on camera most of the time is a talking head or podcast), never puts b-roll over a slide or screen, only zooms in while you're on camera, and points out low-energy stretches (little movement and a quieter voice) as places to tighten. Recordings uploaded before this get the look the first time you ask the Director; that plan is made from the words, the next one uses the picture too. It doesn't read the words on slides.

Yes: after a Quick Preview is made, Davnai checks the file itself for black picture, a picture that stands still, long silences, how loud it plays (most platforms play at about the same level), and, for a new shape, whether your face sits at the edge. Under the preview it says "I checked it: no black or frozen picture, and the sound is at a good level", or lists what it found with Show me (jumps there) and a fix where it has one (Turn on clean sound, Speed up quiet parts, Follow my face), which asks the Director to change the plan.

For a first plan, the Director first says what it found (what the video is about, where your strongest line is, how many moments work as Shorts and how many parts to tidy), then asks you to confirm its choices in a short form inside its message: Template, Where it goes, Cutting, Intro, Ending, Text on the video, Music and Shorts. It has already chosen what it would do; tap to change anything, then Confirm and start. Skip: you decide lets it choose everything. You can also just type what you want in your own words. Your answers are kept and offered again next time.

Template offers four of the 15 edit templates that fit your video (the best fit marked Suggested; All 15 shows the rest) or No template. A template you pick is applied exactly as in the editor: its captions, colour look, music mood, the cut level of its pace, its graphics placed where you say things (name title, key points, counters, quote cards, chapters, a follow reminder) and its transition on every cut. The Director then does the rest (opening, b-roll, Shorts…). On the plan, Template is the first row: Choose to pick one, change it or take it off; it's rebuilt straight away without using AI help. In Davnai Agent and connected apps, name a template ("edit it in the Podcast style") and the same happens.

Every plan puts a transition on every cut, with or without a template: one that suits the video (Crossfade for talking and teaching, a soft Crossfade for podcasts and interviews, Dissolve for talks and webinars, Whip pan for Shorts and fast videos, Zoom for promos), a different one where the topic changes, and long parts are split where a sentence ends (nothing removed) so they get one too. Change one cut, or all of them at once (Every cut in Adjust), switch the row off, or say "no transitions".

At the top of the short form, How asks: Step by step with me (as above: you check each change) or Do it all for me. With Do it all, the Director plans the edit with your answers, then checks and fixes its own work, picks the Shorts and writes the posts for your connected accounts, then stops and waits for your OK. Nothing is made or posted without it. A Posts row lets you choose At my posting times (your times in Social Studio → Posting times) or No posts. In Davnai Agent, asking for a whole job ("make this into a YouTube video, Shorts and posts") offers Do it all, ask me at the end or Plan it with me; Do it all opens the Director with it already chosen.

While it works, the strip at the top shows Read the video, Plan, Check and fix, Shorts and posts, Your OK, Make and Your OK to post, and What it's doing on the right lists each step live, with every fix as it's made. The plan takes about a minute, so keep the page open until it's made; after that you can close it. You get an email when it's ready for your OK, and it shows as a card on Home. Stop and show me what's done stops it; the plan so far stays, to finish step by step, and no run is used.

What it checks (only things it can measure and point to): a cut that lands in the middle of a word (moved to the word break), text on the video where the captions are (moved up), music loud under your voice or not getting quieter when you speak (lowered), a Short over a minute for Shorts and Reels (trimmed at the end of a sentence), a Short that opens with words that need what came before, like "so" or "as I said" (it starts at the next sentence), and two posts that open with the same line (rewritten). When it's ready, Checked and fixed at the top of the changes lists each fix with Show me, and each Short has Play to watch it in the preview. Change anything first (ask the Director, switch things off, or Edit it myself), watch the preview, then Approve and make.

After the videos are made, the posts it wrote go to Social Studio → Approvals (from "AI Director"), one per video, at your next free posting times (or "as soon as it's approved" when you have none). Approve, change the words, send back or skip each one there; nothing posts until you approve. You get an email when they're waiting. YouTube posts use the title it wrote; TikTok posts go out public with comments on (change them in the calendar after approving).

Runs: each Do it all counts as one run (a run you stop, or one that couldn't finish, doesn't count). Free includes 1 a month, Starter 2 and Pro 10 (the Pricing page shows the current numbers). When they're used, Get more runs buys a pack of extra runs that don't expire (the payment page shows the price), or plan step by step as usual. In a team, runs come from the owner's plan and only the owner buys more.

It's in Beta: it can't judge taste (whether a joke lands, which take you prefer). That's what the preview and your OK are for.

The Director plans cuts from what is said, so a video without talking has nothing to cut. Instead of stopping, it says This video has no talking and offers what still works: Finish my video with your intro and ending, logo, follow button and music from your Brand Kit, a new shape, and the quality (720p, 1080p or 4K). If you asked for something a tool does (join, split, resize or trim), that tool is offered first, with your video already in it.

Yes. Words sits next to Changes on the right (a tab on a phone, with the video pinned small above it): every line with its time, what the Director cuts struck through, and small marks where its graphics (blue) and b-roll (purple) land. The line being played is lit and followed (Follow video). Tap a line to jump there; double-click a word (long-press on a phone) to fix its spelling.

Yes. Before any form or plan, it reads what you asked and says back what it understood in its own words (owner, 25 October). Then it does what fits:

• Join more videos ("need to join additional videos", "add my other clip"): your list of videos opens right there. Add the others in the order they should play, then Plan the N videos together: Davnai joins them into one video (a minute or two; no export minutes; it's in your Library as "Joined for the AI Director", up to 10 a day) with the words of every video, and the Director plans all of it, cuts, captions, graphics, b-roll, music and transitions across every video. It opens by itself with your request. Or I'll edit them myself. An edit that already has several videos is always planned together this way, never just the first one.
• Split into parts, a new shape or keep just one part: it opens the right tool, or Plan the whole edit instead.
• A question: it answers.
• Not sure what you want: it asks one short question (with two or three options) before starting.
• An edit: the short form opens with what you asked already chosen (for example Shorts & Reels, 3 Shorts, no music), and you can still change anything.

The plan is a card in the Davnai Agent chat:

• At the top, the long video's length, how many Shorts, and the look; a sentence on what you'll get; then What I found: the kind of video it thinks it is (and says when it isn't sure) and short facts about your recording.
• What you asked for: every part of your request, ticked when done; needs you ones have buttons to choose, and done differently says how and why. The Director never quietly swaps what you asked for something else.
• How I'll edit it: each decision (cuts, opening, sound, captions, look, music, logo and call to action, and the editor's tools below) with the reason. Switch one off, open Why this?, or Adjust to choose yourself.
• One timeline of what it will do: the opening, intro, your video with the parts it cuts shaded, the outro, and dots where text and b-roll go (hover or tap a mark to see why), then The story, beat by beat (Opening, Intro, The main part, Ending).
• Shorts: tick the moments you want. Edit this Short opens one Short on its own in the editor, in its shape. Adjust the Shorts picks other moments and the Shorts' shapes.
• The rules I follow and Where everything is at the bottom (see below).
• The Director's one question, when it has one, as buttons, and ideas to try.
• At the bottom: how many videos and the export minutes it uses, then Preview, Editor and Approve and make. On a phone, Approve and make stays above the message box while the plan is open. With the plan open in the editor, Approve and make is also at the top of the editor: it makes the plan as planned (changes made by hand go with Make video instead).

Yes, in three ways:

• Say it in the chat ("keep the joke at 12:40", "no music", "only vertical"), or tap the question's buttons or an idea. The Director answers in words and the card shows What changed (for example "Long video 12:46 → 10:12").
• Adjust a decision: cut level (Keep everything, Light or Balanced, with the length of each), the opening moment, caption style (all 24) and where captions sit, a look, a music track, the feel of the transitions or one transition, a speed, a freeze's length, a sound shift or a layout's frame. These change instantly and don't use your daily AI help.
• Undo under What changed: each line has its own Undo (and Show me, which plays your recording from that moment, or moves the editor's playhead there when the plan is open in the editor). Undo all of it goes back to the plan before.
• Adjust also covers caption font, words at a time and bigger key words; the shapes of the long video and the Shorts; your logo and the call to action at the end; and the words of each piece of text on the video.

Each change is a new version (Plan 1, Plan 2…). Older plan cards in the chat fold into one line; the newest plan is always the full card.

Yes. Editor on the plan card opens the video editor with the plan already on the timeline: the parts it removes (as cuts you can drag back), the opening, captions, music, look, logo, intro and outro, calls to action, shape and text on the video. Anything you switched off on the card is left out. Davnai Agent stays beside the editor, still about this video, so you can change things by hand or by asking: when you ask for a change, the new plan replaces the old one on the timeline straight away (your own cuts and pictures stay), and Undo in the editor brings back what you had. In the editor, the Davnai tool's Ask the AI Director opens the same conversation. Press Make in the editor to make the long video; Shorts are made from the plan card with Approve and make. Your changes in the editor are kept with your account for that plan, so they're there on another device too.

Your edits are kept. When you press Back to the Director and ask for a change (or use Adjust), the cuts you switched on or off, the parts you removed yourself and your own opening stay as you left them; the plan shows "kept: …" under the cuts. Choosing a different cut level or opening with Adjust replaces those choices on purpose.

Yes, and you must: Approve and make stays off until you've watched the preview to the end (owner, 25 October). Watch the preview plays the whole edit live in the workspace, exactly as it's set on the timeline (music and your voiceover included), with no minutes used. A part played backwards or with a new background is first prepared by a video worker (only that part, usually in under a minute), and Approve waits for it. Switching a change off starts the watching again. (Earlier, a Preview on the plan card made the whole long video exactly as approving would (cuts, opening, captions, music, logo and call to action, and the editor's tools: transitions, speed changes, freezes, sound between parts and layouts, in the first shape you chose) in quick quality (480p). It is usually ready in a few minutes; you can keep changing the plan meanwhile. Chapters jump to the opening, the start of the episode and the ending.

• A preview uses no export minutes and is not saved in your Library. It is deleted after 7 days.
• Picture fixes and face following are only in the final videos (they take longest to make).
• If you change a switch after the preview, it says so and offers New preview.
• You can make up to 20 previews a day (Davnai may change this). Shorts are watched straight from the timeline: tap a Short's marker.
• You can approve without a preview.

Approve and make first shows the checks: the plan checks out, export minutes needed and left, anything Davnai can't do yet, anything still waiting for your choice, changes you made by hand and that nothing is posted. The long video is always made from the edit you previewed, exactly as it plays (intro and outro included); only the Shorts are made from the plan (owner, 25 October). The Make step opens so you can choose shapes and quality. The workspace then shows each video being made with its four steps (Start-up, Get files, Making, Save) in plain words ("Waiting for a video worker"); a video that couldn't be made says so, that no export minutes were used for it and that your plan is safe, with Try again, Open the plan in the editor and a reference for support. When all are made: See them in your Library, Write the posts and Keep editing. Approving starts them in full quality: the long video in each shape and every Short you kept. Davnai then takes you to Library → Edited, like every other tool, where a bar shows them being made. They also appear in the project and on Home under Today → Being made, and you can cancel there. If something you asked for still needs your choice, the confirm step says so first.

Yes. Asking Davnai Agent on any page ("edit my latest video down to 3 minutes") shows a short plan card with See every cut, Approve and make video, and Open the plan, which opens the full plan card about that video. Claude or ChatGPT, when you've connected them and allowed them to publish, show you the whole plan in the chat first and approve it only when you say yes; Davnai emails you each time. They can leave single items out when approving (for example one transition), and change one item (a transition, a speed, a freeze, a sound shift, a layout, the caption style or where captions sit) just like Adjust here. In both cases, if the plan changed after you saw it (for example you asked for a change here), nothing is made and you're shown the new plan to check.

Claude or ChatGPT can also ask for one of the 15 edit templates by name (the same ones as Templates in the editor, for example "edit it in the Bold Shorts template"), and before the first plan they check with you what Davnai's own short form asks: where it goes, how tightly to cut, captions on or off, intro and ending, music and Shorts.

The rules I follow (at the bottom of the plan) shows them: a transition on every cut (a different one where the topic changes, never over the opening), speed only where you don't talk, at most three freezes, sound between parts of 0.2 to 0.6 s, Explain it at most once a minute, and captions chosen by the kind of video. Tap a saying ("No transitions", "Captions at the bottom"…) or start a message with From now on, Always or Never: the plan changes and the rule is kept for every video, as one of What Davnai remembers. Your rules lists them.

Where everything is (at the bottom of the plan) lists every part of the AI Director and where you find it now in Davnai Agent and the editor.

Yes: say it ("open with a drone shot of Lagos", "start with my logo animation"). It looks in your own clips first, then free stock, and plays it first, before the intro, instead of a strong moment. The plan shows Opens with and why; switch it off or change it in the editor like any opening.

The Director follows, in this order: what you asked now, what you told Davnai to remember, your habits, then the usual way to edit that kind of video.

• Habits: when you've done the same thing in 4 of your last 5 videos (for example captions in the "Bold" style, or vertical Shorts), it does it automatically and says so, for example "Captions (you added them in 4 of your last 5 videos)".
• What Davnai remembers: standing wishes such as "always end with my website". Open it from the account menu (top right) → What Davnai remembers. Add, edit, switch off (to pause) or forget each one; you can keep up to 200. Each shows when it was last used in a plan.

Yes. Any request for an intro or outro ("add an outro", "give it an intro and an end screen", or an animated or cinematic one) uses your own design: your standard intro or outro if you have one, otherwise your newest saved one from the Intro & outro studio (shown as Your saved outro, as you asked). With none saved, or when you ask for a new one (Make one in the short form), the Director designs it itself: your Brand Kit's motion style, the video's topic as the title, your name, handle, colour and logo, and for an outro what people should do next (subscribe, follow, visit your website). It's saved with your intros and outros, so you can change it there (Change). It never answers an intro or outro request with just your logo; say "logo card" or "logo outro" if that's what you want. If you saved a standard intro, the Director offers it on your branded videos (marked as your habit); say "no intro" to leave it out. See Intro & outro studio.

Yes. Ask for name titles, key points, quotes, counters or a Subscribe reminder and it places each one at the moment it's said. When you walk through a numbered list ("5 ways to…") or say striking numbers, it adds the points (point by point when you explain each one, with "2 of 5" in the corner) and counters by itself, unless you said no text. It only uses names said in the video or that you gave it. Change the words, look or timing in the studio's Text on video tab (the plan card Animated text on the video → Change). See Text and graphics studio.

Yes. It reads what you say, works out what kind of video it is (a tutorial, a talking video, a podcast…) and plans the graphics a professional editor would add, moment by moment, so a talking video never looks static (something visual about every 15–30 seconds where it helps):

• AI chat: when you read out a prompt ("You could type…", "Try…", "You can say…"), a chat window shows it, typed out as you say it, and you move into a small circle in the corner. When you then read the AI's answer ("Here is the kind of draft you might get…"), it appears under it, labelled Example draft. Short follow-ups like "Make it warmer" get their own small window.
• Comparison for analogies and comparisons (It's like… / Really…, Before / After), Steps with arrows for a recap like WRITE → PLAN → LEARN, and Point with an icon for tips and warnings.
• Zooms: a quick punch-in on a key line and a slow push-in over a story. Nothing is drawn; your video moves closer.
• Chapter titles, numbered points, counters, key points, quotes, name titles and b-roll, as before.
• Soft sound effects on the pieces (a whoosh, a pop, a click), and key words that pop in the captions.

Everything is in the plan with a switch, and on the timeline in the editor (zooms are blocks on the Graphics track: move or delete them). Say "no zooms", "no sound effects" or "no text" to leave them out.

Chapters: yes, by itself. In a video over 3 minutes that moves through clear topics (a tutorial, talk, course or podcast), it adds a chapter title each time you move on to a new topic, numbered in order ("Chapter 1", "Chapter 2"), at least a minute apart. Say "no chapters" to leave them out.

Callouts: when you ask. Say something like "add a callout at 1:20 saying Click here" and it places an arrow or a ring with your label at that moment. Davnai follows what's said, not the picture, so it can't tell where the button or detail is on screen: open the plan in the editor and drag the callout onto the spot you're showing. The style follows your channel style; you can switch between the arrow and the ring in the editor.

Yes. Ask in your own words ("make it punchy with whip transitions, speed up the boring bits, freeze on my numbers"), and the plan shows a row for each with every item, its time, why, and its own switch:

• Transitions: only on cuts. When the Director chooses (no template, no feel asked for), each cut gets what its story calls for: where only a pause or a slip was cut, an Invisible cut (the next part a little closer, so the jump doesn't show); where a new chapter starts, Chapter turn with its title; where a new idea starts with a number, Graphic bridge with that number; any other new idea, Into the frame or Card flip in turn (Panels in Shorts); a soft blend on the rest. Each one says why. Adjust sets the feel (Let Davnai choose, Smooth, Punchy or Clean cuts only) or changes one cut; all 55 transitions are on each cut in the editor. Never in the first seconds or over your opening, and about one every 8 seconds at most. Say "no transitions" or "only crossfades" to change them.
• Speed and freeze: parts where you don't talk (a screen demo, walking, b-roll) play faster, 1.25x to 2x. Your voice keeps its speed unless you ask ("speed up my talking a little" goes up to 1.25x at most). A freeze holds the picture for 0.5 to 1.5 seconds on a number or a result, at most three in a video. The new length is shown.
• Sound between parts: where silence was cut and a sentence starts or ends at the cut, your voice comes in a moment early (a J cut) or carries on a moment (an L cut), 0.2 to 0.6 seconds, so the cut feels natural.
• Explain it: when you say a number or go through steps, you shrink into a phone frame (or a side card, a corner circle, or top and bottom for Shorts) beside it, at most once a minute and never on your opening or call to action.
• Captions: one of the 24 styles, picked for the type of video, and they can follow your voice.

When a plan uses any of these, Approve and make makes the long video the same way the editor's Make video does, so what you approve is what you get, and Editor puts every transition, speed change, freeze, sound shift and layout on the timeline. The quick Preview shows the cuts, opening, captions and look, not these yet.

Yes. When you ask for b-roll (or when pictures clearly help, as in a talking-head video or a tutorial), the Director finds the moments that need a picture, such as a number, a place, an example or a routine, and picks a clip for each: your own short clips first when their name fits, then the Davnai library (clips Davnai adds for everyone), then free stock from Pixabay. Each one shows in the plan with its time, the clip, whether it's yours, Davnai's or stock, and why.

• Show me first (the usual): the clips wait in the plan until you tap Use (or Use them all). The choice is in the plan card's B-roll row and in the Davnai Agent card.
• Add them for me: they come on by themselves from now on. You can still switch any off.
• Swap gives the next best clip for that moment; Remove takes it out.
• The opening and your call to action always stay on you, a clip covers you for 5 seconds at most, and there's about one picture every 25 seconds. If nothing fits well, it adds nothing.
• Stock clips are saved with your video when you approve the plan or open it in the editor, and start silent. Say "no b-roll" or "no stock" to leave them out.

It says so in What you asked for instead of doing something else. Not available yet: a voice-over in an AI voice and new AI songs. Posting is done from Posts after you approve (it never posts by itself). Several recordings are planned together by joining them first (see above). It never uses something your plan doesn't include, and it never removes more than 90% of a recording.