Post 3: How AI Video Is Changing the Social Media Game (And theTools Small Businesses Should Use)

AI video isn’t coming. It’s already here.

A year ago, producing one decent reel meant filming yourself five times, editing in CapCut for an hour, hand-typing captions, exporting, and then doing the whole thing again for TikTok. Today, three AI tools can do most of that work in under ten minutes and the small businesses using them are pulling away from the ones who aren’t.

This isn’t about replacing your voice or your face. It’s about removing every friction point between you and a post that goes live. Here’s how AI video is changing social media right now, and the three tools we actually use with Marketing Navii clients.

What’s changed in social media because of AI video

• Volume is no longer a luxury. A small business owner with one phone, one face, and 30 minutes can now ship 5–10 short videos a week. That used to take a full content team.
• Captions decide whether a video gets watched. 85% of social video is watched without sound.AI-generated animated captions (the ones that bounce, highlight, and pop) are now the singlebiggest factor in stopping the scroll.
• Long-form content compounds. A 45-minute podcast or webinar can now be auto-clipped into10–20 short videos, each captioned and reframed for vertical extending the reach of one recording for weeks.
• You don’t need to be on camera. Text-to-video, photo-to-video, and AI-generated b-roll let you create scroll-stopping content without ever filming yourself.
• Google is watching too. Remember the previous post? Your Instagram and TikTok now show up on your Google Business Profile. More AI-assisted video = more local search real estate.

The three AI video tools every small business should know

1. Captions beautiful, scroll-stopping captions in one click

If you do nothing else this month, add captions to every video you post. The free Captions app (and its
desktop and web versions) uses AI to transcribe your video and apply animated, on-brand captions

automatically the kind that highlight one or two words at a time, change color on emphasis, and
physically stop someone’s thumb.

What Captions does well:

• Auto-transcribes with 99%+ accuracy in 20+ languages
• Animated caption templates that match the styles you see going viral on TikTok and Reels
• AI Edit features eye contact correction (looks like you’re looking at the camera even whenreading), auto teleprompter, AI voice dubbing in other languages
• AI creators generate a full talking-head video from a script if you don’t want to film yourself
• Brand kit save your fonts, colors, and logo so every video looks like it came from your business

How to use it: Record (or upload) a video → Captions auto-transcribes → pick a template → tweak any
word → export to TikTok, Reels, Shorts, and your Google Business Profile feed.

Best for: Realtors filming property walkthroughs, service businesses doing tips and FAQs, anyone who
wants their existing content to perform better immediately.

2. Opus Clips turn one long video into a week of shorts

Opus Clips is the tool that proves you only need to film yourself once a week. Drop in any long-form
video a podcast, a webinar, a recorded talk, a property tour, even a Zoom call and Opus Clips uses
AI to identify the most engaging moments, slice them into vertical short-form clips, add animated
captions, reframe to keep your face in the shot, and even score each clip for likely virality.

What Opus Clips does well:

• Scans long videos and auto-extracts the strongest moments (no manual editing)
• “Virality score” on every clip so you know which ones to post first
• Auto-reframes from horizontal to vertical and keeps the speaker centered
• Animated captions built in
• Brand kit for logos, intros, outros, and color schemes
• Now supports adding AI-generated B-roll clips directly into your videos to keep the visual energy high

How to use it: Record a 30–60 minute Q&A, talk, or sit-down on whatever topic you want to teach →
upload to Opus → it returns 8–15 short clips → review, brand, and post over the next two weeks.

Best for: Coaches, public speakers, teachers, podcasters, and anyone whose business depends on being
seen as an expert. One hour of recording becomes a month of social proof.

3. Runway change backgrounds, turn photos into video, create images from text

Runway is the AI tool you reach for when you need visuals you don’t have. It’s less about clipping and
more about creation and it’s shockingly powerful for small businesses that don’t want to hire a
videographer for every campaign.

What Runway does well:

• Change backgrounds. Upload a video of yourself talking and Runway can swap the background to anything a clean office, a property exterior, a branded scene no green screen required.
• Photo to video. Drop in a still photo and Runway brings it to life subtle camera movement, panning, ambient motion. Great for listings, product shots, and old archive photos.
• Text to image. Type a description and Runway generates a custom image. Useful for blog headers, social graphics, and ad creative.
• Text to video. Same idea but for short video clips you can drop into reels and ads.
• AI editing features. Remove objects from video, slow motion, frame interpolation
• Photoshop-level edits for video.

How to use it: Start with a small project turn one listing photo into a 5-second cinematic clip, or generate three branded social graphics from text prompts. Once you see what it can do, you’ll find ten more uses a week.

Best for: Realtors creating cinematic listing teasers, service businesses needing on-brand visuals fast, anyone who wants to stand out from generic stock imagery.

How to put all three together

These tools aren’t competitors they’re a workflow. Here’s the stack we use most often with Marketing Navii clients:

1. Once a week, record a 30–60 minute video on whatever topic you’re an expert in. Phone or laptop is fine.
2. Run it through Opus Clips. Pull out 8–15 short clips.
3. Run any clip that needs extra polish (or a different background, or a B-roll insert) through Runway.
4. Pass the final clips through Captions for animated, on-brand captions.
5. Post the clips across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook which all now feed back into your Google Business Profile.
6. Watch the analytics. Double down on whatever topic, format, or hook performed best, and repeat next week.

The bottom line

AI video isn’t a shortcut around doing the work it’s a way to make sure the work you already do reaches more people. The small business owners winning right now aren’t the most talented videographers or the loudest personalities. They’re the ones who stopped overthinking, picked one tool from this list, and started shipping.

If you can record yourself talking for thirty minutes and click “upload,” you can build a content engine that drives SEO, social media reach, and Google Business Profile visibility all from the same hour of work.

Want help building this workflow? AI Video is one of Marketing Navii’s core services. We help
realtors and small business owners record, clip, and publish content that actually drives leads
without burning out. Book a free 20-minute navigation call to see what this could look like for
your business.