I used to spend 3 hours on a 1-minute talking-head video. Now AI does it in 30 seconds.

I used to make Xiaohongshu (小红书) talking-head videos — a 1-minute clip needed at least 3 hours for filming + editing + subtitles. Last week I saw a piece of news: AI video generation is now faster than playback speed. My first reaction was: what the hell was I doing with those 3 hours?

Who's already riding this speed wave?

Runway, Kling (可灵), and the rest are all racing on speed. When Runway dropped Gen-4, a 5-second clip generated faster than you could watch it. Pieter Levels — the indie dev behind levels.io who travels the world year-round — wrote a whole post about it last week, titled "You can now generate AI video faster than you can watch it."

I have people around me doing it too. Lao Chen runs an indie dev community in Hangzhou — he told me he switched all his product promo videos to AI-generated. "5 seconds per clip, stitch 10 together, looks better than the freelancer I used to hire." Then there's Xiaolu, who runs a Xiaohongshu (小红书) account — she used to spend a whole day each week shooting footage. Now she sits down Tuesday morning and "directs" AI to output a week's worth in one go.

What does it cost you to try today?

Money: Runway standard is $12/month (~85 RMB). Kling and 可灵 have free tiers to start.
Time: Sign up + first clip takes ~30 min, mostly figuring out how to write prompts.
Tech barrier: No code. If you can type, you can do this. Write prompts in plain Chinese — "an orange cat running on grass" works fine.
First step: Go to Runway.com, sign up, hit "Generate" in the top right, upload an image or type a description, wait ~30 seconds.

I also got stuck here — my first time, I burned 20 minutes just thinking "what prompt will the AI understand?" Then I figured out the simplest trick: picture it in your head, say it out loud, then type it. That's your prompt. Skip abstract words like "cozy coffee shop vibe" — write "a girl sitting by the window drinking latte, sunlight pouring in."

By stage, here's what I'd try

Just starting out (haven't even begun making content): Don't buy a subscription yet. Open Kling (可灵) — works in China, just search App Store — burn your free credits on 3 clips. See if you actually need video content. If you haven't figured out your topic, no tool fixes a direction problem.

Got 1-2 clients / already in the game: Kill the "shoot video" step entirely. Replace it with "write prompt + AI generates + you voiceover." I'd estimate 60% time savings. Use the freed-up time to land more clients or work with them.

Scaling up (team of 2-5): At this stage AI video isn't a cost-saver — it's a production multiplier. One content lead can run 5 accounts' worth of footage because output cost is near zero. Standardize your prompt style templates upfront — otherwise every clip looks like a different editor cut it.

One last thing: this tool isn't for everyone. If your business runs purely on offline referrals, skip video entirely. But if you're already burned out from "content creation is exhausting," trying it costs you nothing. If it doesn't work, close the tab. You lose nothing.