Last week a client asked "which AI do you use?" — I froze for three seconds
Here's what happened. One of my clients, Xiaolin, runs a Xiaohongshu consulting gig. She asked what I use for speech-to-text. I blurted out ElevenLabs. She immediately hit back: how is that different from TwelveLabs? And what about ThirteenLabs?
I couldn't answer.
That moment I realized — this wave of AI companies all have numbers in their names, which is brutal for non-coder entrepreneurs like us. It was also the first time I seriously tried to figure this out.
So what do these numbered-name companies actually do?
I spent half a day sorting it out. Quick version: ElevenLabs does "voice cloning" (AI that speaks in your voice), TwelveLabs does "video understanding" (AI that watches videos and summarizes them), ThirteenLabs is newer — enterprise AI assistants (AI that handles repetitive work for you).
My friend A-Liang runs a podcast side hustle in Guangzhou. Three months ago he started using ElevenLabs — handed off the narration of three books to AI, turned them into audio content on Xiaoyuzhou (the Chinese podcast app). He earns an extra 2000+ RMB a month from it. But he made the same mistake — the first time he asked me for the TwelveLabs link. I've fallen into that trap too.
What these tools share: no coding required. Open the webpage and you're off. You can be productive on day one.
Want to try one? Here's what it actually costs today
Money: ElevenLabs free tier is 10,000 characters per month (characters ≈ word count). Enough to test the waters. Paid plans start at $5/month (about 36 RMB). TwelveLabs charges per video minute, starting around $10.
Time: Sign up, upload 30 seconds of audio, hear the result — I tested it myself, had it running in under 15 minutes.
Technical barrier: If you can send an email, you can use this. The only gotcha is you need an overseas credit card — I use a virtual one (China Merchants Bank or Wise both work). I messed this up twice myself; the first time my card got declined and I thought I'd walked into a scam.
First step: Go to ElevenLabs.io (it's Eleven, not Twelve), click Sign Up top-right, log in with Google, find Text to Speech on the left sidebar, paste some Chinese text in, hit play.
What I'd recommend at each stage (as a peer, not an expert)
Just starting out (still validating your MVP): Honestly, I'd skip it for now. Pour your energy into your service workflow. AI tools aren't a "use it and win" thing — get your flow working first, then accelerate. There's no rush to try these now.
Already have 1-2 paying clients: I'd strongly recommend ElevenLabs to anyone running a content side hustle (podcasts, audiobooks, short-video voiceovers). It saves 2-3 hours of recording time a day. My friend A-Liang doubled his client count with this.
Scaling up (team of 3+): Now's when you seriously think about "which AI goes into my workflow." I'd suggest making a list of every repetitive thing your team does each week — each tool should solve one job. Don't try to roll out five at once.
One last thing: I'm just a peer who's recently figured this out too. This numbered-name wave shows how packed the AI startup race has become. We small founders don't need to chase every one — just get clear on the two or three that actually touch your business, and that's enough.