- Optimizing With AI
- Posts
- AI Voices: The End of Human Narration?
AI Voices: The End of Human Narration?
Why Your Next Podcast Might Not Feature a Real Person
Keith Lim
August 26, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes
Let’s talk about AI voices.
For years, they sounded robotic, unnatural, and frankly, a bit creepy.
The promise was always there: generate any voice, any script, any language.
But the reality was a jarring, monotone experience.
So, when someone tells you AI can now create voices indistinguishable from humans, your BS detector probably goes off.
Mine too.
But here’s the thing: the technology has quietly, and rapidly, become incredibly good.
Is it good enough to replace human narration?
🎁 FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU
I always try to add more value to my readers, and here are all the resources I have shared:
🔍 PROMPT OF THE WEEK
Comprehensive SEO keyword research. GET IT HERE.
🖼️ IMAGE OF THE WEEK
🧰 AI TOOL OF THE WEEK
What is ElevenLabs?
ElevenLabs is a leading AI voice technology company that specializes in generating highly realistic and natural-sounding speech. It offers text-to-speech, voice cloning, and even the ability to create entirely new synthetic voices. The goal is to make AI voices so good, you can't tell them apart from human speech.
But does it actually work?
Here’s the messy truth: ElevenLabs is at the forefront of making AI voices actually usable for professional content. They've moved beyond the robotic monotone to deliver voices with nuanced emotions, natural intonation, and impressive clarity.
You can use it for audiobooks, podcasts, video narration, character voices, and more. The platform supports a wide range of languages and allows for fine-tuning of voice parameters like stability, clarity, and style exaggeration.
Key Features that Matter:
Realistic Text-to-Speech: Convert written text into natural-sounding audio in various voices and languages.
Voice Cloning: Create a digital replica of your own voice (or another voice with consent) from a short audio sample.
Voice Design: Generate entirely new synthetic voices by adjusting parameters like gender, age, and accent.
Multilingual Support: Generate speech in numerous languages with high fidelity.
Mini Tutorial: Generating Speech with ElevenLabs
Go to ElevenLabs.io and sign up for a free account.
Navigate to the "Speech Synthesis" tab.
Choose a pre-made voice from the dropdown menu, or if you have a paid plan, use a cloned or designed voice.
Type or paste your text into the text box.
Adjust the "Stability" and "Clarity + Similarity Enhancement" sliders to fine-tune the output. Higher stability makes the voice more consistent, while lower stability allows for more expressiveness.
Click "Generate."
Listen to the audio and download it if you're happy with the result.
Pro tip: Experiment with different voices and settings. For voice cloning, a clean, short audio sample (around 1-5 minutes) is usually sufficient to create a high-quality clone. While the free tier has limitations, it's a great way to test the quality before committing to a paid plan.
Bottom line: ElevenLabs is pushing the boundaries of what AI voices can do. It's more than just convenience now. You can actually create high-quality audio content that genuinely engages listeners, without the need for expensive recording equipment or voice actors.
💸 AI INCOME USE CASE
The $100K/Year AI App Built While Working a Full-Time Job
Everyone talks about quitting their 9-to-5 to pursue their side hustle, but how many actually do it, especially with an AI app in a crowded market? Meet Pauline, who built IACrea, an AI-powered home renovation app, to $8,000 MRR (that's nearly $100,000 a year) while still working full-time at IBM. Her secret wasn't a groundbreaking new AI model, but a relentless focus on finding customers where they actually are.
The Problem:
Pauline spent years as an indie hacker with little success. Then, she identified a common problem: people want to visualize home renovations without the cost and hassle of a designer. IACrea lets users upload a photo, select a style, and instantly see their kitchen or living room in a modern or Scandinavian design. It solved a real, visual problem for real estate agents and homeowners.
The Playbook:
Solve a real problem (for yourself or friends): Pauline found her idea by asking friends and real estate agents about their pain points. If they had the problem frequently, and she could build and monetize a solution, it was a go.
MVP first, perfection later: Her MVP for IACrea was simple, with "bad quality" features, built in a month. The key was to ship fast and get it in front of users, because "the sooner you ship, the better."
Validate with paying customers: She showed her MVP to real estate agents. When they said, "I want to buy it now" and actually paid, that was her validation. Don't just get interest; get money.
Go where your customers are: This was Pauline's biggest insight. For IACrea, her best marketing channels were Facebook groups for real estate agents and physical events. For another product, it was Twitter, because her audience (developers) hung out there.
Strategic launches: She uses Product Hunt for SEO backlinks and Twitter for visibility, leveraging her existing audience.
Flexible pricing: She offers both one-time payments and monthly subscriptions. This caters to different customer preferences and builds trust, especially by making cancellations easy.
Reduce churn with smart tactics: Adding yearly plans drastically reduced churn, free trials allowed users to test the service, and continuous improvement of the product quality made it indispensable.
Lean operations: Her business costs around 3-4k Euros/month, including servers, some ads, and freelancers. She's investing to grow, not just saving every penny.
The Messy Truth:
Building a successful app while working full-time is hard. Pauline worked nights and weekends, eventually quitting IBM to go full-time. She emphasizes that success rarely comes from the first product; it's a journey of learning, shipping fast, getting feedback, and being consistent. And for the women out there, she stresses the importance of visibility: "If you are a girl, to be visible because you will inspire others to do the same."
Actionable Takeaway:
Stop waiting for the perfect idea or the perfect product. Find a genuine problem, build the simplest possible solution, and then relentlessly put it in front of potential customers where they actually spend their time online and offline. Validate with payments, offer flexible pricing, and continuously improve your product to reduce churn. Your 9-to-5 might just be funding your next big leap.
🤑 AI INCOME Q&A
Q: "How much should I disclose about using AI in my creative services?" - Miguel S.
A: Be transparent but emphasize your expertise. I recommend a simple statement like: "I leverage advanced AI tools to enhance efficiency, but every deliverable is expertly guided and reviewed by me to ensure it meets professional standards and achieves your specific goals." This acknowledges AI use without diminishing your value as the expert who directs the AI and ensures quality results.
🌱 LIFE BEYOND AI
I really enjoy trail running, and am always looking around for the best place to do it. Found this article on the legend Killian Jornet’s shoe company, and now I have new items on my bucketlist.
🛠️ TOOLS THAT MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER
Abacus.ai → Use all the latest LLMs and build custom AI applications for an extremely low cost
Later → All-in-one platform to manage social media content, track performance, and grow online presence
beehiiv → Build, grow, and monetize your newsletters (use my link to get 30-day trial + 20% OFF for 3 months)
Recraft → Create high-quality images and vector graphics, with features like background removal and style customization
LumaLabs → Create high-quality images and videos from text and images, including 3D models.
Beacons → Customize link-in-bio pages + building your online store
Descript → AI-powered video and audio editing platform to create professional-looking content
ElevenLabs → Create ultra-realistic text-to-speech voices in multiple languages
And that’s a wrap for this week.
If you have any questions, feedback, or just want to say hi, please hit “reply”. I do my best to respond to every single email.
Thank for so much for your support!
☄️ Let’s make moves,
Keith
Chief Human Officer, Optimizing With AI