In this discussion, we talked with Founder & CEO of Hour One, Oren Aharon. Hour One is an AI-driven video production platform that uses lifelike avatars to create personalized business messages. It offers a range of use cases, from thought leadership to training and marketing. The platform is easy to use, with a SaaS desktop app and templates available. Hour One prioritizes data security and employs encryption and regular security audits. The company serves a wide range of businesses, from CEOs using avatars for thought leadership to sales teams using avatars for customer interactions. In the near term, Hour One plans to introduce real-time interaction and cinematic use cases. In the long term, the company envisions avatars being used for communication and recreation on a large scale. Hour One dispels the myth that AI-generated videos lack authenticity, emphasizing that the tools enhance creativity and productivity for video producers.
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AI-Driven Video Creation for Everyone: Hour One
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital content, the advent of AI-driven video creation has emerged as a game-changer. The latest episode of our podcast delves deep into this fascinating topic, featuring an insightful conversation with Oren Aharon, the visionary CEO and founder of Hour One. The episode explores how Hour One’s AI-driven platform is revolutionizing the way video content is created, making it accessible to everyone, regardless of their video production skills.
At the heart of this episode is the discussion on how Hour One transforms simple text into realistic avatars, creating personalized business messages and content efficiently. Oren explains the technology behind their generative AI models, which allow users to create lifelike videos with minimal effort. The platform’s user-friendly SaaS interface and supplementary app make it incredibly easy to create avatars, even for those without a background in video production. This democratization of video creation is a significant leap forward, enabling businesses of all sizes to harness the power of video content.
Data security and user privacy are critical concerns in today’s digital age, and Hour One takes these issues seriously. The episode highlights the stringent data security measures employed by Hour One, including enterprise-grade encryption, GDPR compliance, and regular security audits. These measures ensure that user data is protected, giving businesses peace of mind when using the platform. This focus on data security is particularly important for large enterprises that handle vast amounts of sensitive information.
The conversation also explores the transformative potential of generative AI tools in the realm of video content creation. Oren shares a personal story of starting a consulting business to help local businesses integrate AI technologies, illustrating how tools like Hour One can streamline processes and enhance productivity. The discussion highlights the evolving landscape of generative AI, with near-term advancements such as real-time interaction and cinematic applications, and a long-term vision of ubiquitous avatar-based communication. This glimpse into the future underscores the immense potential of AI in reshaping the way we create and consume video content.
One of the most exciting aspects of this episode is the sneak peek into Hour One’s upcoming product launches. Oren reveals plans for high-quality cinematic interviews featuring avatars of prominent figures, showcasing the rapid advancements in AI technology. This innovation opens up new possibilities for creating engaging and immersive video content, further blurring the lines between reality and virtuality.
The ease of use and flexibility of Hour One’s platform is a recurring theme throughout the episode.
Whether it’s for educational content, storytelling, or thought leadership, the platform offers a versatile solution for various use cases. Users can choose from a diverse range of pre-created avatars or upload their own likeness to create a personalized avatar with voice, face, and mannerisms. This flexibility allows businesses to create videos that resonate with their audience, fostering a human connection that is often missing in traditional video content.
The episode also touches on the broader implications of AI-driven video creation for businesses. Oren emphasizes that businesses hesitant to adopt AI-driven communication tools risk falling behind their competitors. By leveraging generative AI, companies can enhance their internal communication, marketing, and thought leadership efforts, gaining a competitive edge in the market. The ability to quickly and efficiently produce high-quality video content can significantly impact a company’s branding and customer engagement strategies.
As the conversation progresses, Oren discusses the role of customer service in ensuring a seamless user experience. Hour One utilizes its own tools to create instructional videos for its customer service platform, demonstrating the practical applications of their technology. This approach not only helps users navigate the platform more effectively but also showcases the potential of AI-driven video creation in enhancing customer support and engagement.
Looking ahead, the future of AI-driven video creation is incredibly promising. Oren predicts that in the near term, we will see advancements in real-time interaction and cinematic use cases, potentially transforming industries like television and Hollywood. In the long term, he envisions a world where avatar-based communication becomes ubiquitous, with people using AI-generated videos for various purposes, from business to recreation. This vision underscores the transformative power of AI in reshaping our communication landscape.
In conclusion, this episode offers a comprehensive look into the world of AI-driven video creation, highlighting the groundbreaking work of Hour One. The insights shared by Oren Aharon provide a compelling glimpse into the future of video content, where AI plays a central role in making video creation accessible, efficient, and secure. Whether you’re a business looking to enhance your video content strategy or simply curious about the latest advancements in AI, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in to explore the rapidly advancing world of AI-driven video and discover how Hour One is paving the way for the future of video content.
Learn more about Hour One.
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Show Notes
Takeaways
- Hour One is an AI-driven video production platform that uses lifelike avatars to create personalized business messages.
- The platform offers a range of use cases, including thought leadership, training, and marketing.
- Hour One prioritizes data security and employs encryption and regular security audits.
- The company serves a wide range of businesses, from CEOs using avatars for thought leadership to sales teams using avatars for customer interactions.
- In the near term, Hour One plans to introduce real-time interaction and cinematic use cases.
- In the long term, the company envisions avatars being used for communication and recreation on a large scale.
- Hour One dispels the myth that AI-generated videos lack authenticity, emphasizing that the tools enhance creativity and productivity for video producers.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction to Hour One and AI-Driven Video Production
03:12 – How Hour One Works and Its Use Cases
06:36 – Data Security and Privacy Measures
07:07 – Businesses That Benefit from Hour One
10:52 – The Future of Hour One and AI-Driven Communication
14:03 – Insights and Advice from Oren Aherwon
Transcript
Beau Hamilton (00:05)
Hello everyone. And welcome to the SourceForge podcast. Thank you for joining us today. I’m your host, Beau Hamilton, Senior Editor and Multimedia Producer here at SourceForge, the world’s most visited software comparison site where B2B software buyers compare and find business software solutions. Today we’re talking with Oren Aharon, CEO and Founder of Hour One. Hour One is a really neat all-in-one video production platform that uses AI automation and lifelike programmable characters to create these really unique personalized business messages.
We’ve all seen those corporate training videos with virtual instructors or onboarding and compliance videos offered by HR companies or departments. Hour One helps these companies create these kind of high quality videos super easily and efficiently. So to talk more about how it all works, let me introduce Oren. Oren, welcome to the podcast. Glad you can join us.
Oren Aharon (00:54)
Thank you so much and I’m excited to be here.
Beau Hamilton (00:57)
So I gave a little bit of an explanation of how Hour One works, but that’s very surface level. Can you introduce yourself and explain a little bit more about what it is that Hour One does?
Oren Aharon (01:06)
Yeah, I’m Oren, CEO and Co-Founder of Hour One. Hour One is an AI-driven creation platform featuring avatars, usually very realistic lifelike avatars. We transform text into these talking avatars that basically introduce a subject or a topic, and we’ll talk about all of these interesting use cases, but creating some kind of like a human connection inside the content as any other video does, but in a very efficient and scalable way where you don’t really need to go and do all the production. You just do it from your keyboard in a very efficient way.
Beau Hamilton (01:44)
Interesting. Yeah. Can you kind of talk and expand upon that? Like what is, what are some of the technology at play here and how does Hour One leverage AI automation to kind of improve video production and deliver these messages?
Oren Aharon (01:57)
Yeah. So Hour One is a player in the generative AI space. Basically, we mean we generate the avatars, we generate the video and all the stuff that we do, like the entire video, out of the text. So we build all of these models that do that. And businesses can choose to use avatars from a diverse range of avatars that we’ve created, or they can upload their own likeness and create their own avatar with voice and face and mannerisms and all of their things like inside the video.
And by that, they can use this avatar with other element, text and content elements that they upload into our system to generate the full story. So the story could be like very direct as you do for educational stuff, or it could be a storytelling, or thought leadership, or all this kind of things.
Beau Hamilton (02:58)
Interesting. OK, so it’s really just whatever use case you want to use it for. It seems like it’s pretty flexible. Do you download a program onto your computer? Is it over the browser? How does it work there?
Oren Aharon (03:13)
So we have a SaaS platform, desktop app. Most of the use is going through that place. It’s like scene by scene. You’ll need to understand, like in video creation, in editing, you go and just pick and choose. And it’s very easy to implement and work on this. Basically, we build it for anyone to come and create this realistic type of videos. Without any background in video creation, you don’t need to understand. In editing, it’s all very direct from text., so you just need to tell a story. And we help you also with the story with generative I, LLMs and text levels, and also generating the images and everything for you.
So this is very straight, very simple. And by the way, we have an app where you can capture yourself and create your own avatar. But it’s a supplement.
Beau Hamilton (03:59)
Yeah, I love to test it out one of these days. I love also that it’s not, there’s not too much of a learning curve it sounds like. It’s pretty forgiving and open for all sorts of skill levels. I love to hear that because there’s so many, so often, I download a new app or there’s an update to a video editing program I’m using and it’s just like, I have to spend so much time learning how it works. That always kind of turns me off.
Oren Aharon (04:25)
Yeah, exactly. Video is a hard skill, but we help you to choose because we bring you the templates and we bring you the finest type of designs and storytelling abilities. So even if you’re not a video creator, it helps you create an amazing video.
Beau Hamilton (04:48)
That’s great. Now, as an AI company working with immense amounts of data, it’s of the utmost importance to ensure that you’re utilizing the latest data security practices to protect user privacy. I’m curious, what kind of information does Hour One collect and how do you ensure that it stays safe?
Oren Aharon (05:04)
Totally important and you are totally correct. I mean, we have to be there. Again, we work with large enterprises, more than 500 huge enterprises that work with us. So obviously, we need to be there. So we employ enterprise-grade encryption for all the data, at rest and transit, regular third-party security audits, Sock2J, all of these kinds of things, pen testing, obviously compliance with GDPR, and data protection regulations. So all of that needs to be there. We basically monitor the text. So we basically have the ability to block problematic text and images that coming into our system. Again, our users are mostly enterprises, and people are coming from companies.
So we trust them and they usually don’t abuse anything. It’s just 1%. But we give them the guardrails. So it would be easier for them to implement the product in the company without risking the company. And all of these mechanisms are there. Obviously, we take their text. We take their images. And if they are actually creating the employee avatar, so the avatar itself is also like their data, so all protected under their package. And that’s super crucial for business like us in the industry.
Beau Hamilton (06:35)
Yeah, yeah, that’s really, that’s reassuring because I mean, it’s true. It’s like, you’re working with so much data, you’re an AI company. So naturally you just got to stay on top of this. You know, you don’t want any sort of data breach or security lapses. It sounds like you got that prioritized where it should be.
Oren Aharon (06:53)
Top priority, number one.
Beau Hamilton (06:55)
Now I’m curious, can you talk a little bit more of like what kind of businesses maybe get the most value out of Hour One? Do you have any particular examples that of businesses you’ve worked with?
Oren Aharon (07:05)
Sure. So it goes like we think enterprise and goes all the way from the CEO to the employees. So you can think about an organization. The CEO actually is using us for thought leadership. You can think about like fireside videos, all of these kinds of things, which goes for marketing on social media, presenting the company, presenting new products. So this starts with there.
And then you go into management and from management, goes from marketing and brand, product marketing, sales. We have sales avatar, so like you can speak with someone and then your sales avatar like an agent is coming and fulfilling, let’s say, part of the conversation in, for example, summarizing the meeting or opening or inviting you for the next meeting. So warming up for the next meeting. All of these automations are happening on our platform.
Obviously, internal communication and training are an important part, eLearning companies are using us. But the largest, or let’s say the growing segment, which is currently growing fast on Hour One, is media and entertainment. And this is something that we will see more more coming up.
Beau Hamilton (08:15)
Okay. Yeah. It makes me think of kind of a personal, personal example. earlier this year when ChatGPT, well, not earlier this year, I guess it was a couple of years ago now. when ChatGPT was first going viral, I worked with a few friends and we started like a small consulting business to help some of our local businesses integrate this, this new technology into their operations. And one of my responsibilities was to produce like the educational content that we could send clients to help them learn like the basics of AI and prompts and parameters and limitations. And I’m kind of kicking myself now because if I hadn’t known about Hour One, I would have been able to crank out this content so much quicker, which would help me free up time for other areas.
Oren Aharon (08:55)
Exactly. It’s like the experience that you are currently, you know, the experience that people are now working more and more with LLMs understand like, or ChatGPT or any other tool like Claude and others. They understand like how efficient these tools are and they, you know, just save you so much time. So we help you also like the same way with video. And obviously there is a big difference from text, which is more, let’s say, search and let’s say summarizing stuff to video which is more an experience thing. So I think the world have seen the efficiency of text, now it sees the efficiency of new experiences coming out of generative video.
Beau Hamilton (09:43)
Now, while I’m thinking of it, we did touch on some of the skill level involved. It sounds like you don’t need too much background in video editing to get the most out of Hour One. But I imagine you offer customer service to help anybody struggling with any questions and issues as they arise.
Oren Aharon (10:01)
Obviously, we do. I mean, it’s part of our solution. And the nice part of it is we are using our own tool to actually build all the videos on the customer service platform. So we have a knowledge base, but you’ll find the text, obviously, because it’s important for you to understand and read. At the same time, you can see tons of videos that explain how to use the product. And they are done with the avatar of the customer experience team.
So we are actually implementing the rules and the technology that we’ve created to help us implement the product in companies.
Beau Hamilton (10:37)
Gotcha. Well, where do you see this technology evolving? know, we have, the industry is still pretty new. Where do you see it going in like the near term, let’s say a year or two from now or the longer term, five to 10 years from now?
Oren Aharon (10:53)
So Gen AI, near-term and long-term are actually very different in terms of the scale we spoke about. Near-term is the next few months, and long-term is the two years. Everything moves so fast. So the short-term, we’ll see real-time, we’ll see interaction, and we will see cinematic type of use cases where basically taking parts of TV shows and Hollywood at the end.
So all of these elements will happen even in the near term. The long term will be where people will just communicate all the time with these amateurs for their own use. And it will be everywhere and all the time. That will be the largest scale. And I think that will be one of the largest pieces of generative AI because we’ve seen the scale of LLMs. Obviously, not everybody are still using it, but it will grow.
But a lot of people are using LLMs for two hours a day, even, like me. This is how I use it. I talk with it. I use it all the time. But now video will be a major part of this. And it will be for experience, for fun, for recreation. And it will go for four hours, five hours a day per person. So think about the amount of compute, the amount of video that will be generated. That’s a bit more in the long term. I mean, it’s very clear that it’s going to be there.
Beau Hamilton (12:21)
Yeah, no, I 100% agree with you. mean, I’ve integrated generative AI tools into my workflow. I mean, I’ve been using it for the past year plus, and I can only imagine them getting more integrated as time goes on.
Another thing too, I wanna ask you because I have you here, is there any exciting, do you have any exciting upcoming product launches or features on the horizon that you could share with us? And no pressure if you don’t. I have to ask since you’re here.
Oren Aharon (12:52)
No. It’s like, I mean, this is what we do. It’s like every day a new thing is coming out. We’ve done a lot of things lately with Reid Hoffman and Jensen Hong, the CEO of Nvidia as well, together. So we’ve done a lot of these kinds of, let’s say, cinematic quality of interviews and Reid is talking with his avatar. We are taking it to the next step. Very soon, it will be like one place, will be on the same stage, in the same room with all the classic cinematic angles being produced. It’s coming out very, very soon and people will come in and will be able to produce something that looks like this podcast but in a better quality even. You can imagine everything is happening, like you’re sitting with me, two microphones and we are talking.
You don’t need to be like in split screens. So this is coming out very, very, very soon.
Beau Hamilton (13:54)
Oh that’s really cool. Yeah. Maybe in the future we’ll have podcasts where we kind of integrate these avatars.
Oren Aharon (14:00)
Future is two months, one month, two months, that’s it.
Beau Hamilton (14:03)
I like it. Wow. That’s literally right around the corner.
Oren Aharon (14:06)
right around the corner.
Beau Hamilton (14:09)
Well, OK, I’ve got a few more questions for you. And I think these are going to be especially fun because they’ll kind of give you a chance to share some insightful information in a short clip that can be shared online without necessarily all the context from the previous questions and answers here. So you ready, Oren?
Oren Aharon (14:24)
I’m excited to see what it means.
Beau Hamilton (14:26)
So OK, here’s the first question. As CEO and founder for Hour One, what is one big thing you’d like to tell potential customers as if you’re shouting it from the rooftop or if they only knew this? What would that be?
Oren Aharon (14:38)
Be brave, try it, it’s an amazing experience. You can try it for yourself first, show it to your friends. You’ll get amazing reactions and then you’ll love that experience and you will start using it all the time. And I’m not just talking about one product, it’s like the entire stuff, like the entire generative AI space. Just try it, you must try it. It’s not so hard, it’s built for easy use and it’s a lot of fun.
Beau Hamilton (15:09)
I love that. Yeah. What are you waiting for? Just try it. I’ve got so many friends and family that are like averse to generative AI or any sort of AI tools for whatever reason. They’re just like, they’ve heard about it, but they don’t utilize it. And I’m just like, what are you waiting for? I don’t understand.
Oren Aharon (15:25)
Yeah, exactly. It’s like, it’s fun. You don’t need to type for ChatGPT. You can talk with it. Like, do it. It’s easy. Like, how easy you want it to be. it’s there.
Beau Hamilton (15:35)
Yeah, yeah. Well, now following the same sort of thread, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to businesses maybe hesitant to adopt AI-driven communication tools such as those offered by Hour One?
Oren Aharon (15:47)
I mean, you’re losing to your competitors, basically. That’s what’s going on. You don’t know that. You don’t understand that. But you’re losing because even for internal communication, you’re still using the same old tools. You’re still using the same old method. It means that your competitors are using the advanced GNI tools to educate their employees and they’re moving faster and they will be there. You are just losing ground. Same as marketing, same as thought leadership.
In our era, you must be at the front of all of these technologies. And if you are a CEO and you don’t have an avatar, I’m joking, but I’m also serious. Like if you are a CEO and you don’t have an avatar talking today on social, that your team has worked behind the scenes to bring the best content and the best footage and to make it amazing experiences. Maybe an amazing interviewer, choose your interviewer. You can do it with us. You’re just falling back, falling back after your competitors who are already doing it. So don’t do that. Change your mindset.
Beau Hamilton (16:48)
Don’t do that. All right, I love it. Yeah, I know what I’m doing after this. I’m making an avatar. So there are a bunch of potentially false ideas about AI and video production, you know, some say AI will completely take over the creative process, making human videos, video producers obsolete. There’s like the idea that AI generated videos lack authenticity and maybe feel artificial. If you can bust one of these myths about AI and video production, what would it be and why?
Oren Aharon (17:15)
What happens with our tools is actually the opposite. And I’m not saying it because I’m trying to be convincing and politically correct or whatever. It’s the truth. People are being amazingly creative with these tools. And they basically create so much more than what they’ve done before. You need the professionals. They must be there because they don’t just write or just don’t create an image or don’t just create a video.
They do much more than that as humans. Obviously, they connect, they communicate, understand the topics. So they do a lot of things. But now with these tools, their productivity is just amazing. Like, you know, we have teams where we see, we saw them like working for, let’s say a quarter to create one video with their CEO. How much work you need to do for 15 minutes of your CEO on a podcast.
And with us, it’s like, every day they generate new videos, they try, they test, and then they choose twice a week to upload videos of him or thought leadership or other stuff. So it’s really changing the entire scene and the entire concept of being creative. And it’s the same with images and the same with text. You can just do so much better and so much faster. I mean, these professionals are having the time of their life. They were afraid of it, but now they are enjoying it.
Beau Hamilton (18:43)
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, thanks for kind of breaking that down and dispelling some of those for us. Well, those are the last of the hard-hitting questions I have for you today. So for those interested listening to this podcast, watching on YouTube, and they wanna learn more, they wanna connect with you and your team, where should they go?
Oren Aharon (19:00)
Obviously, website, can book a meeting with us. That’s one. You can find me on LinkedIn. I’m responding to people, send me, you know, LinkedIn intros to my team. Everybody here are just open and curious to learn from people requirements and needs. This is how we behave. This is how we think. We understand that people are super creative. They’re coming with tons of ideas and we learn from them. So come to us and speak with us and we’ll build stuff together.
Beau Hamilton (19:33)
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to sit down with us and talk about Hour One. I think your company is really interesting and I’m looking forward to see how it matures over the next few years or the next couple of months, because that’s the short term, right? That’s right around the corner.
Oren Aharon (19:46)
Exactly, yeah, years turns into months. So this is what’s happening right now. Exactly.
Beau Hamilton (19:52)
Awesome. Well, thanks again, Oren.
Oren Aharon (19:54)
Thank you so much.
Beau Hamilton (19:55)
Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you all for listening to the SourceForge Podcast. I’m your host, Beau Hamilton. Make sure to subscribe to stay up to date with all of our upcoming B2B software-related podcasts. We’ll talk to you in the next one.