VO VS. AI
10 Reasons To Hire A Human Voice Actor
(Points To Share With Potential Clients)

By Brian Ufen
Voice Actor

These days, AI voices can be inexpensive, instant, and have great sound quality. So are there any good reasons to continue hiring live, human voice actors?

Here are some possible reasons to consider…

1. Uniqueness
As divinely designed and created, self-aware beings, each human is distinctly different.

Each has his or her own life experiences, worldview, and perspectives. All of this can inform the voice over read in a unique way.

2. Collaboration
There’s something synergistic that can happen when a great director guides a great voice actor, in which perspectives on a read can be combined to produce a stronger overall performance.

It's just two people working together to produce the best, most effective recording - a recording that is greater than the sum of its parts.

3. Creativity
An excellent voice actor will pick up on subtleties in read specs and/or direction, and can intuitively draw on their creativity and experience to give varying takes and improvised performances.

4. Connection
Depending on who your audience is, pro voice actors know how to speak as if to a group or to an individual, in order to make a stronger, more effective connection with them.

As people, we can all relate to each other in some way, since we’ve “been there, done that.”

And the better your audience relates to the VO, the better the chances that they’ll take action on your product, service, or event.

5. Continuity
This is definitely improving, especially with more sophisticated AI voice programming, but it can be distracting when there’s an obvious AI mispronunciation, a reverse inflection (going up in pitch instead of down, or vice versa), or some other awkwardness.

And your audience might miss what comes next while they’re thrown off by these flaws.

Without tweaking, AI can also tend to put the same emphasis on the contents of every paragraph, instead of building or lowering the level of excitement and
enthusiasm according to the varying intensity of the script.

6. Investment
Human voice actors tend to be invested in your project. At the very least, they have skin in the game. They are literally the voice of your project, so their reputation and continued income are on the line every time they’re in front of a microphone.

No excellent voice actor wants to be known as “that lazy guy who phones it in.”

At best, they understand what’s at stake, and truly want your project to succeed for everyone involved - which will be evident in the effort and attention they put into their performance.

7. Emotion
“Congratulations on the big promotion!” and “I’m so sorry your dog died!” should obviously not both sound cheery and upbeat, but AI doesn’t necessarily know the
difference.

A voice actor can draw on real life-experiences and memories to bring the right emotions, in the right amounts, to a read. Without these genuinely-sourced emotions, a voice over can lack depth and weight, and instead sound somewhat forced or insincere.

8. Versatility
A pro voice actor is able to speed up and slow down naturally within a sentence or paragraph. The voice actor knows where to pause, and for how long - and can change emotion, tone, pitch, attitude, etc. on the spot.

9. Imperfection
Humans have a tendency to unconsciously insert other “sounds” into their speech that make a read sound more natural and real: sighs, inhalations, slight laughter while reading a word or phrase, etc.

Subtle things can add a lot to the personality, and thus the effectiveness, of a read.

And sometimes it’s actually better if a voice stutters a bit; or cracks with emotion, exhaustion, or age; and/or if the actor produces other verbalizations, noises, or breaths that occur naturally as part of human conversation.

The human voice doesn’t always sound flawless and smooth, and that’s part of what makes it unique, of what makes it “human.”

10. Interaction
Which is more fun and enjoyable:

• A VO session with a live voice actor who’s a real person like you - who (hopefully!) has a sense of humor and a genuine interest in you as a fellow human being. Or ...
• A session with…no one? Can an AI voice send you a hand-written birthday card, or homemade cookies, or sincerely ask you how your kids are doing?

FINAL THOUGHTS

There’s a reason why AI voices have been designed to emulate the human voice instead of just using synthesized tones: the human voice is “natural” to our ears. It’s the sound we know, trust, and relate to - because we know, trust, and relate to other humans like us.

By definition, AI speech is artificial. Human speech is the real thing.

So which is right for your project? Of course, since I’m a voice actor, I would prefer that you use human voice actors for everything ;-) Just please consider some possible advantages of using a human voice actor when making your decision.
©2025 Brian Ufen
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ABOUT BRIAN
Specializing in commercials and short-form videos, 20+ year voice acting veteran Brian Ufen has also given voice to educational and training projects, IVR prompts, and animated characters. Credits include McDonald’s, Capital One, Dell, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Bank of America, and many more. With a background in commercial scriptwriting, theatre, and music performance, Brian enjoys using his voice in varied ways to help clients move their target audiences to action.

Web: https://yournextvoice.com
LinkedIn: Brian Ufen

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