AI Simplified is a weekly newsletter by Terry M. Lee — entrepreneur, AI strategist, and founder of QueenGeek LLC. Each issue is one honest story from inside a real business: a workflow that changed, a tool that actually worked, a decision and what happened next. No theory. No prompt lists. Just the practical, unfiltered version of what it looks like to build a leaner, smarter business with AI. Written for entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants who are serious about making AI work for the life they actually want to live.
Should AI Edit Your Videos? Here's What 16 Episodes Taught Me
Terry M. Lee · AI Simplified
Issue No. 008
This week's story
Should AI Edit Your Videos? Here's What 16 Episodes Taught MeHi Reader, If you don't have a video editor on staff, "can AI just handle this?" is one of the first questions you ask. I asked it too, with a 16-episode video podcast backlog sitting there, unclipped and unused. Here's the honest answer, and the three things I didn't know to look for until I was already in it. AI Can't Watch Your VideoHere's the part that surprised me: AI doesn't watch a video and pick the good moments. It reads the transcript. That's it. So step one wasn't a clipping tool at all — it was giving AI something to search. We built a two-tab system in Airtable: one tab catalogs each episode by theme and topic, the other tags specific timestamped moments by keyword and quote. Once that existed, finding "the moment about X" across 16 episodes went from a full rewatch to a search. Steal This Prompt: Find the ClipsHere's a generic version of that research step, ready for you to fill in: I have a transcript of [type of content — e.g. a podcast episode, a webinar, a training video], roughly [length — e.g. 45 minutes / X pages]. I want to find the strongest moments to clip for [where you'll use them — e.g. social clips, quote graphics, a highlight reel].
Read through the transcript and flag moments that:
1. Make a clear, quotable point about [the topics/themes you care about]
2. Stand alone as a full thought, not a fragment that needs extra context
3. Would resonate with [your audience — e.g. name the type of viewer]
For each moment, give me: the approximate timestamp, the exact quote, which theme it fits, and a one-line suggestion for how or where to use it.
[Paste your transcript below, or attach the file]
Then Came the Real Question: Can It Actually Cut the Clip?Finding the moment turned out to be the easy part. Turning it into a clean, usable clip raised questions we hadn't thought to ask before we started: Can it follow the right speaker? Our source is a multi-speaker split screen, and clipping tools differ here. Ours has a face-tracking option built in — once we turned it on, it correctly followed whoever was talking instead of freezing on a fixed frame. Does it keep audio and video in sync? This one bit us. The export process changed the video's frame rate while the audio stayed continuous, which drifted the speaker's mouth out of sync with their words — not something you'd catch without watching the export back closely. Does it survive being resized? A clip built for YouTube doesn't automatically work as a Reel. Square, vertical, and landscape versions of the same moment behave differently, including how captions and fonts render at each size. Why I Had Claude Map This Out FirstNone of the above was obvious before we started — it's the kind of list you only get by hitting each problem yourself. So now, before committing real time or credits to a video AI platform, I have Claude evaluate it against exactly these categories: speaker tracking, sync handling, and multi-format export. It's a fast way to borrow the lessons from episode one before you're 16 episodes in. Steal This Prompt: Pick the Right ToolBefore you commit real time or credits to a platform, hand this to Claude (or whichever AI you're using) and fill in your own details: I have [amount of footage / number of episodes] of recorded video from [describe your source — e.g. a multi-speaker podcast, a single-camera talk, a screen recording] that I want to turn into shorter clips for [where you'll post them — e.g. Reels, LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts].
Before I pick a tool, evaluate options against these questions:
1. Can it accurately track the right speaker in [describe your footage — e.g. split screen, multiple cameras, single frame]?
2. Does it keep audio and video in sync after export, especially with [describe your source — e.g. multi-track recording, separate audio file]?
3. Can it reformat one clip into multiple aspect ratios ([list the ones you need — e.g. 16:9, 9:16, 1:1]) without breaking captions or framing?
4. What's the real cost per [minute / episode / clip], and is there a free tier I can test on my own footage first?
Based on [tool names you're considering, or "recommend 2–3 options"], which fits my setup best, and what will I still need to do by hand?
"This video editor doesn't need breaks, sleep, or a vacation." Right now it's still about 2.5 hours per 45-minute episode, start to finish — research, clipping, and output. Still a work in progress. But that backlog isn't sitting untouched anymore.
If you're sitting on recorded content you haven't had time to repurpose, this is exactly the kind of task worth handing to AI — just go in knowing the questions to ask first. Terry Find me elsewhere |
Terry M. Lee | AI Simplified
AI Simplified is a weekly newsletter by Terry M. Lee — entrepreneur, AI strategist, and founder of QueenGeek LLC. Each issue is one honest story from inside a real business: a workflow that changed, a tool that actually worked, a decision and what happened next. No theory. No prompt lists. Just the practical, unfiltered version of what it looks like to build a leaner, smarter business with AI. Written for entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants who are serious about making AI work for the life they actually want to live.
Terry M. Lee · AI Simplified Issue No. 007 This week's story The Slides Took Minutes. The Secret Was What I Told AI First. Hi Reader, Every time I book a webinar, there's a task hiding behind the excitement: the slides. Not the ideas — I always know what I want to say. It's the building. Laying out each slide, making it look like it belongs to my brand and not a random template, getting the flow right before I can even think about rehearsing. The Time-Suck This is the part of running webinars...
Terry M. Lee · AI Simplified Issue No. 006 This week's story I Asked Claude to Add Two Nav Links. It Found Four Things Wrong With My Site. Hi Reader, Yesterday I opened a chat with Claude with the smallest possible ask: add two links to my website's nav menu. A "Community" link to my Substack, and a "Demos/Video Tips" link to my YouTube. Two-minute job. I wasn't looking for anything else. The Ask That's it. That's the whole request. Add two nav links so people could actually find my community...
Terry M. Lee · AI Simplified Issue No. 005 This week's story I Said Yes to a Favor. AI Turned It Into Five Products. Hi Reader, This week's biggest AI win didn't come from a client project or a product launch. It came from a favor. A friend asked me to design a composition book cover for her job. Air Force themed. Blue, white, and gold. One design that had to represent four different departments — front desk, supply, housekeeping, and maintenance. I'm not a Canva expert. Left to my own tools,...