Voiceover artists across the radio and media industries are confronting a question that predates artificial intelligence: what happens to a craft when an industry keeps settling for “good enough”? Rates have been falling for years, and that decline started long before AI-generated voices became a viable alternative. Budget cuts, station consolidation, and shrinking creative departments reshaped the business well before any algorithm got involved.
Still, AI’s rapid improvement adds new urgency to the conversation, and it extends beyond individual voice performance into audio branding and production as a whole. Some companies now weigh professional talent against inexpensive, unlimited AI-generated alternatives, and many choose the cheaper option. That shift raises real questions about quality, legal exposure, and the long-term value of genuine human connection in advertising and broadcast.
BarrettMedia spoke with six voice and audio branding professionals — JJ Surma, Jim Cutler, Dawn Cutler, Loren Raye, Neil Wilson, and Steve Stone — about where the industry stands today. Their responses, lightly edited for clarity, appear below.
The State of the Industry
Garrett Searight: What is the biggest issue facing the voiceover community right now?
JJ Surma: Definitely the devaluation of the work. Even before AI became capable and easy to use, rates were plummeting, jobs were disappearing, and the industries we serve were changing drastically. Increased competition, consolidation, and changes in the broadcast industry have all contributed to lowering rates across the board.
Loren Raye: From a radio imaging standpoint specifically, I’m seeing VO opportunities continue to move in-house. Do I like it? No. But I understand the reality of budgeting constraints.
Neil Wilson: While AI is at the forefront of the conversation when it comes to VO, I believe there has never been a better time to really connect to the stories being told. Much of the issue we all face is because of a repetition in the creative process, a byproduct of shrinking budgets and the compression of workforces and roles.
But when it comes to a station’s identity and brand, we must go back to the art of telling the story. Really connect with the music, personalities, and listeners that drive the connection people have with their local radio station. Programmers, marketers, salespeople, talent, and even the voice of your station need to double, triple, and quadruple down on connecting to the words they speak. This is why we see the push behind sports by companies like Audacy — there is almost nothing more human and connecting than the love we have for our team. Go 49ers!
Jim Cutler: I originally thought AI would be the biggest challenge, but so far, it hasn’t been. The bigger issue is something much more familiar: companies relentlessly pursuing efficiencies and deciding where “good enough” is. One major television group, for example, eliminated voice talent across more than 260 stations. They experimented with AI and apparently weren’t satisfied with the results.
But instead of returning to the previous model, they found extremely inexpensive alternatives offering essentially unlimited voice work. The people doing it realize under $100 a month after taxes for unlimited daily work. That’s part of a larger change begun by radio. Many TV stations have eliminated Creative Services Directors, promotion departments and producers — the very people who once protected the quality of what went on the air. In their place, a few people are producing TV for 10 or 15 markets. The unfortunate part is that you can really hear the difference. So, to me, the biggest threat isn’t AI. It’s the institutional acceptance of “good enough” as a creative standard.
Steve Stone: For my work in voiceover and audio branding production, it’s the use of AI. While the quick promise of “savings” by streamlining voiceover or production services with AI may be enticing, in the long term it will be detrimental to what makes content unique and desired.
Where AI Fits In
GS: How concerned about the rise of AI voices are you?
Neil Wilson: I’m not not concerned. I’ve lost work and income because of it. But I’ve also seen clients come back because of it too. AI can do the repetitive tasks in all industries, including VO, which is why I’m really focused on being an interesting human. Living an interesting life and telling compelling stories. AI can’t do that. It doesn’t connect.
Jim Cutler: If what you need is simply “words said,” AI can already say words and sentences. There are hundreds of AI voice offerings now, so competition will continue driving that price down while the technology continues getting better. But that’s not really the business we’re in. We work with roughly a thousand people every week, and we know the stations, their sensibilities and what they’re trying to accomplish. AI will improve, unquestionably. When it can consistently deliver something better than what we bring to the work, it will have earned that business.
Loren Raye: I’ve lost some jobs to AI, and I’m not mad about it, because I know it’s not personal. However, a human being will always convey emotion better than AI, unless the VO artist is just phoning it in — in which case, call me and we can fix that.
JJ Surma: I’m not threatened by it, but I am aware, and I’m adjusting. As a performer, I’m doubling down on wild lines, alternate takes, jokes, burps, snorting, anything that can bring copy to life and add that secret sauce you can’t get out of a voice-to-speech application. I welcome the competition, because I’m uniquely me, and I believe people can hear the difference.
Steve Stone: Of course I’m concerned about the use as a replacement. AI voices as a creative tool could be beneficial, but I don’t think it’s being viewed that way at all right now. With media consolidation, the enticement of potential cost savings for companies is the primary focus.
Why Human Talent Still Matters
GS: Why should companies continue to use human voice artists?
Dawn Cutler: Anyone who has worked successfully in this business for a long time develops a tremendous amount of intuition about what individual stations and producers actually mean when they give direction. A producer might say, be loose with this, or make it wry, or conversational. Those descriptions cover an enormous range. But when you’ve worked with someone for years, you know where their version of conversational sits on that spectrum. AI can interpret a prompt and deliver the words. A great human talent understands the intent behind them.
JJ Surma: Just like a Beatles song or a Dylan song or a Fleetwood Mac song hits different than AI slop on Spotify, people can sense the humanity of a real voice actor. That shared humanity is the bridge that ideas travel on, so working with a human voice actor gives you immediate credibility. When you hire a pro with industry experience, you get someone who’s willing to say, okay, here’s what you wrote, I’ll read it as-is, but I think you mean this — have you considered saying it like this? That collaboration isn’t something you’ll get from AI, and I believe it’s priceless.
Loren Raye: Let’s be real: if you’re using any sort of VO to reinforce your brand, your goal is for the audience to feel something. At our core, humans crave connection, and AI VO cannot accomplish that in the way a human can. Full stop. Additionally, a human VO artist can serve as a partner to a client, not simply a tool. I had a session with a UK-based creative team, and the script mentioned being on holiday. Any American knows this isn’t how we speak; instead, we’d say on vacation. So I performed the script as asked, and once we nailed that, I pointed out that we should do alternate takes with the American terminology, since their audience is Americans.
Neil Wilson: Technology is cool. But being a human is so much cooler. People feel connection. We all understand the financial impacts of AI, but the legal aspects are starting to catch up. Currently, there is legislation at the federal level that has passed the House and now sits in judiciary committees in the Senate — look up the No Fakes Act, and also AB12 in California. A recent study with HarkerBos showed that trust is a major concern with AI voices. Earlier this year, a company using AI voices woke up to all their imaging voices being completely gone — removed from the server in one keystroke. AI isn’t doing anything more than shifting dollars from humans to companies without a vested interest in these products. Humans are just interesting. Being good at AI isn’t creative — it’s just being good at tech shit.
Jim Cutler: Of the roughly thousand people we serve every week, I can’t think of one who comes to us because they merely want the words said. They want us to bring something to them — humor, attitude, playfulness, sincerity, cool, deadpan, restraint, surprise. And sometimes the most valuable thing we contribute is a take the writer never imagined. That moment is difficult to reduce to a prompt. So I’m not interested in competing with AI at simply saying sentences. I want to work with the people who want someone who brings a point of view and makes the work better than it was on the page.
Steve Stone: Because one size does not fit all. Aside from on-air or on-camera talent, it’s the one thing that creates the unique personality of any radio and TV broadcast brand. It’s the touchpoint that ultimately makes or builds on the personal connection with the consumer via content and presentation.
GS: Anything else you’d like to include that I didn’t ask?
Loren Raye: Part of being a VO artist is being playful and imaginative and offering performances from different perspectives. Does it mean you know better than the creative team? Absolutely not. But it means that you’re doing your job right by giving them plenty to choose from and offering a surprise perspective they hadn’t considered before. That’s the value of a human being.
Neil Wilson: The way we’ve told the story of our station’s brand must evolve. No longer is it about dial position and station slogan, and it’s for sure not about how it sounds. Go deeper on the stories behind your talent, songs, listeners, and buyers. And use professional human storytellers to help tell those stories.
JJ Surma: If executives and decision makers are reaching for the next generation, they need to be aware of how much of a turn-off AI art, music, and podcasting is to them. I believe that employing more AI voices is the quickest way to show you’re out of touch with a generation you’re desperate to have embrace your content. They can smell fake a mile away.
Steve Stone: Any creative service or provider that supports the branding of media content, which is what we are all part of, should be seen as fundamental and not an easily cut luxury item on a spreadsheet.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.