In the immortal words of Alanis Morissette, life has a funny way……
And, isn’t it ironic that one of the results of the AI panic sown by so many “experts” and headless chicken types in the voiceover world is that, now, as buyers begin to actively run away from AI voices, the departure of many mid-tier talent from the marketplace, coupled with a slowdown in new entries into the marketplace since the pandemic influx of 2020-2022, has left an unexpected void and supply problem when it comes to solid voice actors in the workaday genres of Corporate/Industrial Narration, E-Learning, Medical Narration, Explainer Videos, and other similar niches.
It’s not quite “the ground floor,” but non-broadcast narration was one of the most popular genres for new voice actors to jump into during the late teens and early ’20s, and for good reason; It is work that can be almost entirely driven by direct marketing and hustle, which means barriers to entry are lower, and pay tends to be solid.
As more talent came into the business between 2018-2022, these genres started to become more saturated than they had been in the past, with the exception of Medical Narration. While never nearing the saturation level of the most popular types of VO like commercial, animation, and gaming, there was definitely more competition than before.
And then, the AI panic hit.
While in reality AI has impacted very little high-end work and far less of the low-end work than we probably expected as the threat emerged, the absolute terror being sewn by the usual naysayers and cohorts of new ones, coupled with the glut of pandemic-era talent fighting over the middle of the market, led many new and even established VO’s to throw in the towel over the past couple of years.
Now, we’re hearing stories almost daily of buyers who have been burned by AI, (and mostly not because it isn’t good enough….there’s some solid AI VO out there….but because end-users are rebelling en masse against AI filling principal creative roles,) flocking back to human talent and rapidly sending the prospects of parasitic AI VO companies and certain P2P’s that went all-in on the technology crashing. It has gotten to the point where voice actors now have to be careful when auditioning for non-broadcast genres where we once counseled precise editing and spit-shining to actually err on the side of a little imperfection, leaving in natural breaths, and little to no processing……much like the conventional wisdom has been in broadcast genre auditions for years. If your audition, or even your final product once hired, sounds too flawless, it is becoming more and more common for paranoid clients who have been told NO AI!!! by their end-users to accuse human VO’s of cheating by using an AI clone.
It’s why organizations like Micah Voraritskul’s Verified Human (https://www.verifiedhuman.info/) are popping up….and why more and more voice over artists are mentioning in standard submission templates that they have never consented to cloning their voice. As many of us predicted, the market for talent who have not partaken of the forbidden fruit is growing, and even for those who have, the ability to demonstrate that you’re not just a digital replica is becoming more and more important.
With the disappearance of talent run out of the business by overcooked fear of AI, and the natural washing out of many pandemic-era entries, non-broadcast narration suddenly feels a lot like 2015 again, just with generally higher budgets.
If you held the line and stayed in the game, hopefully you’re seeing your stubborn optimism pay off. And if you’re looking for an entry point that’s not as populated, narration genres are as strong as ever. 2026 has been a pivotal year for voiceover proving its longevity and durability. Here’s to a rising tide!
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