TechSmith’s 2024 Video Viewer Study Finds 75% of People Are Receptive to AI-generated Video Content But Not Without Concerns

New Research Examines What Viewers Want in Instructional and Informational Video Content

TechSmith Corporation, an industry leader in visual communication, released its 2024 Video Viewer Study, which examines global viewer engagement and preferences of instructional and informational video content. The report, based on a survey of 1,000 participants across various industries in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK, reveals that clarity, relevance, and authenticity were key drivers of viewership.

The new prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) in instructional and informational video production has viewers conflicted. While 75% of viewers are either “very receptive” or “somewhat receptive” to watching videos created with the help of AI, 90% have concerns about content accuracy (45%), quality (24%), and origins (21%). This apprehension aligns with how people feel about generative AI in other mediums outside of video. Authenticity of AI-generated content is also important with 87% of viewers preferring a real person instead of an animated character or AI avatar in their video.

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Additionally, video continues to be the preferred method to consume instructional and informational content by a considerable margin, with 83% of respondents citing it as such. Informal training videos comprised just over 50% of all video content watched by respondents, followed by live streams and webinars (49%), PowerPoint recordings (32%), quick colleague-created videos (28%), and recorded meetings (27%).

While video continues to be the clear choice for consuming content as in past years, their methods for choosing which videos to watch are changing. The top reason respondents select a video is because the description matched their needs at 54%, a 14% increase from the 2021 Video Viewer Study. Video length was the second highest reason at 35%, up 10% from the aforementioned report.

Defying industry consensus that shorter is always better, the most desired length of informational and instructional videos is between 10-19 minutes. However, the desired length was heavily influenced by whether or not the video was informing or teaching a skill. Fifty percent of viewers prefer videos 30 seconds or less to learn about a general topic, such as a product, but 67% of respondents would watch a video over 60 minutes long to learn a new skill at their job or increase their knowledge on a topic.

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“Even though the way video is created is changing dramatically, its ability to teach and inform has never been more relevant to businesses and consumers,” said Matt Pierce, Learning & Video Ambassador at TechSmith. “Enterprises, training staff, educators, and others developing video content must think critically about length in relation to the type of content they create as well as the growing importance of developing engaging descriptions and titles. As new technologies like AI grow more influential in this space and perform exceptional tasks, creators must stay mindful of how much they lean on them due to trust issues suggested by the report.”

Other key findings from the study include:

• Public video sites and social media platforms are the dominant destinations for informational and instructional content: Over 60% of respondents chose to watch videos on YouTube or another public video site, followed by social media channels such as X or LinkedIn (44%), videos sent directly by others (39%), an online course or academy (32%).
• More people are watching informational and instructional videos because they want to. In fact, just 16% of viewers said they watched a video because they were required to.
• Sixty-six percent of respondents watch an instructional or informational video at least once a week: The most common frequency is 2-4 times a week (31%), followed by 1-2 times a month (25%) and once a week (20%).
• Clarity is now king: Easy-to-follow videos are the top reason viewers stay tuned at 57%. Having relatable and relevant content follows closely behind at 55%, with an engaging and knowledgeable speaker/presenter at 51%.
• Forty-two percent of respondents ranked professional graphics as one of the top three content characteristics they felt are most important in a video: Graphics such as text, overlays, and lower thirds are appealing because they add a professional polish to the video.
• Video viewer engagement and preferences were largely similar across all geographies: In the majority of categories, responses in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Germany were aligned within a few percentage points.