DaVinci Resolve is a bit of a video editing beast! And its latest AI features take things to a whole new level. This isn’t just basic automation, the AI feels like it actually gets what editors are trying to do. It cuts scenes, tracks movement, isolates voices, matches colors and all the stuff that usually eats up time.
Let’s look at how these AI tools have completely transformed creative workflows. From making fast, smart edits to dialling in colors and cleaning up messy audio. If you’re a digital artist, designer, or just someone who likes bringing visual ideas to life, I think you’ll find these features seriously helpful (and fun).
1. Why creatives should care about DaVinci Resolve AI
Video editing can be a rabbit hole of timelines, keyframes, and endless tweaks. AI tools in DaVinci Resolve take over the boring (and often frustrating) parts, so you can stay focused on what really matters, your creative vision. For example, AI can:
- Automatically cut up long clips using Scene Detection
- Identify and track objects or people with Magic Mask
- Balance inconsistent audio using Voice Isolation
- Instantly create social-friendly versions with Smart Reframe
No need to be a video expert
If you’re already familiar with creative tools like Photoshop or Illustrator, jumping into DaVinci Resolve AI will feel quite natural. These AI features are designed to be beginner friendly (e.g. the features just work with a click or a slider) so there’s no need to dive into keyframes unless you want to. Here’s a quick list of what makes it beginner friendly:
- Tools are often one click or slider-based
- There are clear visual results
- Plenty of tutorials and community support are out there
2. Smart editing with DaVinci Neural Engine
Editing used to be the part that took the longest. Trimming clips, hunting for the right frames, adjusting every little detail. But with the DaVinci Neural Engine, a lot of that has become surprisingly hands-off.
Let the AI do the heavy lifting
The DaVinci Neural Engine uses machine learning to analyze your footage and make smart decisions instantly. That means you can spend less time clicking and more time shaping your story. Here are a few of our favorite tools:
- Scene Cut Detection: Automatically detects edits in long video files (like screen recordings or exported projects) and breaks them into individual clips.
- Smart Reframe: Need to make a vertical or square version of your video for Instagram or TikTok? This tool intelligently tracks the subject and reframes the shot without cutting off anything important. It’s perfect for turning horizontal content into social posts.
- Object Removal: Got an unwanted logo or distraction in the background? This feature helps clean up your footage without needing any complicated masking or rotoscoping.
- AI Set Extender: This expands your scene to fill the entire frame using a simple text prompt. Just highlight the area to extend, and it automatically generates missing regions, even adding new backgrounds behind foreground objects.
Perfect for fast-paced content creation
We’ve found that these AI-powered editing tools make a big difference when working on quick-turnaround projects. The technical parts are handled with ease, whether it’s social media content, promo reels, or behind-the-scenes clips. Which is a huge help when you’re up against deadlines or balancing multiple creative tasks and it lets us spend more time on storytelling, visuals, and refining the overall vibe.
3. AI-powered color grading
Color grading is where a project really starts to come alive. It’s the moment everything clicks, from the mood to the tone to the overall feel. But getting it all to look just right? That can be tricky. This is where DaVinci Resolve AI can help take some of the pressure off and make the whole process smoother.
Get that cinematic look without the guesswork
With a few clicks, AI tools in DaVinci Resolve can balance, match, and enhance colors across your footage, even if you’re starting with something shot on a phone or a basic camera. Here are a few tools you can rely on:
- Magic Mask: Just draw a rough stroke over your subject, and Resolve uses AI to isolate it across the entire clip, frame by frame. It’s perfect for applying color effects to just one part of the shot, like separating a character from the background.
- Auto Color and Shot Match: Don’t want to grade every clip by hand? Let AI do it for you. Auto Color gives your footage a clean, balanced look instantly. Shot Match is especially helpful for getting different clips to look consistent. This is great for scenes filmed at different times or on different devices.
- Depth Map: Want to create a dreamy background blur or highlight your subject with subtle lighting? This tool uses AI to generate a depth map of your scene, letting you grade different areas based on their distance from the camera, no green screen required.
Perfect for artists who want to add cinematic flair
These AI color grading tools are ideal for creatives who care about visual style but don’t want to get buried in color wheels and scopes. Whether you’re making animated reels, art videos, or portfolio pieces, they help bring your visuals to life with rich, professional looking color.
4. Audio enhancement with AI
Clean, clear sound can make a huge difference in how polished your final video feels. And DaVinci Resolve’s AI-powered audio tools take a lot of the stress out of sound editing, even if you have zero experience.
Make your audio sound like it was recorded in a studio (even if it wasn’t)
Whether you’re working with voiceovers, interviews, or ambient sound, Resolve’s Fairlight tab has some seriously impressive AI features that fix common problems in just a few clicks. Here are some of the tools:
- Voice Isolation: This separates dialogue from background noise such as traffic, fans, room echo and keeps your voice sounding clean and natural. Great for recording in less-than-ideal environments (aka our homes).
- Dialogue Leveler: Automatically balances out the volume of spoken audio so everything sounds consistent. No more sudden jumps between clips.
- Auto Ducking: When you have music and dialogue in the same timeline, auto ducking lowers the music volume whenever someone’s speaking. It sounds subtle and professional, and you don’t have to keyframe a thing.
- Noise Reduction: Removes unwanted hums, hisses, and low level static without killing the quality of your audio.
- AI Music Editor: Easily adjust a music track to fit your video with automatic edits. The audio is analyzed and trimmed or extended to match, with four versions to choose from, visual indicators, and editable sections for flexibility.
- EQ and Level Matcher: This allows you automatically match a clip’s audio level or tone to a reference clip. EQ Match adjusts dynamically for consistent sound, while Level Matcher ensures smooth transitions between clips without manual tweaks.
Perfect for tutorials, reels, and animated voiceovers
These tools are useful across all kinds of creative projects. From design tutorial voiceovers to animated shorts and social videos. Even when the visuals are strong, poor audio can be distracting, so having AI handle the cleanup makes a big difference.
Step 1: Import and organize your footage
We start by bringing in our clips, audio, and any reference files into the Media Pool. Labelling and organizing everything early saves so much time down the line, especially if we’re juggling different versions.
Step 2: Let AI handle the first edit
We use Scene Cut Detection to automatically slice up long footage, especially if it’s a single export or screen recording. From there, Smart Reframe helps us prep square or vertical versions for social platforms with minimal effort.
Step 3: Clean up the audio
Next, we head to the Fairlight tab. This is where Voice Isolation and Dialogue Leveler work their magic. If we’re using background music, Auto Ducking makes sure it doesn’t overpower any talking.
Step 4: Dial in the visuals
Time for some style. We use Magic Mask to isolate subjects and tweak their colors or lighting without affecting the background. Auto Color gives us a solid starting point, and Shot Match helps everything feel consistent across the edit. If we want to get fancy, the Depth Map lets us blur or grade different parts of the scene based on distance, it’s a subtle touch, but really effective.
Step 5: Add titles, transitions, and finishing touches
This is where we layer in motion graphics, text, or callouts, which is usually built directly in Resolve or pulled in from Illustrator or Photoshop. We also double check our pacing and make any final trims here.
Step 6: Export and share
Finally, we head to the Deliver tab, pick our platform presets (YouTube, Instagram, etc.), and export. If it’s going to multiple platforms, we’ll export different aspect ratios, and the AI reframing makes that part super easy.
And that’s it! A full creative workflow, powered by AI and way less intimidating than it sounds. The more we use these tools, the more we realize how much time and mental energy they save. Which let’s us stay focused on the fun stuff.
Final Thoughts
DaVinci Resolve AI isn’t about taking control away, it’s about giving time and creative freedom back. Whether you’re editing your first reel, color grading a short, or cleaning up audio on a design tutorial, these tools make the whole process smoother and way less intimidating.
We’ve found that once you start using AI features in your workflow, it’s hard to go back. They help you move faster, stay inspired, and spend more time doing the creative process.