AI video made a big leap in 2026. At the top are Google's Veo 3.1 and Kuaishou's Kling 3.0, almost level in comparison rankings. Runway is the most common choice when creative control and editing matter. One well-known name is missing: OpenAI discontinued Sora. The app went offline on 26 April 2026 and the developer API on 24 September 2026. No successor has been announced.
Which models lead right now?
- Veo 3.1 (Google): strong on realism and sound. Produces short high-resolution clips with matching audio, but is considered the most expensive option per second.
- Kling 3.0 (Kuaishou): cheaper, with clips from a few seconds up to about 15, its own audio and several shots in one video.
- Runway: strong on camera control and post-production, popular with production teams.
- Seedance (ByteDance): often named as an alternative, especially since Sora's end.
The gaps between the top models are small, and prices and features change quickly. What leads today may be overtaken in three months.
What can AI video do today?
- short social media clips that grab attention
- animations of products or ideas that do not exist yet
- backgrounds, transitions and mood shots for a video
- quick drafts to align on an idea before shooting
Where are the limits?
- Length: most clips last a few seconds. Longer stories only come from many individual clips.
- Consistent characters: a person often does not look exactly the same across several clips.
- Real people and places: your team, your hall or your trade fair stand cannot be invented convincingly. And realistic AI videos of real people or events must be labelled under the AI Act, more in AI labelling on your website.
- Dependency: the end of Sora shows that a service can disappear quickly. Anyone building processes firmly on one model needs a plan B.
What does this mean for your company?
AI video is a good tool for ideas, animations and short social clips. For everything that shows your company, your people and your events, real filming remains superior, because that is exactly what is meant to build trust. In practice the two complement each other: real footage at the core, AI for animations, variants and formats.
Sources
- OpenAI: What to know about the Sora discontinuation
- Tech Insider: Best AI Video Generator 2026: Veo 3.1 vs Kling 3.0
- Spaceads: AI Video Generators for Ads in 2026
- Gupta Deepak: Best AI Video Generation Tools 2026
