How to Use AI for Auto Video Editing in Premiere Pro: A Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

Auto Rough Cut is a feature that uses AI to understand subtitles generated from speech recognition and automatically creates a rough cut draft for your video. With Cutback’s AI-powered editing tools, you can reduce the time spent on rough cuts to just a few minutes and edit more efficiently using subtitles as a guide.

This page covers the following:

✅ How to easily rough cut videos using AI ✔️
✅ Helpful features for efficient video editing 🔧
✅ Frequently asked questions and answers 💬

Getting Started

Step 1. Open a new project file in Adobe Premiere Pro and prepare your audio and video files in the sequence.

Step 2. In the top menu of Premiere Pro, go to [Window] > [Extension] > [Cutback] to launch Cutback.

Step 3. Select the [Auto rough cut] menu.

Step 4. Configure the settings for video transcription:

1. Select Range: Choose the range for transcription

• [Whole sequence]: Generates transcript for all tracks in the current sequence.

• [Select Clip]: Generates transcript only for selected clips in the sequence.

• [In/Out]: Generates transcript only for In/Out points set in Premiere Pro.

2. Select Language: Choose the language spoken in the video. Only one language can be selected at a time.
   
   

3. Preview On/Off: If preview is turned on, you can review the edits before applying them to the sequence.

Note: Turning on preview will require encoding time. If you're editing a long video or need faster performance, turning it off can speed up subtitle generation.

4. Speakers:

• If you have only one speaker, select [One person]

• If you have more than two speakers, select [Multiple]

  • If each speaker has a separate mic and is recorded on different audio tracks, you can select [Audio separated] and assign names to each track.

  • If all voices are on a single audio track, you can select [Audio not separated] and enter the number of speakers. AI will distinguish them by voice.

5. Video: Choose the number of video tracks. If there are multiple speakers with separate audio tracks, you can also assign corresponding video tracks.
   
   

6. Names & terms: Provide extra context to help AI generate accurate subtitles.

• Keywords: Enter specific keywords like names or proper nouns to improve subtitle accuracy.

• Script reference: Paste the script so AI can reference it while generating subtitles.

Step 5. When you’re done setting up, click the [Transcribe video for auto rough cut] button.

Create a rough cut draft with AI for your video

❗ Before You Start

• Once you click [Transcribe video for auto rough cut], any edits made to the sequence in Premiere Pro will not sync with Cutback, which can cause misalignment between the transcription and your timeline. To prevent this, audio tracks are locked by default while working in Cutback.

• Edits made in the sequence are not reflected in Cutback.

  Make sure to finish your work in Cutback and click [Apply to sequence] before making any additional edits directly in the sequence.

• Your progress is automatically saved per sequence in real time.

  If you restart Premiere Pro and open the same sequence, launching Cutback will restore your previous work.

Step 1. Review the original video content using AI Smart Summary.

Smart Summary automatically generates chapters based on the transcript and provides a quick overview of each section. This allows you to understand the video at a glance without watching the entire thing, speeding up your workflow.

Step 2. Click [Ask assistant] at the bottom.

Step 3. Choose the editing direction you want:

• Remove repeats – Deletes repeated words or phrases.

• Put together best cuts – If a sentence was practiced or repeated, AI will automatically choose the most natural take.

• Cut video according to script – Paste your script, and AI will use it as a guide to edit the video accordingly.

• Find highlights for each chapter – AI will identify and keep only the most important parts from each topic-based chapter.

• Give me ideas to shorten video – Removes less important parts and keeps only the core content to shorten the video.

• Put together clips with keyword – Keeps only the scenes where a specific word is mentioned, removing the rest.

• Remove silence – Removes parts without speech or sound.

Step 4. Check the edits made by AI according to your selected option, and make adjustments if needed.
On how to edit with text, please refer to the guide.

Note:

• After AI rough cut, deleted segments will appear in gray. They won’t be removed from the sequence until you click [Apply to sequence].

• The AI-generated rough cut may not be perfect. Always review the result before finalizing.

Explore more features in Cutback

1. Various tools in the menu bar

   

   • Undo / Redo: Use these buttons when you want to undo or redo an edit in Cutback. You can also use the shortcuts u (undo) and r (redo) for quick access.

   • Time Machine: If you've applied changes to the sequence but want to go back to the state before applying them, try using the Time Machine. It backs up the project just before you hit [Apply to sequence], and you can restore that version by clicking the Time Machine button.

   • Find/Replace Words: You can search for and replace words in the generated transcription. Use the shortcut key f to open the tool quickly.

   • Export Transcription: Export the transcription as a .txt or .srt file. You can also copy chapters and timestamps from Smart Summary to use as YouTube chapters.

     
     

2. Add marker: Want to leave a note for editing later in Premiere Pro? Press i to add a marker with a memo at the current timestamp in the sequence.

   
   

3. Try using keyboard shortcuts

   • To move between words: w a s d

   • To delete a word: k

   • To delete a line: l

   • To speed up playback: > (shift + .)

   • To slow down playback: < (shift + ,)

     Tip: Click the keyboard icon at the top right of the Cutback window to find more shortcuts.

   

4. More ways to use AI Smart Summary

• Click a summary to jump directly to that chapter in the timeline.

• Click on a chapter title to use AI assistant for chapter-specific editing.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I want to reload the transcript I was working on.

  If you've previously generated transcript for a sequence, the transcription file will remain available even after restarting Cutback or Premiere Pro.

  Go to [Auto rough cut] and select [Open], or click on [Transcribe video for auto rough cut] > [Open previous transcript] to load the subtitle file.

  ❗Caution❗

  • If there’s an existing subtitle file and you select [Transcribe video to edit captions] > [Transcribe again], it will overwrite your previous work. The previous file cannot be recovered, so proceed carefully.

  • Also, if you edit the sequence in Premiere after applying subtitles via Cutback, and then reopen Cutback, subtitle sync issues may occur.

• What counts as one usage of the Auto rough cut feature?

  One usage is counted each time you click an editing direction to run the assistant.
  
  

• How can I check my Auto rough cut usage?

  You can check this month’s usage on the Cutback website under [Dashboard] > [Usage].
  
  

• I clicked [Apply to sequence], but it says it can’t delete subtitle tracks.

  Delete all “Subtitle” tracks from the Premiere Pro sequence. If you’re using a nested sequence, check for subtitle tracks inside the nested timeline as well.
  
  

• I don’t like the edits made by the assistant.

  The AI assistant may not always be perfect. After generating a rough cut, make sure to review the edits. If there are any parts you're not satisfied with, feel free to adjust them manually before clicking [Apply to sequence] to finalize the changes.
  
  

• I want to add line breaks to my transcription.

  Line breaks aren’t supported in [Rough cut] mode. To edit subtitles, switch to [Edit captions] mode.
  
  

• The transcription isn't working properly. What should I do?

  • Check your Premiere Pro version: Cutback supports Premiere Pro 2023 and newer.

  • Change audio format: If you're using WAV and facing issues, try switching to AAC. In Cutback, go to [Menu] > [Settings] > [Audio Format] and select AAC.

  • Check internet speed: Cutback uses cloud servers for high-performance AI processing. If your connection is slow, audio upload may fail. We recommend an upload speed of at least 200 Mbps. You can test your connection at fast.com to check your upload speed.

  • If the issue still persists after trying all three steps, please reach out through the in-app chat in Cutback for further assistance.

• It is taking too long after I click [Apply to sequence].
  Automatic rough cuts often result in significantly more clips than manual editing. Since Premiere Pro isn't optimized for handling projects with hundreds or thousands of clips, actions like saving or applying edits can take longer than expected.

  • To improve performance, try these tips:

  • Remove unused tracks

  • Remove unnecessary effects from clips

  • Split long videos into multiple sequences (e.g., 30-minute chunks)

  • Work on a device with higher performance specs