For Tim Friedlander, President of the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), the reality sits somewhere in the middle. He doesn't dismiss the disruption AI will bring, but he also doesn't believe it signals the end of human performance.

As AI reshapes the voice industry, the National Association of Voice Actors is working with organizations around the world to help performers navigate what’s next. For NAVA President Tim Friedlander, the future won’t be defined by artificial intelligence alone. It will be defined by how the industry chooses to respond.

The Voice Industry Is Entering a New Era

Voice acting has never stood still. Every decade has brought a new shift in how performers build careers, find work and connect with audiences. Online casting transformed how talent booked jobs, home studios made geography far less important, and the pandemic accelerated remote production, opening the industry to performers well beyond traditional hubs like Los Angeles and New York.

Now the industry is facing another turning point. Artificial intelligence has become the defining conversation in voice acting, raising questions about everything from performer rights to the future of creative work. Some believe AI will fundamentally reshape the profession. Others see it as another technological shift that artists will eventually adapt to.

For Tim Friedlander, President of the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), the reality sits somewhere in the middle. He doesn’t dismiss the disruption AI will bring, but he also doesn’t believe it signals the end of human performance.

“This is going to be in flux for the next year or two before we have any really solid idea about where we’re going to play out. But I don’t see a lot of the art disappearing.”

That perspective has become central to NAVA’s work. Rather than approaching AI with fear, the organization is focused on helping performers understand what’s changing, advocate for stronger protections and prepare for the opportunities that still exist. Friedlander believes the future won’t simply happen to the industry. It will be shaped by the people willing to adapt alongside it.

A Global Conversation

Although NAVA was founded to support voice actors in the United States, its influence has increasingly extended beyond American borders. As AI continues to reshape creative industries, the challenges facing performers are no longer confined to one market. Questions around consent, biometric rights, performer protections and the value of human creativity are being asked by voice actors around the world.

Rather than navigating those questions in isolation, organizations have begun learning from one another. Friedlander says NAVA’s work has helped provide a framework for emerging voice acting associations looking to establish their own advocacy efforts.

“Our groups… have kind of looked to the framework that we have built and kind of the work that we had done here in the US as inspiration for what they are doing in their countries.”

That collaboration now stretches well beyond the United States. Friedlander points to organizations such as COMET in Australia and TSAVA in New Zealand, while LAVA, the Latin American Association of Voice Actors, operates as a committee within NAVA itself. Each organization serves its own community, but they’re increasingly connected by a shared objective: helping voice actors navigate an industry undergoing rapid technological change.

For Friedlander, that exchange of ideas has become one of NAVA’s most rewarding developments. No organization has all the answers, particularly when AI is evolving faster than legislation. Instead, progress comes from openly sharing what’s working, what’s changing and what performers need next.

“A lot of this for us has been navigating an unknown change to the industry and learning about this as best we can. Being able to provide what we’ve learned as inspiration and a starting point for groups in other countries has been really exciting.”

That collaborative mindset may become increasingly important over the next few years. Every country is approaching AI regulation differently, with varying levels of protection for performers and biometric data. While the legal frameworks may differ, the underlying concerns remain remarkably consistent. By working together, voice organizations are helping ensure those conversations don’t happen in isolation, but as part of a broader global effort to protect the future of the profession.

AI Will Change Voice Work. It Won’t Replace Voice Acting.

Friedlander doesn’t shy away from the reality that AI will change parts of the profession. In his view, some work is already becoming more vulnerable to automation, particularly projects where the primary goal is to communicate information quickly and consistently. These are often high-volume productions that require frequent updates rather than creative interpretation.

“We are going to see some very entry level parts of this industry that are going to go to AI.”

During the interview, Friedlander points to examples like compliance training, onboarding videos and instructional content. These projects serve an important purpose, but they’re fundamentally different from the performances audiences experience in animation, video games or film. For him, that’s where the conversation around AI often loses important context.

“Things that are voice acting, where you need to have the emotional exchange of information, the exchange of emotional content, that becomes much more difficult to replace by AI.”

It’s a distinction that sits at the heart of his outlook for the industry. Voice-over and voice acting are often used interchangeably, but Friedlander sees them as serving different purposes. One is primarily about delivering information. The other is about creating emotion, building trust and connecting with an audience.

That difference gives him confidence about where the industry is heading. While AI may continue to change how some voice work is produced, Friedlander believes performances that rely on human emotion, vulnerability and lived experience will continue to hold their value. Rather than replacing voice acting altogether, AI is more likely to redefine which parts of the profession depend on people most.

Human Performance Is Becoming More Valuable

For all the uncertainty surrounding AI, Friedlander’s outlook remains surprisingly optimistic. He doesn’t believe technology will diminish the value of human performers. If anything, he expects the opposite. As AI-generated voices become more common, he believes audiences and clients will place an even greater premium on performances that feel genuine, emotionally nuanced and unmistakably human.

”I think we are going to see a resurgence in the demand for human created art.”

That optimism is rooted in something he’s already observing. Friedlander argues that audiences are becoming more aware of when content has been created using AI, and that awareness influences how they perceive the brands and stories behind it. Trust, he suggests, is becoming an increasingly important differentiator.

“When consumers are finding out that it is AI generated, they distrust the brands, they distrust the voice, they distrust the product that is being marketed.”

For performers, that shift presents an opportunity. Rather than competing with AI on speed or efficiency, Friedlander believes voice actors should focus on the qualities that have always defined great performances.

Emotional connection, lived experience and the ability to communicate something that feels real remain difficult to replicate through technology. Those qualities, he argues, won’t become less valuable as AI improves. They may become the very reason clients continue choosing human performers in the years ahead.

What New Voice Actors Should Focus On

For performers entering the industry today, the path into voice acting looks different than it did even a decade ago. Entry-level opportunities still exist, but the expectations around them are changing. Friedlander believes new actors will need stronger training, a professional home studio, a better understanding of online casting platforms and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to communicate the value they bring as human performers.

“It used to be that you only had to convince somebody to hire you over another human. Now you have to convince people to hire you over an AI.”

That shift changes more than the audition process. It changes how performers think about building a career. Success is no longer determined solely by acting ability. Voice actors are increasingly expected to understand branding, marketing and how to position themselves in a competitive industry where technology has become another point of comparison.

Rather than seeing that as a disadvantage, Friedlander views it as part of the industry’s ongoing evolution. Every major shift, from the rise of online casting to the growth of remote recording, has required performers to adapt. AI is simply the next chapter. For the next generation of voice actors, the opportunity lies in demonstrating the qualities that technology can’t easily replicate and building careers around those strengths.

Looking Ahead

After decades in the industry, Friedlander has learned that change is a constant. He’s seen voice acting evolve through the rise of online casting, the shift to home studios and the rapid expansion of remote recording.

Each development changed how performers built careers, and each required the industry to adapt. AI, in his view, is another chapter in that ongoing story rather than an endpoint.

What gives him confidence is the response he’s seeing from audiences and clients. While AI has become more sophisticated, Friedlander believes there is still a strong appetite for authentic human performance. The technology may continue to improve, but he isn’t convinced it will replace the emotional connection that performers bring to their work.

“The people that are trying to be sold this technology are not accepting it. People are not buying this technology. They are actively seeking out humans to create this work.”

That belief shapes the advice he gives to voice actors at every stage of their careers. Rather than worrying about sounding more polished or competing with AI on efficiency, he encourages performers to lean into the experiences that make them unique. Those personal experiences, emotions and imperfections are what audiences ultimately connect with, and what technology continues to struggle to replicate.

As the industry navigates one of its most significant periods of change, Friedlander believes the answer isn’t to become more like AI. It’s to become more authentically human.

“Bring everything you’ve done in your life to these projects that you do. Be unapologetically human in the work that you do.”

It’s a fitting way to conclude a conversation that began with uncertainty about AI and ended with confidence in the value of human creativity. Technology will continue to evolve, regulations will continue to change and new challenges will inevitably emerge. But if Friedlander’s outlook proves correct, the future of voice acting won’t be defined by artificial intelligence alone. It will be defined by the performers who continue bringing something machines can’t manufacture: genuine human connection.