Google’s new AI video tool Veo 3 has everyone talking. It can turn a simple text prompt into a short cinematic clip complete with synchronized sound. In one demo, Google AI researchers even generated a dramatic “interview scene” – lighting, camera moves and all – from a single line of text. That sounds like science fiction, but it’s real. The big question for marketers and creators is: is Veo 3 actually useful today? We’ll unpack what Veo 3 can (and can’t) do, who can access it right now, how it compares to other AI video tools and whether local South African brands can jump on board. What is Veo 3 and What’s New? Veo 3 is Google DeepMind’s latest text-to-video model (the successor to Veo 2). It excels at short, high-fidelity clips. Unlike older generators, Veo 3 outputs full audio – including dialogue, music and ambient sound – along with the visualsimagine.artlatenode.com. It can maintain cinematic motion and 4K-like resolution from a prompt, even simulating realistic physics (think fluttering cloth or bouncing balls)imagine.art. In practical terms, that means Veo 3 can whip up a fast “commercial” or social media teaser in a few seconds of input. Early testers have played with it for all sorts of scenes – from baby doll meetups to pharmaceutical product ads to even playful “AI gymnastics” shortstime.com. These 5–8 second demos show what it can do on a proof-of-concept level. However, Veo 3 is still specialized. It currently only makes very short clips (about 8 seconds max)time.com. So it’s not yet making full TV spots or explainer videos without stitching multiple clips together. It’s also not perfect at every detail. For example, the AI often struggles to generate readable text (it’s “bad at creating text” like signs or subtitlestime.com), and sometimes adds minor visual glitches. In short, Veo 3 is excellent for fast, punchy, visually rich scenes – but not (yet) for long narratives or anything needing precise text in frame. What Veo 3 Can (and Can’t) Create In marketing terms, think of Veo 3 as a quick prototype machine. It can produce polished short-form