Cutback launches AI tool to automate long-form video editing

Cutback has released Selects, an AI-powered editing assistant built to reduce the manual groundwork involved in long-form video production. The tool takes raw, unorganized footage as input, syncs and sorts it automatically, and then generates a first-cut draft based on a single prompt from the user. The idea is to compress what can often be hours of prep work into a much shorter process.

Long-form video editing - think documentary footage, interview series, or event coverage - has historically required editors to spend a large portion of their time simply reviewing and logging clips before touching the actual cut. Selects positions itself as a solution to that front-end burden, using AI to handle the organizational and structural work so that human editors can focus on refinement and creative decisions rather than logistics.

The single-prompt approach is notable. Rather than requiring editors to manually tag clips, build bins, or drag footage into a rough timeline, Selects interprets a natural language instruction and constructs a draft edit around it. This brings long-form editing closer to the kind of prompt-driven workflows that have become common in generative image and short-form video tools, applying that logic to a more complex and traditionally labor-intensive format.

Cutback joins a growing number of tools attempting to bring AI assistance into professional video pipelines. While automated editing tools have existed for some time, the combination of footage organization, syncing, and draft generation in a single assistant is a more integrated approach than most. How well Selects handles the nuance and pacing demands of longer formats - where editorial judgment matters considerably - will likely determine how deeply it gets adopted by working editors.