Synthesia and Multiply come up together when a team is rethinking training, but they sit at opposite ends of the same problem. One produces the video fast. The other works out whether anyone does anything differently once the video ends.
TL;DR
Synthesia is an AI video platform. It turns a script into a presenter-led training video in minutes, without a studio, a camera, or a film crew. It is one of the fastest ways to scale video content production. Multiply is a Transfer Intelligence Platform. It sits on top of whatever training you already run, including videos you make in Synthesia, and works out whether that training will change behaviour on the job, then designs the 90 days that make it stick.
They are not really competitors. Most teams producing training video still have the harder problem Multiply solves, because making a video and changing behaviour with it are two separate jobs. If you have to pick which problem to solve first, the question is simple: do you have a video-production problem, or a does-anyone-actually-do-anything-differently problem?
At a glance
| Synthesia | Multiply | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI video generation platform | Transfer Intelligence Platform |
| Core job | Turn a script into training video fast | Predict, support, and measure behaviour change after training |
| What it produces | Presenter-led and interactive video from text | A transfer plan, a 90-day programme, and evidence of behaviour change |
| What it measures | Video engagement: views, drop-off, completion | Whether behaviour changed and whether the business KPI moved |
| Manager involvement | None | Manager activation built into every programme |
| Where it lives | A video player, usually inside an LMS | Slack and Microsoft Teams, where work happens |
| Best for | Scaling video content production without a studio | Proving training drove behaviour change and business results |
Where the two actually differ
What gets produced
This is the real split, so start here.
Synthesia produces a video. From a script, in many languages, with a presenter, no studio required, and increasingly an interactive one: its newer versions add quizzes, branching, and avatar-led sessions on top of the core video. For teams that need a lot of consistent training video and do not have a production budget, that is a real unlock, and Synthesia is one of the leaders in doing it.
Multiply does not produce video at all. It produces a transfer plan. Before a programme runs, the Diagnostic produces four scores: a Skill Deficit Score, an Environmental Barrier Score, a Manager Support Score, and an overall Transfer Readiness Score. After it runs, the platform tracks the Actual Transfer Score, whether the work environment is supporting or blocking the change, and at day 90 whether the business KPI you named at the start actually moved.
The bottom line: Synthesia makes the video. Multiply makes the video land. You produce the content; we work the window where it either changes behaviour or does not.
Before the spend
Synthesia is a production tool, so the model assumes the decision to make the video has already been made. You have a script, you generate the video.
Multiply starts one step earlier. The Diagnostic asks a question production tools skip entirely: should this training happen at all? It surveys the managers who see the performance issue daily and the people living it, then routes the request one of three ways. Ready to Train when the conditions are right. Clear the Path when an environmental or manager-support barrier needs fixing first. Change the Approach when training is not the answer and the money would be wasted.
The bottom line: Synthesia helps you produce the video you have decided to make. Multiply helps you decide whether making it is worth the spend in the first place.
The role of the manager
Synthesia centres on the video and the viewer. There is no manager layer, because that is not what a video tool is for.
Multiply treats the manager as the multiplier. Manager support is consistently one of the strongest workplace predictors of whether training transfers (Grossman and Salas, 2011; Burke and Hutchins, 2007). So every Multiply programme briefs managers before training, asks them to commit to specific behaviours, and gives them coaching cards with conversation prompts through the 90 days after. Not a request for goodwill. A designed part of the programme.
The bottom line: if you have ever watched a polished training video get viewed, ticked off, and forgotten because no line manager reinforced it, this is the gap Multiply is built to close and a video tool cannot.
What happens after the video ends
This is where a production tool and a transfer platform diverge most.
In Synthesia, the finished video is the deliverable. Newer versions add interactivity, branching courses, and engagement analytics, with SCORM export for your LMS, so it now tracks views, drop-off, and completion. That tells you whether the video was watched and clicked through. It does not tell you whether anyone behaves differently once it ends.
In Multiply, the finished video is the start of the part that matters. You upload the training deck, the platform extracts the key behaviours and builds an Impact Chain linking the training to the business outcome, then runs a 90-day programme of 21 generated messages, a mix of manager coaching prompts and learner reinforcement challenges. Learners get action plans, job aids, and weekly reinforcement. Managers get coaching cards with conversation prompts. Pulse checks at 30, 60, and 90 days measure whether the behaviour stuck.
The bottom line: Synthesia records that the video was watched. Multiply works the 90 days after, where transfer is won or lost.
What it does not do
Honesty matters more than a clean win here, so to be clear about the boundaries.
Multiply does not generate video. It does not create presenters, produce avatars, translate scripts, or render training clips. It cannot replace Synthesia, and it does not try to. If the job you need done is producing training video at scale without a studio, Synthesia does it and Multiply does not. Multiply wraps around the training you already make. It assumes you have the content; it makes that content change behaviour.
The cost of doing nothing
Before you weigh tools against each other, look at the cost of the status quo.
Most organisations cannot say what their training changed. They can report views and completion rates, and nothing about behaviour or business impact. Commonly cited estimates put the share of training that produces measurable behaviour change on the job at around 10 to 15 percent (Georgenson, 1982, cited in Burke and Hutchins, 2007), and decades of meta-analytic work confirm that, on average, only a fraction of what is trained reliably reaches sustained performance (Blume et al., 2010).
That gap has a price. Producing video faster does not, on its own, change the odds. A slick video that nobody acts on is budget spent twice: once on making it, again on the problem it failed to fix. Faster production raises the volume of content being ignored. The most expensive line in an L&D budget is not the video tool. It is the training that changed nothing and was never measured well enough for anyone to notice.
Who Synthesia is for
Pick Synthesia if your problem is video production at scale. You need a lot of consistent, presenter-led training video, often in several languages, and you do not have a studio, a camera crew, or the budget for one. You want to turn a script into a finished video in minutes, update it without a reshoot, and increasingly make it interactive with quizzes, branching, and avatar-led sessions. If your leadership is asking "how do we produce more training video, faster and cheaper, and make it more engaging?", Synthesia is a strong answer and one of the leaders in that job. What it measures is video engagement, views, drop-off, and completion, not whether the behaviour changed back at the desk.
Who Multiply is for
Pick Multiply if your problem is proof. You run real programmes, leadership development, onboarding, capability building, and you need to show they changed behaviour and moved a business number. You already make good content, in Synthesia or anywhere else, and you are tired of reporting views and completion as if they were success. You know managers make or break transfer and you want that built in rather than hoped for. You want to decide before you spend whether a training request is even worth running.
Many teams will want both: Synthesia to produce the video, Multiply to prove the video actually worked. They sit at different layers and do not compete for the same job.
See it on your own training
The fastest way to understand the difference is to put one of your own programmes through it. Bring a training deck, even one built around a video you made in Synthesia, and a business outcome you care about, and we will show you the Diagnostic, the Impact Chain, and the 90-day programme built around it.
Related reading: What a Multiply pilot actually looks like and Cohort-to-cohort comparison: the one report your L&D dashboard is missing. When you are ready, book a demo.
See it on your own training
Bring a training deck and a business outcome you care about. We will show you the Diagnostic, the Impact Chain, and the 90-day programme built around it.
Book a demo