How does an AI YouTube title generator pick my title and sections for me?
by Richard Lovatt · updated 29 October 2026
Underway's director feature does this: you tell it what you want to film, it reads what is already in your vault and scans YouTube for what is working in that niche, then writes five candidate titles with a click rating out of five. Pick one and it turns straight into a numbered section plan you film against, so you never stare at a blank title field.
Key numbers
As Rich put it, there are 96 videos already in his Other Videos vault, and each section like the hook gives him forty seconds, said three or four times, before the best take is picked.
In short
- A good title tool reads your vault and YouTube before it writes anything, not just your prompt.
- Five titles with a click rating out of five beats one guess, because you can see the trade-off between a hook and a plain, search-friendly line.
- The title is not the end of the job: it should also set the sections you film, in order, with timings.
- Expect to wait. Writing titles and sections is a background job, not instant.
- This suits someone turning existing footage or an idea into a structured short; it is not for someone who already has a script and an editor.
What the problem really is
I had a number of videos sitting in my vault under Assets, the AI-animated ones that show what Underway's features do. I wanted to remake one of them myself, with me as the hook and the narration, cut in amongst B-roll, instead of an animated voice talking over graphics. The idea was clear in my head. What I didn't have was a title, or any sense of how to break that idea into sections I could actually film one at a time.
That is the real problem behind this search. It isn't that people can't think of any title. It's that they can't tell which of the titles in their head will get clicked, and once they've picked one, they still don't know what order to say things in so the video earns that title rather than just repeating it.
What people try instead, and where it falls short
Most founders either write the first title that comes to mind, which tends to describe the video rather than sell it, or they copy the title of whatever's doing well in their feed that week, which rarely fits what they actually filmed. Neither approach checks what is working right now on YouTube for videos like theirs, and neither tells you what to say in which order once the title is chosen.
A written brainstorm in a notes app solves the staring-at-a-blank-page problem but not the structure problem. You still end up filming one long ramble and hoping an editor, or your own patience with a timeline, turns it into something with a hook, a title card and sections. That's the gap a director that writes both the title and the plan is meant to close.
How Underway's director writes a title, step by step
In the episode, I opened Film Your Director and talked to Bert, the Underway director, like a producer on a call. I told it I wanted to recreate one of the animated videos in my vault with me as the hook and narration. It checked what I already had, found 96 videos in Other Videos, and named two that matched what I'd described before I confirmed the Motion Graphics one.
From there I asked for a hook-driven, click-worthy setup, and Bert set that up and said it would stay with me through the screens while the titles were written. The app then visibly works through the process: it reads what people type on YouTube around that topic, looks at what's working with 10,000 views or more, and writes titles built the way those best-performing videos are built, before it hands you a shortlist.
Picking between the five titles
What came back for me was five options: Motion Graphics and B-Roll Without an Editor, Stop Paying for Motion Graphics on Your Clips, Why Your Clips Look Unedited (and the Fix), Shorts Are Hard Until You Add Motion Graphics, and Can You Get a Pro Edit With No Editor? Each carried a click rating out of five and a short note on what you'd need to do on camera to earn it, not just say it.
I went with Motion Graphics and B-Roll Without an Editor over the more click-baity options.
Turning the title into a section plan
Once I locked the title in, the plan screen showed what the title demanded: to earn Motion Graphics and B-Roll Without an Editor, you show the raw take first, then the finished short with graphics, title and B-roll. That's the whole logic of the tool: the title isn't decoration, it sets what the section plan has to contain.
My plan came out as six sections: the raw take next to the finished one, why your flat take loses people, motion captions that lift one word, the title card after your hook, B-roll placed where you name a thing, and what to do with your next take. Each had a rough timing attached, so I could see the whole shape of the video before filming a second of it.
Filming it: sections or one take, and how long it takes
Before recording, you choose how you film it. In sections means one section at a time, each telling you what to say and what to leave for the next, retake any one and they join in order. All in one take means pressing record once and saying it all, with your opening held above the camera. I chose in sections, because I wanted to do this bit by bit rather than carry the whole thing in my head.
On my setup, it was up to 20 minutes with six sections, roughly seven minutes of planned speaking. The longer option, 30 minutes or more, treats it as chapters rather than takes, a continuous run you film in one go with each chapter becoming its own YouTube chapter. For a first attempt at something like this, sections are the forgiving choice: get one section wrong and you only redo that section, not the whole video.
What it costs in time
None of this is instant. After I asked for the hook-driven setup, there was a genuine wait while the titles were written, and another wait while the sections were written, during which the screen told me it was still working and I had to watch and be patient rather than click ahead.
The honest trade is this: the thinking that used to be yours, staring at a blank title box or a blank timeline, becomes someone else's wait, a minute or two of the app scanning YouTube and writing drafts. It is faster than doing the research yourself, but it is not zero time, and if you're impatient you'll be tempted to pick the first title that appears rather than reading all five.
Who this suits and who it doesn't
This suits someone who already has an idea or raw footage sitting around, like my animated feature videos, and wants it turned into something click-worthy without learning what makes a YouTube title work. It also suits someone who wants structure handed to them, section by section, rather than freestyling a whole video and hoping an editor finds the shape in it afterwards.
It won't suit someone who already has a script, a title they're confident in, and an editor on standby. A title generator that scans YouTube and rates clicks is solving a specific uncertainty, not replacing a production process that already works for you. If you don't want a tool reading your vault and your topic to suggest a direction, you'll find the back-and-forth with a director more friction than help.
Questions people ask
Does the AI pick the title for me, or do I still choose?
You still choose. Underway's director writes five candidate titles with a click rating out of five and a note on what each needs on camera to be earned, but picking between them, or writing your own instead, is left to you.
Can I just type my own title instead of using the generated ones?
Yes. Alongside the five generated options there is always a card showing exactly what you typed, kept word for word if you'd rather use your own line than any of the suggestions.
How long does it take to generate the title and sections?
It is not instant. The app visibly works through writing the five titles, then a separate pass writing the sections, with on-screen status messages while you wait, rather than a result appearing the moment you ask.
What happens after I pick a title?
The title sets what the episode has to cover to earn it. Underway then writes a numbered section plan matched to that title, with rough timings for each section, and asks whether you want to film it in sections or in one continuous take.
Do I need existing footage for this to work?
No, but it helps. In the episode the plan was built around turning an existing animated feature video into a filmed short; the director checks your vault first and will line the new episode up with what you already have if there's a match.