SpeechyAI turns one: how AI is transforming wedding speeches

SpeechyAI marks its first anniversary on 19 October, having helped thousands of wedding speakers around the world write their wedding speech.

Combining the best in Artificial Intelligence (ChatGPT4.0) and the expertise of the Speechy writers, SpeechyAI brings together the speed of tech with the speechwriting prowess of the Speechy team.

SpeechyAI facts and stats

More than 1,000 sold within 12 months
Currently priced at £49 but this will be increasing following the GPT5 update & SpeechyAI revamp (likely to be spring 2025). In comparison, Speechy’s bespoke speech-writing service is £495, and Speechy’s speech templates are £29
96 per cent of users are male (compared to 78 per cent of speech templates being bought by men and 72 per cent of our bespoke speeches being delivered by men). This suggests women are being late adopters of AI, certainly in this field
Purchases predominately come from the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and South Africa
SpeechyAI caters to a full range of roles – ie, ‘nearlyweds’ (brides & grooms), ‘parents of the nearlyweds’ (from the father of the bride to mother of the groom etc) and ‘friends of the nearlyweds’ (from the best man to siblings of the bride etc). The majority of users are currently best men, then grooms, then fathers.

Speechy expertise

Unlike many other wedding speech generators online, SpeechyAI is the brainchild of professional speechwriters.

The Speechy team has a 5 star Trustpilot rating. Its speechwriting advice has appeared everywhere from The New York Times to The Times; from Forbes to Grazia and from The Drew Barrymore Show to Radio 4’s Women’s Hour.

The team has worked with globally renowned CEOs, celebrities and politicians. The BBC’s Scott Mills recently went public about working with Speechy on his joint speech when he married his husband earlier this year.

Founder, Heidi Ellert-McDermott wrote The Modern Couple’s Guide to Wedding Speeches, published globally by Little, Brown in 2023.

Tech meets tradition: SpeechyAI’s role in the modern wedding

The Speechy team worked with technology innovators, Digital Wonderlab, to create SpeechyAI. Since its launch, SpeechyAI has continuously evolved, as the team have taken on board client feedback and learnt more about the nuances and capabilities of Artificial Intelligence.

Speechy’s Founder, Heidi Ellert-McDermott, explained: "The world is still learning how to utilise Artificial Intelligence, but we knew, early on, that it had the ability to be funny.

"As a team of TV scriptwriters and comedians, when we first started experimenting with ChatGPT and Bard (now Gemini) we could see it couldn’t write a great speech but we saw its potential to be witty.

"We were impressed and consequently worried that it would reduce the need for bespoke speechwriters, but it’s important that all companies move their offerings into the digital age.

"A year after launching SpeechyAI, we now believe there is room for both. Professional wedding speech ghostwriters inevitably have a more personal touch and can hand-hold the speaker through the process. We also don’t make silly mistakes (like misinterpreting an anecdote) and we respond better to the speaker’s feedback and edit accordingly.

"However, by training SpeechyAI with the team’s writing techniques and principles, we can now offer speakers a more affordable way to create a really strong speech. And one that’s truly unique.

"It may surprise people that a well-designed AI tool like SpeechyAI is much less likely to produce cliched platitudes or googled-gag style humour than a lot of speakers left to their own devices.

"So, while some people may regard using AI to write a wedding speech as ‘cheating’, we’ve designed a tool that gets the best out of people and then, simply, packages all those anecdotes and insights into an engaging format.

"And really, what bride wouldn’t prefer their partner to deliver a great speech that he’s had a bit of help with, than a poor one he’s done all by himself? And trust me, even that solo effort generally involves a few googled ice breakers and Pinterest quotes!’"

Learning from users

When SpeechyAI launched, it created one speech that users could then amend but the edit facility didn’t perform as well as we had hoped. AI still needs well focused prompts to work effectively, and the average user’s instructions were not clear enough for SpeechyAI to respond effectively.

This led to a revamp of SpeechyAI over the summer. The edit facility was removed and instead SpeechyAI now creates three distinctive speeches for the user to consider. Often, it’s the second or third speech that produces the best result.

SpeechyAI’s future

When GPT5 is launched, SpeechyAI will introduce an overhauled edit tool that will offer a more intuitive, user-friendly experience. The Speechy team is actively working on improving functionality to ensure users can easily customise their speeches, whether they’re shortening sections, adding personal anecdotes, or changing the tone. We also hope to offer new options such as ‘joint wedding speech’, ‘birthday speeches’ and help cater to a fuller range of speech-writing needs.

For more information, visit:

• www.speechy.com

• https://www.speechy.com/product/speechyai/

Examples of SpeechyAI’s speeches, further images and independent user reviews are available. Journalists (or their case studies) can also test SpeechyAI for review purposes.

Media Contact: Founder, Heidi Ellert-McDermott, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, UK