In Summary Premiere Pro does not build a rough cut for you. An AI editor can, if it can read your bin and write a sequence back. Eddie does both through a panel that the desktop app installs. You pick the clips in Premiere, ask for the cut in plain language, and the sequence comes back relinked to the media you already have. This guide walks the round trip from the bin to the timeline.

The short answer

The slow part of an interview edit is not the cutting. It is the logging: watching every take, finding the lines that carry the story, and putting them in an order. Premiere Pro's Text-Based Editing lets you cut from a transcript, but you choose every line yourself. It does not read three interviews and propose an assembly from a brief.

Eddie is an AI video editor that does. It connects to Premiere through the Eddie AI AE panel. The panel sends your clips, multicam clips and timelines into an Eddie project. Eddie transcribes them, finds the speakers, and builds the cut from your prompt. Then the sequence comes back into Premiere, pointing at your original files. You finish colour, sound and titles where you already finish them.

The whole route is on the Premiere Pro workflow page. This article is the step-by-step version.

What you need

  • Premiere Pro with Creative Cloud installed. The panel installs through Adobe's own installer, so Creative Cloud must be on the machine.
  • Adobe Media Encoder. Eddie uses it to prepare your clips during import.
  • The Eddie AI desktop app for Mac or Windows. The web app cannot install the panel.
  • An Eddie account. A new account starts with free credits; see pricing.

Step 1: Install the panel

There is no separate download. Open the Eddie desktop app and sign in with the account you use on the web. In the app's menu bar, choose Help → Install Premiere Pro Extension…. The app hands the panel to Adobe's installer agent and tells you when it is done, or why it could not finish.

In Premiere, the panel is under Window → Extensions → Eddie AI AE.

Step 2: Send the bin to Eddie

Open Premiere Pro, the Eddie AI AE panel, and Adobe Media Encoder. Pick the clips, multicam clips or timelines you want Eddie to work from, and send them from the panel.

Three rules save you a second import:

  • Bring everything in one import. Adding more media from Premiere to the same project after its first import is not supported yet. Select every clip you need before you click Import.
  • Import a timeline on its own. A timeline cannot share an import with other clips.
  • Do not mix Premiere multicam clips or timelines with standalone files such as .mp4 or .mov in one project.

Keep Media Encoder open and your computer awake until the import finishes. If your bin is very large and the asset list does not load, move the clips you want into a smaller bin and try again. If a file cannot be imported, Eddie names the file, says why, and refunds its credits.

An import costs 250 credits for each hour of footage, billed in 15-minute blocks. That price includes the first transcript of every file.

Step 3: Let Eddie read the footage

During import, Eddie transcribes every clip with word-level timing and marks where the speaker changes. Two cameras of the same interview arrive as one multicam group, synced by audio. Prompting opens when the first import finishes, so Eddie never cuts footage it has not read.

If you want the log before you cut, you can have it. Open Export → Footage logs and generate the interview log. It arrives as a Premiere XML of bins: soundbites grouped by subject, with each interview's outline and timestamps. For a project under 90 minutes of A-roll the generation is free, because the import already paid for it.

Step 4: Ask for the rough cut

Open Prompt Eddie and describe the video. Say what it is for, who it is for, and how long it should be. Length changes how Eddie cuts, not only how much it keeps.

Build a rough cut from these interviews. Pull the strongest soundbites from each speaker and put them in an order that tells a clear story. Aim for about 8 minutes.

Eddie reads the transcripts, chooses the takes and builds a timeline. Then it tells you the finished length against your source length.

Every prompt after that changes the same edit. You are steering, not starting over:

  • "The intro drags. Start on the second question."
  • "Drop the section about pricing."
  • "Remove filler words and long pauses."
  • "Why did you cut that answer?"

Change one thing per prompt. You can also cut by hand in the paper edit: the transcript sits beside the edit, and you drag the lines you want into place.

Step 5: Send it home

Open the edit, open Export, and choose Send to Premiere Pro in the desktop app. Eddie rebuilds the edit inside Premiere against the media you sent, so the sequence points at your original files on your machine, not at a copy Eddie made. Windows drive paths are included.

Two details editors ask about:

  • Your own multicam clips. If you sent a multicam clip you built in Premiere, Send to Premiere Pro rebuilds the edit against that clip. The downloadable .prproj and the Premiere XML cannot carry it, and the Export menu says so on those rows.
  • Multicam Eddie synced. Cameras you imported separately come back as a real multicam clip in the .prproj, with the angle you chose playing at each cut. You can keep switching angles. The legacy XML for Premiere Pro 2018 and older has no native multicam; there the angles arrive as stacked tracks with your chosen angle on top.

The .prproj keeps bins, crops, clip gains, the audio channel layout and multicam. If the edit has captions, the download is a ZIP with the project and an SRT file. A muted track arrives muted on the mixer. Each review comment pinned to the edit becomes a timeline marker, named after the comment.

A timeline export costs 100 credits, the same for every format. Nothing is charged if the file fails to build. You can keep editing after an export and export again.

Teams on Premiere Productions

If your Production lives on a LucidLink filespace, Eddie can join it the way another editor would. Invite Eddie's LucidLink identity to the filespace, point Eddie at the Production folder, and it reads the footage off the mount. When you ask for a cut, Eddie writes new Premiere project files into an Eddie folder inside your Production. Your original projects and folders are not touched. See the LucidLink workflow.

What it will not do

  • It will not grade, mix or finish. Colour, sound and the last ten percent of taste stay in Premiere. That is the point of the round trip.
  • It does not watch every frame. Eddie edits from the transcript and can sample frames on request. You still watch the cut.
  • It will not add media to the same project later from Premiere. Start a new project if more footage arrives from the bin. Plain uploads can be added any time.
  • It does not take proxies made on the web into your originals. If you uploaded in a browser instead of sending from Premiere, the export points at Eddie's proxy media. Send from the panel when you want the sequence to relink to camera files.

FAQ

Does Premiere Pro have its own AI rough cut? No. Premiere Pro's Text-Based Editing lets you cut from a transcript, but you pick every line yourself. It does not read several interviews and propose a structured cut from a brief. Eddie does that and sends the sequence back.

Do I need the desktop app? Yes, for the round trip. The desktop app installs the panel and runs Send to Premiere Pro. If you only need a project file, the web app can download a .prproj, but it will point at Eddie's proxies rather than your camera files.

Which codecs survive? Pro codecs including BRAW and R3D come through the panel, with the proxies Eddie uses to stay fast. Timecode, frame rate and resolution stay with the media.

What does it cost? Import is 250 credits per hour of footage. A timeline export is 100 credits. A new account starts free, and credit packs never expire. See pricing.

Does this work in DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro too? Yes. The same desktop app carries a Resolve round trip and a Final Cut Pro round trip.

Ready to try it on your own bin? Start a project for free, or read the Premiere Pro workflow first.