Veo 3.1

Overview

Veo 3.1 is Google’s video generation model, referenced in product updates as a major step forward for creating higher-quality AI video with stronger visual coherence and broader output flexibility. Recent updates highlight improved expressiveness, portrait mode support, better consistency across characters, objects, and backgrounds, and upscaling to 1080p and 4K. It has also been surfaced in Google products including the Gemini app and Flow by Google, indicating that Google is positioning it as both a flagship model and a production-ready creative tool.

For AI Product Managers, Veo 3.1 matters because it signals how multimodal creation stacks are evolving from novelty to usable product infrastructure. The combination of portrait video support, improved consistency, and higher-resolution output makes the model more relevant for consumer media workflows, marketing content, social formats, and prototyping AI-native video features. Its appearance via an OpenAI compatibility layer also reduces integration friction, making evaluation and experimentation easier for teams already using OpenAI-style APIs.

Key Developments

• 2026-01-14 — Google AI announced Veo 3.1 support for portrait mode, enhanced visual consistency across characters, objects, and backgrounds, and state-of-the-art upscaling to 1080p and 4K.
• 2026-01-15 — Demis Hassabis shared Veo 3.1 improvements including enhanced expressiveness, portrait mode support, and 1080p and 4K upscaling, with rollout in the Gemini app and Flow by Google.
• 2026-03-21 — Philipp Schmid noted that Veo 3.1 became available as a drop-in option through the OpenAI compatibility layer, enabling video generation through the `/v1/videos` endpoint.

Relevance to AI PMs

• Designing for real output constraints: Veo 3.1’s portrait mode and 1080p/4K upscaling are directly relevant for teams building short-form video, ad creative, mobile-first experiences, or creator tools where aspect ratio and resolution affect product viability.
• Evaluating quality beyond single clips: The emphasis on visual consistency across characters, objects, and backgrounds is important for PMs testing whether generated video can support repeatable workflows, storytelling, branded content, or scene continuity.
• Reducing integration risk: Availability through an OpenAI compatibility layer suggests faster prototyping for teams with existing OpenAI-style tooling, lowering the switching cost for model benchmarking, vendor diversification, or multimodal roadmap experiments.

Related

• Google AI / Google — Veo 3.1 is a Google-developed video model and its updates were announced through Google AI channels.
• Gemini / Gemini app — Veo 3.1 is rolling out in the Gemini app, showing its role inside Google’s broader multimodal product ecosystem.
• Flow by Google — Flow is another surface where Veo 3.1 capabilities are being deployed, suggesting creative and workflow-oriented use cases.
• OpenAI compatibility layer — Veo 3.1 can be accessed through a drop-in compatibility layer, which makes it easier to adopt in existing developer stacks.
• Nano Banana — Mentioned alongside Veo 3.1 as Gemini’s image model in the same compatibility-layer rollout, reinforcing Google’s multimodal strategy.
• Demis Hassabis — Publicly shared Veo 3.1 improvements, indicating executive-level emphasis on the model’s capabilities.
• Philipp Schmid — Highlighted Veo 3.1’s availability via the OpenAI compatibility layer, which is notable for developers and product teams.
• Portrait mode / visual consistency — These are two of the most important capability themes associated with Veo 3.1 and directly shape practical product use cases.