Typically, product launches and corporate events are filled with flashy slideshows highlighting two or three interesting items. However, what was made at Tuesday's YouTube presentation rolled out over 30 meaningful updates with one goal in mind.
Take the A/B YouTube title test. This is just one of the AI-powered tools the company will deploy by the end of the year.
“When you talk to creators, they're going to say they spend hours obsessed with words that are six or seven or more. We can take that guess and save time.” “You can really bring that energy back to creation.”
The two-hour presentation was an onslaught of updates to the main versions of YouTube, shorts, live streaming, podcasts and e-commerce. It was an overwhelming borderline experience, even for reporters who had all the updates under the embargo. But looking between the lines, YouTube's new tools tell a story about where the company sees the future of entertainment. Its future includes live streaming, increasing globalization, and many AI. It's also a future where YouTube clearly wants to be driven by creators watching YouTube as the main platform for building their business.
The onslaught is very likely intentional. Between gaming-centric platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, X, Bluesky, Snapchat, Twitch, Substack, and even game-centric platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, creators have more options than ever before. Furthermore, there are times when platform diversification is not common and is expected. Almost all full-time creators post to multiple social media sites. Many people intentionally embrace each unique feature. This could be to increase your audience reach or use Tiktok to sell your products using Instagram.
As for YouTube, before these announcements, many creators said that the platform is already considered home. It seems likely that goodwill will increase now.
But just as YouTube sees its future, leadership is keenly aware of the dangers associated with these technologies. The general distrust of the general population regarding AI and the potential horror of live streaming in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder are issues YouTube heads addressed in a conversation with TheWrap.
The general vibe of the Pier 57 was positive, and the creators sounded impressed and optimistic. Specifically, Ask Studio has repeatedly praised the new tool for YouTube shopping and brand trading. AskStudio is an AI-powered chatbot that allows creators to easily analyse their channels.
“They provide more tools to enable independent content producers to do things they've potentially never done with a team of just one,” Colin Rosenblum, one of the co-hosts of “Colin and Samir,” one of the co-hosts of one of the most well-known and respected creator advice podcasts, told TheWrap.
Here's how the latest updates on YouTube will turn entertainment games into your mind.
YouTube can make creators more money
No matter what research you look at, the same answer will appear. YouTube is the most profitable social media platform for creators. Since 2021, the company has paid $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies (note: YouTube does not disclose a specific breakdown by category).
The main reason for this is YouTube's partner program, which has been providing Creators with stable payments based on content performance over the years, compared to creator funds that have come to places like Tiktok.
“We call the Partner Program because we consider it a partner program, which is something you can rely on to build a business,” Hanif said. With four new tools, creators may be receiving even greater pay.
The first two updates – automatic timestamps (already released) and autotagging (which will be rolled out to US creators next year) are especially important for niche creators who focus on products like beauty. With AI, YouTube can automatically identify when the creator is talking about a product, and tag the item if it happens to be entitled to a brand deal. These systems can save creators time manually working. Similarly, updates that allow brand links to be added to shorts are poised to be a major hit for YouTube synopsis creators.
However, according to Samir Chaudry, co-host of “Colin and Samir”, the update as the biggest monetization game changer for creators is the introduction of dynamically inserted brand segments.
The current feature of the sponsored segment is that once a brand segment is sold to a company, it will be forever in its video. These are the types of segments that the creators notice that some of the videos are sponsored by a particular company.
“In many cases, that may not be that good for the audience or the brand because whatever was said in the integration that lives in that episode might not have anything to do with living in that episode anymore,” Chaudry said.
However, the dynamic brand segment option, which will begin testing early next year with a planned development in 2026, will allow creators to resell these slots. Just as Hulu and NBC have a revolving roster of brands supporting different segments, YouTube creators will have it too.
“Brand trading is the biggest part of how most creators make money. Give them the ability to exchange brands and run them for a limited amount of time. It's a pretty important change and I think they actually acknowledge the maturity of the space,” says Chaudry.
Some of the tools YouTube presented during its presentations were built using Google's AI model Gemini and created alongside the DeepMind team. These are run between tools specifically designed to create AI-generated content, such as adding VEO 3 to shorts, along with tools that aid tasks, such as editing AI with AI, and tools that turn RAW footage into rough drafts of abbreviated videos. The former may be fun for some creators to play with, but that is a trait of the latter, and will probably prove to be revolutionary.
Use Ask Studio for Studio using a customized AI chatbot. The offering, which will be available in the US over the next few weeks, allows users to talk to chatbots that understand the nuances of a particular channel. Everything can be categorized from the demographics of your audience and device to suggesting the types of content that could work well for its creators.
“We can enter a new phase on the Internet and have conversations with the Internet in ways we couldn't do before,” Chaudry said, noting that taking the time to understand channel analysis is “challenging.”
“One of the great things about being a creator is that you have a lot of information and you can acknowledge the tastes and comments of the audience,” Rosenblum says. “We found out that we played in Ask Studio in a limited amount of time. We can better understand the audience.”
There is also automatic dubbing with lip sync. This automatically changes the mouth movement of the speaker, making it suitable for non-native languages. It is a tool that helps creators grow their global audience. According to YouTube, over 60 million videos have been automatically packed in 20 languages so far. There are also AI tools that detect whether monetized creator portraits are being used without permission. This is an option only available to celebrities. Both of these products took about two years to develop.
“What surprised me [during testing] Depending on the content, creators actually are OK with skits and sketches that include portraits when they build a brand and appeal to fans,” Hanif said.
However, all of these developments have not happened without trial and error. Following concerns about how AI content can disrupt audiences, the platform announced in 2024 that it will label all generated AI content. YouTube also recently fired fire on using AI to modify the creator's video in a minor way without telling users. At the time, YouTube creator liaison Rene Ritchie noted that the platform was working on an opt-out feature.
“We create these tools and provide creators with choices about how they want to apply them to their content,” Hanif said.
Investing in AI and short content may seem like an easy thing, but investing in live YouTube streaming is a bit surprising. According to the company, more than 30% of YouTube users logged in every day watched live content in the second quarter. And of the 100 million hours of podcasts, YouTube viewers watch it every day. As of July, 30% of these times came from podcasts or premier live streams.
This boom is why YouTube has invested in tools such as combining YouTube's proper live streams with live stream chats that take place in shorts, adding ads alongside the live stream. Aaron Filner, senior director of YouTube's Live and Community, believes that live will be a way for creators to deepen their connections with their audiences.
“The community seems to love it, and there are more and more podcasts choosing to go live,” Filner told TheWrap. “It's the same reason why so many other content is published. That means that having that real-time connection makes sense to people know that it's happening in one take.”
YouTube has also seen promising results after the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Los Angeles Chargers game. This allowed multiple streamers to live stream the event and provide their own commentary using a feature called “Watch With.” Filner said the company is interested in large events like NFL games, but the tools announced on YouTube in Made are more designed for daily live streaming use.
“What we're seeing is that people are more enthusiastic,” Filner said. “There's a chance to actually get this additional perspective (their choice perspective), as opposed to one perspective we're watching from traditional broadcasts.”
Just as he is optimistic about the community that live streaming encourages, Filner is also aware of the risks associated with this type of content. Shortly after Charlie Kirk's murder, videos of his shooting spread throughout Tiktok. While most of these were uploaded content, it's not hard to imagine this type of graphic violence being shown in the live stream of the event.
“In terms of very intrusive content being delivered very quickly, YouTube has a wide range of safety mechanisms to prevent it from being available on YouTube, and they are designed to work very quickly for a wider range of moderation needs,” says Filner. “We're really interested in making it [live streaming] It's easier and better for creators, and that's what we're working on. ”
