Sean Cannell breaks down the 12 biggest product updates from YouTube's Made on YouTube 2026 keynote, and what actually changes for creators versus what's just hype.
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Big Idea
The argument in one line.
YouTube's Made on YouTube 2026 announcements move the platform from one fixed video per upload toward constantly tested, AI-personalized versions, and creators who master both the new tools and their own creative judgment stand to gain the most.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
You run a YouTube channel of any size and want to know which new Creator Studio features are worth learning before everyone else adopts them.
You make money from brand deals, affiliate links, or a back catalog of videos and want to see how YouTube's new monetization tools could change that.
You're deciding whether to finally start a YouTube channel and want a realistic read on where the platform is headed in 2027.
SKIP IF…
You don't publish on YouTube and have no plans to, since every feature here is Creator Studio and monetization tooling.
You want confirmed release dates. Most of these features are still in testing with no public rollout timeline.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
YouTube's Made on YouTube 2026 keynote introduced tools that turn every video into something continuously tested and personalized rather than fixed at upload. Creators will soon test up to three cuts of a full video the way they already test thumbnails, and Dynamic Thumbnails will show different images to different viewers with no single winner. YouTube Studio's Ask Studio AI assistant is expanding into pre-publish feedback, back-catalog optimization, and brand-pitch writing, while the research tab shifts from keyword search data to outlier detection. Monetization tools include swappable sponsor segments for old videos and deeper Amazon affiliate integration. The host's takeaway: master the new tools, but don't let testing replace creative taste, and keep building a video library since that back catalog is the real asset.
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01 · Cold open: 12 updates from Made on YouTube 2026
Overview framing: YouTube made over 3,000 updates this year and presented roughly 35 on stage. Sean previews the 12 biggest ones for creators.
01:28 – 06:24
02 · Video A/B Testing
YouTube will let creators test up to three cuts of a full video starting in 2027, distributing versions to different viewers and auto-selecting a winner after 7 days if the creator doesn't. MKBHD's public skepticism and unresolved questions (comments, timestamps) are covered.
06:24 – 11:52
03 · Dynamic Thumbnails and thumbnail tools
Dynamic Thumbnails shows different thumbnails to different viewer segments with no single winner, unlike A/B testing. Also covers automatic thumbnail swap and AI thumbnail generation via Ask Studio.
11:52 – 13:37
04 · Pre-Publish Feedback
Creators can now ask Ask Studio for feedback on a draft's title, thumbnail, script, and pacing before publishing. Live on desktop, coming to mobile.
13:37 – 15:22
05 · Ask Studio AI Agent for the back catalog
Ask Studio is becoming proactive rather than just reactive, identifying optimization opportunities across a creator's entire library of older videos.
15:22 – 20:45
06 · Insights and the new Research tab
Analytics is renamed Insights; the Trends tab becomes Research and shifts from keyword search data to outlier detection, flagging videos that get 5x-10x a channel's typical views. Saved keywords are being retired (3-month CSV export window).
20:45 – 26:10
07 · Ask YouTube: AI search inside videos
Ask YouTube's conversational search pulls answers and clips from multiple creators' videos. Usage grew from 20 million users in December to 140 million in June. Raises open questions about affiliate credit when AI surfaces someone else's shoppable tag.
26:10 – 27:50
08 · Custom Feeds
Viewers can type a prompt to build a standing, auto-updating homepage feed around a specific topic or mood. Rolling out fall 2026, US only.
27:50 – 30:24
09 · Shorts Series
YouTube Shorts now supports seasons and episodes with custom thumbnails. Micro-drama watch time is up 50% YoY (90% on TV). Native, purpose-built shorts series are framed as underrated.
30:24 – 32:58
10 · Brand Deals marketplace
YouTube Creator Partnerships (live in 20 countries), one-click brand access and paid boosts (live now), and Ask Studio pitch help for brand briefs and media kits.
32:58 – 38:00
11 · Swappable Sponsor Segments
A tool in testing since 2025 lets creators insert sponsor segments into up to 20 already-published videos at once, varying by viewer region, effectively turning old videos into resellable ad inventory.
38:00 – 39:07
12 · YouTube Shopping + Amazon Affiliate
Amazon affiliate integration grew to over a million creators with GMV up 13x in two years. Expanding to India and Brazil; tags now auto-switch to local stores for international viewers.
39:07 – 39:36
13 · AI Comment Moderation
An opt-in filter learns which comments a creator deletes, hides, or allows, then applies that judgment automatically. Coming to live chat too.
39:36 – 42:47
14 · Conversational Editing
Prompt-based editing for YouTube Shorts and YouTube Create, coming early 2027, built on Gemini Omni. Describe an edit in plain language and AI builds a first draft to refine by hand.
42:47 – 43:18
15 · You're Invited: Think Media Mastermind pitch
Sean pitches Think Media's own two-day Las Vegas mastermind event (thinkmediamastermind.com).
43:18 – 50:00
16 · The Big Picture: the future of YouTube
Studio is moving from reporting what happened to recommending what to do next. There was never one single version of YouTube. The 'semantic algorithm' now matches specific videos to specific viewers based on meaning.
50:00 – 55:42
17 · 3 Takeaways to Win on YouTube in 2027
Master the tools, the platform, and the craft. Your video library is your greatest asset. Start now, since the pain of discipline beats the pain of regret.
55:42 – 59:21
18 · Neal Mohan's final words
Sean reads YouTube CEO Neal Mohan's closing keynote remarks about staying one step ahead of how the world watches, and closes with his own encouragement to keep building.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
YouTube will let creators test up to three cuts of the same video, not just three thumbnails, starting in 2027.
If a creator doesn't pick a winning video version within seven days, YouTube automatically makes it permanent.
Dynamic Thumbnails shows different thumbnails to different viewers with no single declared winner, unlike A/B testing.
YouTube's research tab is dropping saved keyword searches in favor of an outlier score that flags videos performing 5x-10x above a channel's normal view count.
140 million people used Ask YouTube's AI search in June 2026, up from 20 million in December 2025.
YouTube can insert different sponsor segments into up to 20 archived videos at once, and even vary them by viewer region.
Micro-drama watch time on YouTube grew 50% year over year, and TV viewing of micro-dramas grew 90%.
YouTube's platform added over $60 billion to US GDP in 2025 and supports 540,000 full-time-equivalent jobs domestically.
Brand deal spend on YouTube Shorts grew 60% in 2025.
YouTube Shopping's Amazon affiliate program grew from under 500,000 creators to over a million in about two years, with sales volume up 13x.
Conversational AI video editing is coming to YouTube Shorts and YouTube Create in early 2027, built on a model called Gemini Omni.
Analytics is being renamed Insights, and the Trends tab is being renamed Research, shifting from keyword search data to outlier video data.
Takeaway
YouTube is testing everything now, not just titles and thumbnails.
WHAT TO LEARN
YouTube's new tools turn videos, thumbnails, and even homepages into continuously tested and personalized experiences, but the tools only pay off if you pair them with real creative judgment and a growing back catalog.
01Cold open: 12 updates from Made on YouTube 2026
YouTube says more than 3,000 platform updates happened in the past year, and only about 35 were significant enough to present on stage, so most day-to-day changes you notice are noise, not strategy shifts.
The single biggest signal from a keynote like this is which features get built into every part of the creator workflow, not just which ones sound flashy in a headline.
02Video A/B Testing
Starting in 2027, YouTube will let you upload up to three cuts of the same video and let it automatically pick the winning version by watch time if you don't choose within seven days.
The versions being tested can't be dramatically different from each other, so this is built for testing a hook, an intro, or pacing choices, not two completely different videos.
Split testing only produces useful data once a video already gets enough impressions, so the feature mainly benefits medium and larger channels rather than brand-new ones.
Unresolved questions, like whether comments and timestamps stay attached to a specific losing version, show that testing full videos raises viewer-experience problems title and thumbnail testing never had.
03Dynamic Thumbnails and thumbnail tools
Dynamic Thumbnails differs from A/B testing because it never declares one winner. It keeps showing different thumbnails to different viewer segments indefinitely, similar to how streaming services personalize show artwork.
Creators have already run more than 40 million thumbnail or title tests since that feature launched in 2024, showing how much winning packaging already depends on testing rather than guessing.
An AI back-catalog tool can now proactively flag which of your existing videos have underperforming thumbnails and offer to generate and test replacements without you asking.
Thumbnail generation through an AI assistant is already live for some creators, meaning the skill of writing a good thumbnail prompt is becoming as valuable as designing one by hand.
04Pre-Publish Feedback
Before publishing, a creator can now ask an AI assistant for structured feedback on a draft's title, thumbnail, script pacing, and hook strength while the video is still private or unlisted.
This closes a gap where creators previously only found out a hook or title was weak after it was already public and underperforming.
The tool is live on desktop now and coming to mobile, so catching a mistake before publishing no longer requires a second export and re-upload.
05Ask Studio AI Agent for the back catalog
A channel's back catalog of videos is being treated as its most valuable asset, so YouTube is building AI tools specifically to keep hundreds of older videos optimized without manual review.
The same AI assistant that answers questions can now proactively suggest actions, like refreshing thumbnails on older videos or building a brand pitch from a channel's own audience data.
The shift from an AI that only answers when asked to one that proactively suggests changes is the general direction most of these tools are moving.
06Insights and the new Research tab
The research tab is dropping saved-keyword search data in favor of an outlier score, which flags videos that get 5x or 10x a channel's typical views.
Topic selection is described as one of the biggest levers of channel growth. Being good at picking the right topic can outweigh being weak at other parts of content creation.
If you were relying on saved keyword phrases in the old research tab, you have roughly three months to export them as a CSV before that feature is retired.
Outlier detection tools that used to be third-party software products are being built directly into the platform, which raises the bar for what a channel needs to track for topic performance.
07Ask YouTube: AI search inside videos
Videos that answer a viewer's question clearly and directly get surfaced by AI search. Videos that ramble before getting to the point get skipped by it.
Ask YouTube's conversational search pulls together clips from multiple different creators' videos to answer one question, meaning a viewer may never land on your full video at all.
Usage of Ask YouTube jumped from about 20 million users in December to 140 million in June, a rapid adoption curve worth tracking even though it's still a small share of YouTube's 2.7 billion monthly users.
AI-driven discovery creates a real monetization question: if a viewer buys through a shoppable tag surfaced inside an AI answer rather than on the original video, it's unclear who receives the affiliate credit.
08Custom Feeds
Viewers can now type a text prompt to generate a standing, auto-updating homepage feed around a specific topic or mood, meaning a video's discoverability now depends on how well it matches a description a viewer typed rather than just a search query.
This rewards videos with a clear, nameable topic since a custom feed is built from a prompt describing exactly that kind of content.
09Shorts Series
YouTube Shorts now supports organizing content into seasons and episodes with custom thumbnails, treating short-form the way a streaming platform treats a series rather than a feed of disconnected clips.
Micro-drama watch time grew 50% year over year and rose 90% on TV screens specifically, showing viewers are willing to follow serialized short-form stories rather than one-off clips.
Purpose-built native shorts, planned and shot as their own series, are described as underrated compared to shorts that are just short clips cut from a long video.
10Brand Deals marketplace
YouTube is building a formal brand deal marketplace inside Creator Studio, including tools that let brands see a channel's performance data directly and pay to boost a specific video's reach.
An AI assistant can now help draft brand pitch responses and tailor a media kit to a specific brand using the channel's own real audience data rather than generic templates.
YouTube is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for agencies to bring brand deals to creators, which signals brand deal volume is a strategic growth priority for the platform, not a side feature.
11Swappable Sponsor Segments
A tool in testing lets a creator insert a sponsor segment into up to 20 already-published videos at once, effectively turning old videos into resellable ad inventory instead of a one-time placement.
Sponsor segments can be varied by the viewer's region, so the same video can carry a different advertiser or call-to-action depending on where it's watched.
This feature was first announced a full year earlier and is still in testing with no public rollout date, a reminder that platform-announced features can take well over a year to actually ship.
The core lesson independent of the tool: a video library that keeps getting views months or years later is a monetizable asset, which is a reason to keep building one instead of focusing only on the next upload.
12YouTube Shopping + Amazon Affiliate
YouTube's Amazon affiliate integration expanded from under 500,000 creators to over a million in about two years, with sales volume through shopping tags growing 13x.
Product tags reportedly get more than twice the clicks that a plain link in a video description gets, which is a concrete reason to use on-video tags over description links.
Starting in September, affiliate tags automatically switch to the correct local store for international viewers, removing a friction point that used to cost international commission.
13AI Comment Moderation
An opt-in comment filter learns which comments a creator personally deletes, hides, or allows, then starts applying that same judgment automatically going forward.
This is opt-in only and is planned to extend to live chat moderation as well, though no rollout date has been given.
14Conversational Editing
Prompt-based video editing is coming to YouTube Shorts and the YouTube Create app in early 2027, letting a creator describe an edit in plain language, like syncing cuts to a beat, instead of manually cutting a timeline.
The tool is described as editing with the creator, not for them. It produces a first draft from a prompt that the creator still refines by hand afterward.
The underlying model is reportedly built on Gemini Omni, which signals YouTube is treating conversational AI editing as core platform infrastructure, not an experimental add-on.
16The Big Picture: the future of YouTube
YouTube Studio is shifting from reporting what already happened to proactively recommending what to do next, meaning the analytics you're used to reading are becoming a starting point rather than the whole picture.
There was never one single version of YouTube. The homepage has always been personalized per viewer. What's changing is how far that personalization now reaches, into thumbnails, video cuts, and entire feeds.
The platform's stated goal is to match specific videos with specific viewers based on the actual meaning of the content, which rewards clearly organized, clearly explained content over rambling or unfocused videos.
173 Takeaways to Win on YouTube in 2027
The advice to master tools, the platform, and craft together implies that leaning entirely on new AI features without developing creative judgment is a losing strategy, not a shortcut.
A video library that keeps generating views for weeks, months, or years after it's posted is described as a real media asset, independent of which specific algorithm or feature is currently trending.
Older videos can be revived with new thumbnails, updated titles, or inserted sponsor segments, so an existing back catalog has ongoing option value even years after it's published.
The video frames starting a channel now, later than competitors, as lower-regret than not starting at all, since the downside of trying is smaller than the downside of never finding out.
18Neal Mohan's final words
YouTube's own stated mission is to stay one step ahead of how the world watches, which is a reminder that platform features will keep changing faster than any single strategy can stay fixed.
The presenter's closing framing is that mastering new tools without losing creative taste is what separates creators who adapt well from creators who either resist all change or chase every new feature.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
Outlier / outlier multiple
A video that dramatically outperforms a channel's typical view count, expressed as a multiple like 5x or 10x normal performance.
Dynamic Thumbnails
A YouTube feature that shows different uploaded thumbnails to different viewer segments at the same time, with no single declared winner.
Ask Studio
YouTube's built-in AI assistant inside YouTube Studio that answers questions about a channel's data and can suggest or execute changes like new thumbnails.
Swappable Sponsor Segments
A tool that lets creators insert or swap sponsored ad segments into already-published videos, including varying the segment by viewer region.
Semantic algorithm
The presenter's term for YouTube's recommendation system matching videos to viewers based on the meaning of the content and viewer behavior, not just keywords.
Custom Feeds
A YouTube feature letting viewers type a text prompt to generate a standing, auto-updating homepage feed around a specific topic or mood.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
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metaphor
YouTube just announced some major changes that will affect how to get views on YouTube going forward, how you actually make money and some new opportunities, as well as the future of the platform. But there's a lot of announcements that have creators seriously concerned, and we need to talk about those. Now, we're going to be covering the 12 biggest updates, but this is coming from the recent event called Made in YouTube that is hosted in New York City.
and ceo neil mohan opened up with a big number more than 3 000 updates to youtube have actually happened since the start of the year they covered about 35 on stage and most of those updates aren't actually going to change your channel but some of them are going to change it a lot one of the biggest ones is the fact that soon you'll be able to test different versions of your actual video however some creators are raising some serious concerns about this that we need to discuss Now, one of these changes is already inside of your YouTube studio and you probably don't know it yet.
And if you're not. using it, then you're leaving views on the table. And then one could give you a new way to get paid from videos that you've already made.
So I went through the keynote, YouTube's blog, the reporting from journalists, all these different sources, and I'm compressing about 10 hours of research into the 12 biggest updates for you. So here's the need to know information right here, right now. Let's first talk about what's going to affect you if you're a business owner or a creator that wants to get more views.
And the first one is age. AB video testing. Now this is crazy because for a while now, you've been able to split test or AB test titles and thumbnails.
So instead of just uploading a video with one title, one thumbnail, you can now upload a combination or package a combination. of three different thumbnails that YouTube would test to see which one gets the most watch time and gets the most clicks combined, right? Well, now rolling out beginning in 2027 for select creators, YouTube is gonna start letting creators test up to three cuts.
their video and so for years YouTube has let you test the packaging of your video now with titles and thumbnails but now you can actually test the video itself so here's the facts you can test up to three cuts of the same video the versions can differ like a different intro a different hook a different structure and reportedly YouTube will distribute the cuts to different viewers and then judge the performance by watch time and so According to reporting from The Verge following the YouTube event.
They said you can pick the winner yourself. And if you don't, YouTube will automatically make the winning version permanent after seven days. They also said that versions can't be dramatically different.
And that's where some of the skepticism of this has come in. Like, wait a minute, could I just upload entirely different videos? I guess the big idea is that in a simple sense, and what I think is actually relevant for a lot of creators is you might think about.
how you open your video. And you're like, man, this hook could be really powerful, but so could this one. You just shoot two different hooks.
All of the rest of the edit is the same. You export two different video files and you drop both of those into test. Well, those are minor differences.
What would be crazy is if like one version of your video was 10 minutes and one was two hours and it would seem. according to the reporting from The Verge, that they can't be dramatically different. Now, the published press reports that this is starting next year.
And a question that kind of came out is, is this gonna be for both shorts and long form? TechCrunch said that for sure this is for shorts. And so once this gets updated on YouTube's Help Center page, we'll know both.
But the way it was presented was full long form videos. The presentation itself on stage, was showing cut A and cut B of a long form video.
And here's kind of some screenshots of what it could look like. Imagine having your main video cut B, cut C, and then your main video getting 38 .8 % of the watch time share. Furthermore, if you look on screen here, and if you're on audio, you might want to come to the video version of this episode.
the comparison of where viewer retention is going up or going down is something that you could see after the fact in an advanced analytics view. And so this is a very fascinating update, and this is where there's a lot of buzz. Now, you know, for smaller channels, or you could say channels that don't get a lot of impressions.
this might not be that big of a deal here's why is you just don't have enough data same thing for thumbnail split testing you could use the feature upload three thumbnails but if you're not getting enough impressions it becomes inconclusive but if you do have enough traffic and so medium to larger size channels just like title split testing just like thumbnail split testing.
Video split testing is a very interesting opportunity. Now, MKBHD already commented on this, one of the largest creators on the platform. And he said, the more I think about it, the less I like it.
and asking questions like, will viewers know they're watching a video that's being tested? When you read the comments, how do you know which version the person watched? And I suppose that's if there was distinctly different content in the video, maybe somebody comments about a particular part.
And then that comment's not even relevant to the final winning video that lives on YouTube forever. If there's timestamps in the video, are they all messed up? Do you have to do different sets of timestamps?
Let me know if you're feeling stressed by this update in one sense. You're like, is it an opportunity or a burden? I'm not sure.
And then how long after publishing can the creator keep testing? Right now, we can test thumbnails in perpetuity. You could keep running new thumbnail tests.
You could keep changing. changing the title, if your video continues to get impressions and traffic on YouTube, you can continue to optimize it, and at times, that actually might really raise the performance of the video, because you just keep testing different versions of the video. These are some real unanswered questions, and YouTube hasn't explained how that's all gonna work yet.
So that's number one of 12. Let's hit number two. And this is broken down into multiple parts.
There's some new thumbnail tools. Now we already know that thumbnails are very important because better packaging. topic title thumbnail means more views on your videos so thumbnail a b testing that's been live you can test up to three thumbnails or titles or combinations the winner is chosen by watch time share and they announced that creators have run more than 40 million tests since it launched in 2024 so the update was how embraced this feature has been but the big announcement was what's called dynamic thumbnails.
And you can see here, if dynamic thumbnails is turned on, it's matching thumbnails to viewer preferences. Here's the big idea. This isn't just thumbnail split testing.
This is the idea that different thumbnails will be shown to different audiences. Now, if you watch Netflix, you've probably noticed that back when the office was on netflix you might see one thumbnail that has a picture of dwight shrewd in it another one that has pam and jim in it and you saw these different variations what's fascinating is it's maybe not just the one thumbnail if you were to click on the office or parks and rec or your favorite show but netflix could be serving you different thumbnails because it actually gets your attention and you click on it based on what's seen in that thumbnail so the idea of dynamic thumbnails is that AI, an algorithm, is actually showing different thumbnails to different audiences, increasing the overall performance of the entire video.
Now, the status is that's coming soon. The rollout timing is not specified. You upload three thumbnails and YouTube shows different ones to different types of viewers.
There's no single winner. All three stay active. So I got a lot of questions about this, but it also could just be that if you were Like some individuals have been doing already split testing thumbnails.
There's just never a winner. They just all three work for you. And so it's.
The difference is it's not asking which thumbnail is best for everyone. That's what AB testing is. Dynamic Thumbnails asks which thumbnail is best for this particular viewer.
And you can maybe imagine that a younger audience might be more prone to crazy emotion or more bright colors or a different YouTube style that matches that demographic where maybe an older, more mature audience might want a different type of thumbnail. Story developing now. The next one is automatic thumbnail swap and they're saying this is coming out later in 2026 So YouTube studio check this out can proactively identify underperforming thumbnails and help refresh or test replacements so YouTube studio if you haven't started playing with it, I encourage you to start using it.
This is the icon that's, you know, built in. Sometimes it's underneath videos.
Sometimes it's in the upper right hand corner. If you log into the backend of your YouTube studio, you can see what's called ask studio. That's what I want you to play with is talking to YouTube about your channel.
And you might say, how are my analytics? What video is doing well? And there's layers deep that you can go into ask studio.
Well, the big idea here was if you were to ask, ask studio to optimize your video thumbnails. And then it would say something like, here are three videos with growing views that could perform even better with new thumbnails. And then the AI is saying, you want me to refresh those and choose a different thumbnail for those?
And for a while now, YouTube is generating, will even generate thumbnails for you. There's some mixed results with that, but all of these things are improving. You can also add in thumbnails.
So the idea is that. We're moving into a world where you could say, hey, I want to optimize videos in my old library. And it's like, hey, these are a few videos that are underperforming.
Want me to run some tests on them and run some different thumbnails on them? Now, as we continue to go through these updates, I feel like this is all exciting. It's all a picture of the future.
It definitely shows us where YouTube is going. And in some cases, I think some of these features could be overrated, overwhelming, and... I'm curious your take.
So let me know in the comment section if you have any feelings about that, because how well is it gonna work and what kind of issues will there be? But that's a big announcement. Now, I just touched on it, but thumbnail generation is rolling out and is also already available to some individuals where Ask Studio can generate long form video thumbnails based on the video's themes and your channel style, and then lets you refine the colors and the layout.
conversationally, meaning prompt base. And I suppose you could use audio, right? Same idea, prompting.
So you're talking to YouTube, okay, can you make this thumbnail based on this video? Okay, can you change this? Can you change the colors?
And we're gonna get to an announcement later about that, where that's coming to video editing. But thumbnail generation through Ask Studio, through the backend. of your channel the good news is as you're learning these new features this should make and could make content creation more accessible and more easy you're uploading a video it's helping you package it based on ai based on the tools that they're giving creators all right those were just thumbnail distinctions and now we're going into number three of the 12 need to know updates which is pre -publish feedback And so the idea here is you can upload a draft of your video.
That's what you already do. So you upload a video to YouTube and you're in the back end optimizing it. Well, before you make the video public, you could start talking to Ask Studio about the video.
And it could give you feedback on, oh, your script is a little off here. The hook sucks. And here's some title ideas.
And here's some optimization ideas where you're. conversationally talking about it in the background so what you see on screen is you have a draft of your video and then it says feedback refine your video with actionable feedback based on your channel data you click the little button get feedback you click the ask studio icon get suggestions for your titles and thumbnails for the content itself and so this is um on desktop now and it's coming soon to mobile so this is a feature you could start playing with right now let me know if that's available on your back end and so what you do is you select a draft private or on unlisted video and then ask studio can give you feedback on the title structure script pacing and other creative decisions before you publish and i suppose if something major was happening and this has happened to me a lot you're like shoot i need to do another export another cut you know you're watching back one of your videos you're like that title was wrong oops i left in that repetitive line and it can identify those things though before you publish and so ask studio is available on desktop web for eligible creators and this will be coming soon to iphone and android number four the ai agent for your back
catalog now this is my language and this has been announced but the rollout timing has not been specified so ask studio is becoming more proactive instead of only answering questions it can help you identify opportunities and work through different creator tasks so why does this matter your library videos is your biggest asset your back catalog.
Now, if you're just starting YouTube, at the end of this, I'll go through some actionable steps if you want to start or grow on YouTube right now. But one of the big ideas is building a library of videos on YouTube is one of the greatest media assets you could build in the modern world as a brand, as a business owner, as a personal brand, as anybody with a message.
And so what can happen though, as you build your library is keeping hundreds of older videos optimized is difficult to do by hand. And so YouTube wants AI. I'm calling it an AI agent, you know, essentially what it is to help you optimize your back catalog.
So it can review your older videos and suggest fresh thumbnails so they reach new audiences. We just talked about that. It could build brand pitches using your channel's audience data.
And this will be coming soon to the mobile studio app. And again, the thumbnail swap idea was there. Now, by the way, this is already mostly happening, but how sophisticated is this gonna get?
Like how sophisticated, the big theme on stage we heard at the keynote was Ask Studio, the AI interaction that's kind of coaching you and giving you feedback for your channel and helping you analyze data. This has existed for a while now. It's just getting better and more powered up.
Number five insights and the new research tab. Okay. So right now in your YouTube studio, your analytics are probably called analytics.
And the announcement appears to be that they're changing the name from analytics to insights. That's one thing. They're also going to change how it looks trying to organize the data for you in better and more intuitive ways to give you feedback so you can make more intelligent decisions.
Now, one very specific update is that the research tab is changing. It's apparently going to still be called the research tab, but it's going to be a little bit different. Currently, the research tab has what people are looking for and it gives you keyword phrases and you can heart those save those for later you know by the way if some of this stuff you're like i didn't even know half of this stuff was in my back end studio like that's there right now like you already have this um and so it also will say breakout videos but the new research tab is changing and it's going to be It would seem basically outlier based.
Now we'll define what that means in a second, but it's going to be focusing on other videos watched by your viewers, other videos trending on the platform based on outlier score. And it looks like keyword phrases are going to be retired. So currently this is in the testing phase, but I believe it's rolling out soon.
And so a couple of facts, analytics is being renamed to insights. the trends tab becomes research which shows videos from other channels that broke out now this matters because topic selection is one of the biggest levers of channel growth i've been really saying lately that if you're really good at selecting topics on youtube you can be bad at everything else now of course you want to improve at everything else but topic is so important like if you're good at selecting topics you could be worse at everything else and of course just talk about the right thing at the right time with the right title and you could get a lot more views than you've been currently getting so by identifying essentially what an outlier is and this is not a new thing there's all kinds of softwares that do this for you right um platforms like vidiq And what they're doing is integrating like the outlier thinking right into YouTube itself.
And what does outlier mean? It means videos that outperform a channel's typical videos. And the reason that's fascinating is because if a channel has a thousand subscribers and typically gets a hundred views per video, but they post a video that gets 10 ,000 views, that is a massive outlier.
And if you see that, A lot of times it's because of the topic or the way it was said or talking about the right thing at the right time. And you're like, oh, I should talk about that too.
Or like that packaging, that idea. Oh, I could not copy it, but do my version of that as well. So an outlier multiple, like this is a 5X.
It's 5X better than the channel's normal views. 10X better than the channel's normal views. That is gonna start being integrated right into.
the new research tab that is rolling out. Another thing that in general, better insights give us is the ability to spot patterns. If you wanna be a successful content creator on YouTube, pattern recognition is one of the most important skillsets to develop.
And so looking at data, looking at videos, looking at outliers, looking at your own content and being able to synthesize that information and spot patterns, that'll give you an edge. And so this tool is interesting for that. So then you can also filter videos based on what your own viewers watched.
Now, this has already been being tested with a limited group since July. And if you currently see analytics and trends, then you don't have it yet. And actually disclaimer, I've noticed in my backend, the research tab apparently on one of our channels just went away.
It was there before. Now I just see trends. At one point I had both.
And going forward, I believe my understanding is analytics becomes insights. Trends becomes research. If you're as confused as me, I'm doing my best to just synthesize this information for you.
And side note, disclaimer, alert. saved keywords if you were using those. Remember, we looked at this where you could heart your keywords and the topics people were looking for is going to go away.
So if you want to export those for future video ideas you have, you have three months to download them as a CSV. And again, this is not the same as the old research tab, which came out in 2022. Then that showed what people searched for.
The new one shows which videos broke out. Number six. And if you are grateful for the level of research time and brain damage that went into me just trying to consume all this information, can you share this video and hit the like button?
I appreciate it. Number six, ask YouTube AI answers. So what does this mean?
A couple of things. Videos that answer questions clearly get found and videos that ramble get skipped. That's the big idea.
And what they're saying is that ask YouTube has some updates to it. Now, there's a couple layers to this. The first one is the ask button on a video.
This has existed for a while, but you don't always see it. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. It's live now on select videos.
They're testing it. They continue to test it. Now, this has already existed, but let's just define what this one is.
You can use ask. Again, if you're listening on audio, you're like, what's he talking about? Watch the YouTube version because I'm sharing his screen.
What you see is there's the like button, the dislike button, the share button, and there's an ask button. The same idea of kind of ask studio, ask YouTube, and this sort of star icon they have is what's showing you what to click. Okay.
When you click that, you can ask questions about the video. Now this works on phone, computer, and TV. And YouTube demonstrated that it can search comments, understand what's on screen, give you timestamps.
You could say, can you give me a summary of this video? Is there any pictures in this video? Now, already 140 million people have used Ask YouTube in June, which was up from 20 million people in December.
So that's a massive adoption of this feature. Now, my understanding is that 2 .7 billion may be monthly active. Users use YouTube.
So it's still kind of a small fraction when you put these things in perspective, but it takes time for these features to be adopted and rolled out. Okay. That's the idea that you can click ask, interact with the video, point me to a place.
Does the person have any demonstration of the camera? Is there any photos in there, et cetera? Okay.
But this is what's different is ask in search. So YouTube began rolling out conversational ask YouTube search to mobile. in the US on August 12th, alongside desktop and TV.
It's still limited to a US English rollout and it's gradually expanding. Now we need to dive into what this is because it's pretty wild. So ask YouTube, you ask it a question and then you get an AI answer with clips from many different creators, starting right at the moment of the question.
So this is fascinating. You might say something like, I need a new camera. that I could easily take around the city when I'm out with friends, what vibe should I consider?
YouTube could pull a window together of lots of different videos, but also you don't have to like click the video and like, hey guys, welcome back. It could take you to the moments of the video that start talking about that answer. So if you see on screen, ask YouTube, you ask about the camera.
On it starts building. This live demo here started showing then that it pulls together sort of like a different experiential screen and kind of turns it into some text, choosing your camera vibe, compact, retro, and versatile. It gives you some different videos that you could click on with answers to that question, but then you could ask a follow -up question.
And you might say, well, I want one that I can take around the city or... in the video, you know, is there, does it have a flash on it? Which out of this video of maybe somebody reviewing multiple cameras, which one did she ultimately rate the highest?
And so you're starting with the prompt, AI is responding, it's aggregating videos. You're now going into videos and the search is staying with you. The conversation is staying with you.
And then you keep talking about even that specific video. clickable product tags could show up on screen and um it's quite an interesting evolution now what's fascinating is for creators um this probably raises some yellow and red flags because on the one hand this is an opportunity for discovery which is cool because if you're making good optimized clear videos and that's why one of my big ideas at the top was if you're just kind of rambling and disorganized then AI is not gonna know how to index you or recommend you, let alone humans probably won't wanna follow that content.
But if you answer questions clearly and you organize your content well, then you can start getting indexed by AI and recommended by AI. So there's some new discovery opportunities here. I think though that secondly, there might be some red flags where you might people just watch a snippet of your video but then they end up on somebody else's video and if you make money let's say with affiliate marketing in the picture on screen there's actually a clickable shoppable link which i imagine would probably go to this creator's affiliate program which is cool but then i wonder what if youtube cut out the creator what if they you know, showed you a clip of this video and a clip of this video.
And then the creator's like, oh, that's the viewer is like, that's so awesome. Okay. I think that's the camera I want.
And YouTube's like, well, here's your link because it didn't happen on the creator's video. It happened in the AI search who gets the affiliate commission. Interesting questions that we could ask as this is rolling out.
Number seven, custom feeds. Now, some of these important announcements, and there's a lot more that have to do with the viewer experience, but as a creator or an intelligent entrepreneur that's making content you want to know how the platform's working so it can inform your strategy and so one of the biggest updates about what viewers can do and plus you're also i'm sure a viewer and consumer of youtube like me to learn to grow as well as for entertainment you can now make custom feeds and so pretty simple but the idea is that you can basically build a feed beyond your homepage you might create something and the example here is late night asmr and rain soundscapes it's a feed for this particular experience of your day that you like and maybe you get in front of your tv you want to go to a custom feed i'm assuming you'll be able to do this on tv but definitely on desktop what you're doing is you're going to say new custom feed and then you describe it here's another one maybe you have a commute
So you type in witty podcast for my 30 minute commute. And so this is rolling out in the fall of 2026. Viewers type a prompt like home remodeling tips and they get a saved homepage that keeps updating.
So you're sort of just selecting the theme of the custom topic or category that you want, but then it's now continuing to update for you. So you can always check in with that hobby, with that interest. And so viewers can build highly specific interest feeds that may increase the value of making content on a clear topic.
Now, this is US only on web, mobile and TV. No word on other countries yet. Next, short series.
This is rolling out globally now. And this is different than a playlist. Series has been a big topic on YouTube in general.
The idea you could do a show. The idea of this is it is kind of more like. a netflix experience more for those that are going to do episodic content and entertainment however i think there's some relevance for business creators here but the idea is that you could do it with shorts as well so you can organize your shorts into a series with seasons and episodes custom thumbnails so they play back to back and part of this is because micro drama watch time rose 50 % year over year and TV viewers of micro dramas rose 90%.
This is the idea of people making kind of entertainment episodic based short digestible vertical videos and people are in love with them. So from a content creator entertainment standpoint, this is fascinating for building out a whole series on shorts. However, A business owner could turn a topic into a native short series.
In fact, I think that's probably incredibly underrated. Not clips cut from long videos, but like intentional vertical videos. I actually did that recently.
It's called the 21 day YouTube reset. I fell off on day 13. And so I plan on finishing it.
But I was uploading those as YouTube shorts on my channel, the Think Media podcast, which side note. If you haven't heard about that, I'll link that up in the show notes. And we post weekly podcasts to help you grow and get views on YouTube, interview experts, and a must -listen -to podcast in your rotation or on YouTube.
But I uploaded on that channel a series of shorts that were natively built, not clips from videos, intentional crafted shorts. And I'll teach on that another time. In fact, that's a good reason to subscribe to that channel.
I have tons of insights, how I use a related video feature, how many views it led to, different things that were accomplished by it, all kinds of unpredictable discoveries that I couldn't have really predicted without doing it. So I do think that embracing shorts, embracing native shorts, meaning custom videos, I think that sometimes it's overrated to just cut clips out of videos, like low effort garbage shorts.
That's overrated. I think it's underrated to sit down and craft intentional vertical content. And I think there's a lot to learn.
Entrepreneurs could learn a lot from what's happening with the micro dramas. Number nine, brand deals. YouTube talked a lot about some business tools, meaning how you can make more money.
And that includes YouTube shopping. And one of the big things was they're bringing more brand deals to creators. And so brand deals are one of the biggest revenue sources for some creators.
YouTube isn't just allowing brand deals anymore. It's building a marketplace. There's a few announcements here.
9A, YouTube Creator Partnerships, which is already live in 20 countries. This helps brands find you and it lets brands see your channel data. So this is brand deals coming to the back end of your YouTube channel, 9B.
One -click brand access and paid boosts. This is already live. You can share a one -click code so a brand can see your video's performance and pay to boost it.
Now, on our Think Media channel, we have been doing brand deals for years. And this has already been happening where sometimes we'll do a brand deal and the brand will pay for ads on the video so it gets more views. You know, it's performing on its own organically.
They want to add more views to it. I don't know how different this is than that, but this is just easier. It's like making it simple for you to say, here's the link brand.
And they go, oh, cool. We see how this video is doing. Oh, yeah.
We'd like to put money behind that video as well. And so boosts are not new. A brand boosting your video that was sponsored.
But one click code makes it easier is my takeaway. Now, 9C, ask studio pitch help. Currently, you could ask studio.
Remember, we talked about that earlier. AI talking to your back end of YouTube about your channel in a chat prompt like ChatGPT. It's the ChatGPT of YouTube.
It's called Ask Studio. And this will help you answer brand briefs, brand pitches, and tailor your media kit to each brand. Which again, side note, I think the power of that is it's integrated into the data of your channel.
That actually is the power of it. I'm sure it's probably powered by Gemini. But a lot of the LLMs, I would hope you're using AI to help you write brand emails or brand pitches or help you build your media kits.
But the idea is that YouTube themselves, which are, they're the best position to do it because they have access to everything, all the demographics, your channel, all the data. You can export that stuff, but that takes, that's manual. So the bottom line is the AI behind YouTube is gonna help you craft, pitch brands, build media kits.
Some of those features are already there. Now, number 9D is Swappable Sponsor Segments, aka Dynamic Brand Segments. Now, you might remember that doesn't this already exist or didn't it already get announced and what happened with it?
What you can see on screen would be the idea that you go into your video. You select not just the mid -rolls, because you can go manually select the mid -rolls of where your ads play, but then you click brand segments and you actually insert different ads, right? Different video clips that cut in.
Hey, before we get back to the video, this video is brought to you by Think Media Mastermind. We actually are hosting a two -day event in Vegas. If you want to come hang out and get really geeky by...
geeky about YouTube and also talk about building a business around your channel, thinkmediamastermind .com. I'll put that in the description as well. I mean, shameless plug, but me thinking like, so that obviously that was just me organically saying that, but if that was like an insertable ad, what's crazy, right?
Is that you could insert a sponsor segment in up to 20 long form videos at once. You go back to old videos and insert a sponsor segment. It actually gets crazier.
You could change them based on region and have different call to action buttons. So, okay, you make one video and then you insert different sponsor segments, but then you insert even different sponsor segments that play in the US versus Canada. And I mean, it starts getting kind of complex.
I think you might see a theme. A lot of these features. speak to how YouTube is like the at -scale media platform for media companies or creators that have built like enough help and support to even do this level of granular detail.
But it's a pretty big deal no matter who you are because older videos could potentially carry new sponsor segments over time. And the question is, when does this really roll out? It's already being tested.
It was first announced on Made on YouTube 2025, last year. And basically, YouTube said it would turn videos into living assets, that testing would start, which it did. Now, a full year later, it's just still in testing.
But they said it's continuing to test and evolve. And when is it public? We're not sure.
But what's new is that you can insert a sponsored segment into up to 20 long form videos at once, target by region, and build in at a shelf with a call to action button. So you can imagine for like... Maybe somebody is talking about different makeup products that are distributed different ways in different regions.
Below that video is a shelf of the products. There's a call to action button that pops up when the sponsor segment is there. And then the sponsor performance data shows up in YouTube Studio and can be shared by brands.
Digiday called this potentially the most disruptive development in the creator economy for 2026 because it could change how sponsorships are priced and let channels sell their back library and their back catalog like a TV network sells ad time. So rather than your brand spot just being burned in forever and getting stale, you could update it.
Well, you might be hearing about this for the first time or you're like, yeah, well, when the heck do we get it? Here's the big idea. It is, this is radical.
And while we don't know the full rollout time and why it could be frustrating to be like, well, when do I get it as a smaller channel? Or it's kind of, you know, when does this fully roll out? The thing I think we need to know is like the future money making opportunities on YouTube are abundant.
This is the time to invest in learning YouTube and building your brand. You might have said, well, I wish I started 10 years ago and I could have more momentum. It feels like it's too late.
Now, well, the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. And the second best time to plant a tree is today. So start building your library so that you have a back catalog to sponsor because this development is potentially the most disruptive development in the creator economy.
I don't think that's an underrated statement or an overrated statement. All right. And then also agency incentives.
YouTube is investing, this is a lot, hundreds of millions of dollars to reward agencies for bringing deals to creators. So as much as it seems that sometimes YouTube is against small channels and against creators, YouTube needs creators to survive as a platform and sell more advertising. Follow the money.
And even if that's, it's not that they're not generous, but even if it's self -interest that they make more money for their shareholders. They still need creators to flourish. So they're creating new tools.
The semantic algorithm is what we're saying, calling it, is allowing new channels to get discovered. They're investing in brand deals. Take advantage of this opportunity.
Don't allow cynicism to paralyze you. Go on offense and let's build your freaking channel together. All right, number 10, shopping in Amazon affiliates.
This was not new. It's live now. It is a big deal because for a while, Google and Amazon weren't the best of friends.
And it looks like they're healing their relationship. This also expanded to India and Brazil so that you can not just do YouTube shopping, which has been around forever, but also now with Amazon products and Amazon affiliates, which is what I'm guessing is the world's biggest affiliate program. I mean, Amazon is the biggest e -commerce store, right?
So it's a big integration. You can tag products and videos and earn commissions. And one of their biggest things was just how well it's doing, how well it's growing, how much sales volume is happening.
It is live in the US since summer, but it's coming to India and Brazil in the coming weeks. Tags can now switch to local stores for international viewers since September 23rd. Affiliate campaigns lets brands offer exclusive commission rates and bonuses.
That's new.
This is a few new things to that and something that I've got a lot of questions about and we'll cover that in a separate episode and separate video. Number 11, AI comment moderation. So this is testing and already there's some AI integration in the backend of your YouTube studio.
But the big idea here is an opt -in filter that learns what you delete, hide or allow and then starts doing it for you. cleans comments and builds trust to save time. You opt into it, so it means you do give it permission to do this.
It would be coming to your live chat as well, and no data was given about it. Now, number 12, and then I've got kind of three big takeaways for you and a few summaries of my thoughts of what this means so you can maximize your results on YouTube going forward. They announced conversational editing.
And this is for YouTube Create, the app, and YouTube Shorts. And so it basically so far seems to be for shorts only. But I think this is also a prediction and a picture of where things are going.
You might not enjoy editing. You might not want to do it. The idea was that editing can just happen as a conversation.
You upload all your raw footage or your clips. And so you're like, all right, can you take all of these clips of me and then find a hip -hop song whenever I change my outfit, have it hit the beat of the outfit change.
Thanks so much. And let the video edit for you. And then you say, okay, that was great.
Can you change this one thing? So it's prompt -based editing. The example on screen says reorder, trim, and more.
So this is coming early 2027. You're just describing your edit in plain words like find my best takes or trim with pauses or sync the cuts to the music. AI builds the first draft and you can refine it by editing by hand afterwards if you want.
So what's really cool about this is it would save you time. I think what's fascinating is just how much AI is gonna continue to influence editing. I think what's also overrated as a video editor myself is that this is gonna like eventually do everything for you and be super smart, maybe, but I still think that editing, good editing is human.
But, The AI tools just save you so much time. Having been an editor since 2003, like what are we talking about?
Sean, how old are you? You know, the sheer amount of hours I would spend doing repetitive tasks is being radically cut down by AI. So this is cool.
The fact that you could do conversational editing with YouTube Shorts, but I think it's also a picture of where things are going. This is obviously editing is one of the biggest production barriers. It edits with you, basically not for you.
And that'll be happening. And it was built on Gemini Omni, which is interesting. And that's kind of the backend of what's happening there.
And so obviously you've got Google, you've got YouTube, you've got Gemini, you've got the AI. The whole thing is massively being, YouTube as a platform is being changed by AI. And I don't mean the conversation around AI slop and final outputs of AI video.
I think the... bright side of ai which would be the ai tools that help us save time make smarter decisions edit our videos um there's a couple honorable mentions like you'll be able to go live together um ask studio mobile coming some members only community stuff uh likeness protection not only will youtube be able to detect your voice but it'll also be able to detect your face and you can manage if anybody's copying you or cloning you live auto dubbing and a few other things like that.
Now, I wanna give you some of my big takeaways, but I did mention earlier that we are hosting an event in Vegas. If you wanna come and talk about YouTube and talk about how specifically to... build your YouTube business, especially if you're an established creator.
We're hosting a two -day event coming soon in Las Vegas. I'll put a link in the description, but you could go to thinkmediamastermind .com, get around other ambitious creators. Iron sharpens iron.
It's gonna be a fun event. So that is thinkmediamastermind .com if you want details about this. Here's my takeaways.
Here's the big picture. Studio is moving from telling you what happened to helping you decide what to do next. Yeah.
So analytics and insights oftentimes tell us about what happened in the past. Some of these new announcements are gonna give us better vision for the future. Outliers have existed on a lot of different third -party softwares.
YouTube is bringing those straight into the platform. That can very much give you strategic insights on what to do next. And you could be one video away.
We say that all the time. You're one video away from going viral. You're one video away from breaking out.
You're one video away from getting that next client for your business. So it's cool that the YouTube studio on the backend is gonna help you make better decisions. YouTube is also, my kind of thinking here, is a tool for every step of the creator journey.
So if you think about it, they wanna help you research, help you come up with ideas, help you create your video with even video editing, help you package your video. Help you come up with thumbnails, write titles, split test those titles, testing, A -B testing of those titles and those videos. Help the video get distributed, build community, and we'd even cover some of the community features and give you ways to monetize.
So while it's debatable or evolving that some of these steps are maybe good or bad, like how good is it at those steps? I mentioned this earlier, but I think in some cases, these announcements are very excited. In some cases, they're overrated.
In some cases, for a huge media company that has a lot of staff that could split test a bunch of different thumbnails, that's kind of helpful. I think for your average creator, complexity is the enemy of execution. If you get overwhelmed with too many things, you're just not even making videos anymore.
You're using too much AI. Your brain is in a noodle. You know, not helpful.
So all that to say is that YouTube is just really aiming to build tools for every step of the creator journey. That's what this looks like and that's where this is going. Now, maybe one of the biggest takeaways is there may be soon no single version of YouTube.
What do I mean? People are making a custom homepage, personalized to them. People are being shown customized thumbnails, personalized to them.
People are getting different versions of the video. I don't know, personalized for them. So personalization is one of the biggest words of 2026 and I think 2027.
Personalized algorithms, YouTube. And side note, there already wasn't just one version of YouTube. Like is YouTube's homepage one billboard of all the popular videos?
No, YouTube has millions and billions of homepages. The homepage populates and pulls content. based on your watch history, based on your preferences, based on your activities.
There's not just one homepage. There's billions of them. What's weird is now the long tail of how much personalization is, again, a little bit stressful, but different audiences might see different thumbnails, right?
YouTube is personalizing the entire experience. Now, what's interesting, though, is let's talk about opportunity. We've been talking about what we've coined kind of like the semantic algorithm, which just means meaning.
And it's the fact that YouTube understands viewers better than ever. It understands content better than ever. So it now matches specific videos with specific people better than ever.
This is an opportunity for the business owner to get in front of their ideal clients. This is an opportunity for the small and new channel to create intelligent content to be matched with a very specific audience. Because of AI, meaning AI can scan your content and understand your content and know what the script says and even know if there's a cat walking in the back of your video, it understands your video.
YouTube is also understanding viewer behavior. Every piece of data you give YouTube when you make a custom feed and what you click on and what you're satisfied by That's an opportunity.
So YouTube feels crowded and it is. There's a lot of content creators. There's also a lot of people consuming content and the algorithm is continuing to improve to match the right content with the right people.
So that is an invitation for you to invest in your content strategy, make intelligent videos and tap into the opportunity that exists right now. Now, there's also some really important announcements from stage, some statistics and data. And here's a couple to know.
And these were updates because these just happened. You know, this is breaking. YouTube is the number one streaming has is number one in streaming watch time in the US for three years straight, according to Nielsen.
So YouTube's the leading streamer. Still true. YouTube is the number one podcast platform for viewers in the US.
600 million people plus watch live content every day on YouTube. 300 million people plus engage with. posts every day on youtube and posts used to be called the community tab those are the photos you can upload those are the texts you upload those are the polls that you post one of the announcements they also made is that posts are coming to television and television is already such a major aspect of youtube but it's also getting more integrated in mobile so people being able to watch youtube on their tv but look at the comments And now engage with the comments or have a two screen experience.
I know I use my Apple remote and I am watching a video and I'm opening up the comments through YouTube just with my Apple remote. Well, posts are coming to YouTube as well. And posts are a big deal.
300 million people engage with posts every single day. Now, these are massive. The creator economy and the math behind the creator economy, $60 billion plus was added to the US GDP in 2025 because of YouTube.
540 ,000 full -time equivalent jobs in the US. Like that doesn't mean that many people work at YouTube. It means how many people are making full -time equivalent living from YouTube just in the US.
And the international opportunity is real as well. So the size and growth of the money going into the creator economy is massive. The key is then saying, how can you position yourself, build your skills?
So you could tap into a piece of that pie for your ambitions on YouTube. 60 % growth in brand deal shorts in 2025. So massive brand deals flowing into YouTube and sponsoring short form content as well as long form content.
And Ask YouTube's blowing up. YouTube Shopping's blowing up. Here's my three big takeaways on this long episode.
But I think we covered a lot. And let's talk about it. Here we go.
Number one, three big takeaways for creators and business owners who wanna win on YouTube in 2027. Master the tools, the platform, and the craft. Master the tools, the platform, and the craft.
That's not a new message from us, but I wanna call you back to the pursuit of mastery, the pursuit of excellence. I wanna remind you that lifelong leaders are lifelong learners. And so new tools are coming out.
Take a breath. You might need a break after this episode. You know, buy yourself a nice lunch, okay?
You deserve a third cup of coffee today, all right? Like do that because I mean, I was like stressed listening to this. I was like, how am I gonna explain all this in less than an hour?
And we're on track to do that. So master the tools. Take some time to learn these, play with these because those who keep learning the tools are going to dominate.
Master the platform, keep learning the platform and then also master the craft. And I think this is an interesting concept. is tools can only go so far tools are not enough you need tools and taste like if we get too analytical about all this stuff and all this freaking split testing and whatnot that makes me want to pull my hair out it's like this is also like take a breath like this is art y 'all like let's slow down a little bit and i think that we could get very polarized about this like all or nothing split thinking black and white thinking no i mean it's tools and taste these tools are cool learn the tools Pace yourself, though.
But also develop that taste. Be a human. Inject that authenticity.
Cultivate your taste. Cultivate your unique voice. And so master the tools, the platform, and the craft.
Any craftsman masters the tools. But the craftsman also needs to be an artist. Tools and taste.
And keep learning. You know, there's a book called The Lean Startup. Eric Ries said this, the only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.
So... I'm sorry if you feel a little bit overwhelmed, but if you want to be in the game and the game is good, like this is an amazing opportunity. YouTube, getting paid from the platform, more brand deals.
What we talk about is the YouTube business bridge, getting views, leads, and sales with fierce clarity and building your business and getting clients from YouTube. This is the opportunity in front of us, but the only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else. Number two, three big action items.
and takeaways for creators and business owners number two your video library is your greatest asset your video library is your greatest asset we have been sharing for years in our video ranking academy community that the goal on youtube is to build a library of ranked videos that get views 24 7. that's still true today and even as seo has evolved and search has evolved it's still true a ranked video is just a video that you post today that keeps getting views for weeks months and years to come I don't care if those views come from search.
I don't care if those views come from Google. I don't care if those views come from homepage recommendations. Like if you have a library of videos that get views 24 seven, you've built a real media asset.
Building your brand on YouTube is the best place to build your brand. An investment in YouTube is an investment in the future and an investment in greater awareness of your message, your mission. And so that's always been one of the most valuable things a creator can build.
The hard part was keeping your old videos optimized. So my takeaway here is the AI tools is like build a video library, but also embrace these new tools to optimize your old library. And don't just always think about posting the new videos.
Think about building your catalog. You should be thinking like a musician. You know, in a way you could be thinking about I'm building a catalog of music and my old music, my old albums have value.
And I can, you know, even re -release those deluxe versions. Maybe I can't get my masters. So what do I do?
I re -record them like Taylor Swift, you know, like you're building up catalog and now you could optimize swapping thumbnails on old videos and maybe a dead video gets revived. Going back in old videos with AI. And so AI is starting to do that for you.
And then lastly, start now. Whether you feel plateaued and stuck, you know, again, have a fourth coffee on me. And then start now.
Like if YouTube's starting to feel overwhelming, I get it. But again, every video you post is an investment in an asset, your brand, your personal brand. So if you feel stuck, keep going.
If you're plateaued, reinvent yourself, relearn and keep going. And if you're starting from scratch, like the thing is, like the pain of discipline, i think is not as bad as the pain of regret if you've been thinking about starting youtube for the past five years watching everybody else for the past seven years like get off the sidelines and get in the game is that a guarantee of the results you're gonna get no but it is guaranteed that you'll never have known and you might experience the pain of regret if you don't even try and when you start now you begin looking back you'll be like thank god i watched that video with sean cannell from think media and i decided to start Start before you're ready.
Start in the midst of how overwhelming it is. Start, you know, we could have one mindset. It's too much to learn.
Or we could have the mindset of I'm just going to learn a little bit each day. Let's get it's too hard now. Or no, there's a lot more opportunity now.
And some people are a lot of people are going to think that. So I'm going to be one of the ones that just posts and gets 1 % better with every single upload. Now I want to read to you.
some of the final words from Neil Mohan as we land the plane today, because I think it kind of puts a bow on this episode and this major announcement. But before we cover that, a couple things. One, if you're able to comment on the video, I'm curious, what's your biggest takeaway?
What's your biggest question? What's your biggest fear? If you're listening on audio, you can always rate or review on Apple or Spotify.
And if you want to really take your YouTube channel to the next level, We are hosting a two -day event in Las Vegas. It's called the thinkmediamastermind .com, all about YouTube strategy, how to get views, but also how to really build the business around your YouTube channel.
And then it's all about the community, networking, connecting with other creators and business owners that are serious about YouTube. So check a summary of resources in the YouTube description or the podcast show notes, or just go straight to thinkmediamastermind .com. But here's what Neil said at the end.
He said, I started today talking about our mission to build the best home for creators, which I think they're aiming for. They're on a mission. It's cool to hear YouTube's mission.
Their mission is to build the best home for creators. And our track record of staying one step ahead of how the world watches. And I think that's true too.
Nothing else is like YouTube. Nothing else is comparing to YouTube. Nobody can keep up.
nobody has as good of tools nobody has as good of resources it's i'm not just glazing youtube i'm not saying it's without problems it that's just i actually would argue objectively true it's i think the best home for creators and they are one step ahead of how the world watches he goes on this is the next chapter of innovation for youtube era this is the new youtube and a lot of ways the old youtube is gone and that's painful in a lot of ways i mean i wish the old youtube would come back What the frick is all this split testing now?
Like how many versions of videos we gotta create? No, I get it. The old YouTube is gone.
But it's up to you and it's up to me and it's up to the global community to embrace the new YouTube and to keep the heart and soul on YouTube and to not just have the tech, but also have the taste, right? And not just embrace the tools, but please keep the taste. And the next chapter of innovation for YouTube is here.
Our momentum is only accelerating. What's happening for the future of YouTube? Of course he's going to say that, you know, because he wants the stock price to go up.
But no, I think that the future, I've never been more excited about YouTube than I am now. I was talking to creators in an event recently, same thing. I've gone through, there's been seasons where I've been like, kind of just grinding it out.
Like future looks bright on YouTube. It's not without challenges, but he goes on, we're excited. for the world to watch as we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible because the breakthrough tech technology the stories that inspire us and the culture that moves our world will always be made on youtube forgive me if i butch uh butchered parts of that but basically uh the future looks bright youtube's going to continue to push the boundaries momentum is only growing and that is what the math says and that is what the uh projections of the creator economy says and the real math of the dollars that are there now i get it it could be overwhelming and it could feel like you're getting passed by or the algorithm's not seeing you but let me encourage you don't quit maybe re -watch this video master the tools learn the platform work on your craft keep your heart and artist soul build a library of videos and start now
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
YouTube just dropped its Made on YouTube 2026 keynote, and Think Media's Sean Cannell spent ten hours compressing the keynote, the blog posts, and the press coverage into the 12 updates that actually matter, from testing whole video cuts to an AI assistant that now proactively rewrites your old thumbnails.
Frameworks
Named ideas worth stealing.
16:25concept
Outlier multiple
A ratio like 5x or 10x describing how far a video's views exceed a channel's typical performance, used to flag topics worth revisiting.
Steal forany channel content audit
50:49list
Master the tools, the platform, and the craft
Tools
Platform
Craft
A three-part framework arguing that AI tools alone don't win on YouTube without also understanding the platform's mechanics and cultivating creative taste.
Steal forany AI-tool adoption decision
50:10concept
Video library as media asset
Framing a channel's back catalog of videos as a compounding asset, similar to a musician's catalog, rather than disposable content.
Steal forcontent strategy planning
CTA Breakdown
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
42:47product
“We are hosting a two-day event coming soon in Las Vegas... thinkmediamastermind.com”
Woven mid-episode as a direct pitch for Think Media's own Las Vegas mastermind event, framed around the same YouTube-strategy topics just discussed, then repeated again near the close.
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A 25-minute interview with Roberto Blake on the 2026 creator playbook — AI tools as freelancers, device context over format, the 100K real players doctrine, and the clipping industrial complex.
A nine-minute, six-step walkthrough for shooting a talking-head YouTube video on a smartphone — topic, background, gear, recording, review, and editing.
A loan officer who didn't post his first video until 38 built two seven-figure businesses by mining the advice he'd already given away for free for years.
A ten-minute walk through four eras of the creator economy, personality, information, templates, and the current shift to TV, ending in five predictions for what comes next.
A consultant sits in a Munich beer garden and argues branding was never the logo. It's three pillars, core values, storytelling, and visual identity, stacked into what he calls a micro cult brand.
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