YouTube announced AI tools for its Studio app on 23 September, including a feature that shows three generated thumbnails to different audience segments, TechCrunch reported.
Key points
- AI feedback will cover the pacing, structure and storytelling of unpublished videos.
- Creators will be able to generate titles and thumbnails matched to their content and style.
- YouTube says creators have run more than 40 million title and thumbnail A/B tests.
- Studio is due to change underperforming thumbnails automatically later in 2026.
YouTube Studio reviews unpublished videos
The draft-feedback tool examines a video before its creator publishes it. Its suggestions cover pacing, structure and storytelling, bringing feedback into YouTube Studio, the app creators use to manage their channels.
YouTube is also adding a research feed to Studio. It presents content that is performing on the platform for creators to consider when developing their own videos.
Ask Studio, an AI-powered question-and-answer feature, is expanding to iOS and Android. The mobile expansion puts the feature in the same app as the draft and research tools announced at the Made On YouTube event.
YouTube is updating Studio analytics to give creators explanations of video performance alongside the figures. The company says the update will also offer advice on making content more engaging. Beyond Studio, YouTube introduced conversational editing for Shorts and the YouTube Create app.
Ask Studio extends to brand partnerships
YouTube is rolling out Ask Studio for Brand Partnerships, a separate use of generative AI within the creator app. It is designed to help creators answer brand briefs, prepare pitches and tailor their Media Kit to a campaign, Social Samosa reported on 24 September.
The brand-partnership feature addresses a different part of a creator’s work from draft feedback. It applies AI to the material a creator prepares for an advertiser, rather than to an unpublished video intended for viewers.
YouTube has also launched Affiliate Partnerships Boost, under which brands can put paid promotion behind creators’ existing affiliate content. Nykaa will use it to promote creator-led content ahead of the festive shopping period.
Another feature, Creator Partnerships Boost, lets a creator give a brand access to a published branded video through a one-click code. The brand can then view campaign performance and use paid media to promote the video. Social Samosa reported that the feature is available in 20 countries.
YouTube is testing dynamic brand segments as well. The feature lets creators place segments in up to 20 long-form videos at once, with regional targeting and a shelf containing a direct call-to-action button.
Three thumbnails follow 40 million tests
For a video’s presentation to viewers, Studio will generate thumbnails and titles using its content and the creator’s style. The dynamic thumbnail feature lets the creator make three options, each displayed to a different audience segment.
YouTube says creators have run more than 40 million tests of titles and thumbnails using its existing A/B testing feature, TechCrunch reported. The new thumbnail tool adds audience-specific display to the options creators can generate.
The company also plans to let creators test up to three cuts of a video to compare their opening hooks. That would extend testing from the title and preview image to the beginning of the video itself.
YouTube Studio will automatically track how a thumbnail performs and replace it if it underperforms later in 2026, according to TechCrunch.
