YouTube is expanding its use of artificial intelligence with the launch of a new AI-powered search results carousel, aimed at helping users find relevant videos more quickly and easily. The feature is currently rolling out to YouTube Premium users in the United States.
HIghlights
- AI Search Carousel Rollout: YouTube has launched an AI-powered video search carousel for U.S.-based Premium users, aimed at speeding up video discovery for queries like travel tips, shopping guides, and activities.
- Features for Users: The carousel includes AI-generated topic summaries, clickable video previews, and feedback tools for rating result quality.
- Expanding Conversational AI: YouTube’s AI chat assistant, previously Premium-only, is now being tested with select free-tier users—offering video summaries and content recommendations.
- Creator Concerns on Visibility: Content creators worry that AI summaries shown in search may reduce video click-through rates, views, and ad revenue, echoing similar concerns from web publishers over Google’s AI Overviews.
- Transparency and Content Use: Some high-profile creators and talent agencies are demanding clearer policies on how YouTube uses creator content for AI training—calling for consent, opt-outs, or compensation models.
- Broader AI Strategy: The carousel and chat assistant are part of YouTube’s larger push to integrate AI-driven tools for faster, more engaging content discovery—similar to Google Search’s AI Overviews but video-focused.
- Industry Tensions: The rollout highlights an emerging conflict between improving user experience and safeguarding creator income and content rights in an AI-first discovery environment.
What Is the AI Search Carousel?
The new carousel surfaces AI-generated video recommendations and summaries directly within YouTube’s search results. Designed to speed up content discovery, it offers brief topic overviews alongside selected video clips.
For example, searches like “best beaches in Hawaii” or “things to do in New York” now display a scrollable strip of video thumbnails, each accompanied by a short AI-generated description.
YouTube describes this as its answer to Google’s AI Overviews, but tailored for video-first discovery. The feature is currently focused on highly visual and exploratory topics, including travel, shopping, and activity-based queries.
How It Works for Users
- Topic Summaries: Short AI-written descriptions highlight key points of each video or topic.
- Video Previews: The carousel displays clickable clips relevant to the search.
- Feedback Option: Some test users can rate the usefulness of AI results with thumbs-up or thumbs-down, helping YouTube fine-tune the system.
YouTube is also expanding testing of its conversational AI assistant, previously limited to Premium users. This AI tool provides real-time video summaries, answers to viewer questions, and content recommendations—now being trialed with a small number of free-tier users.
Growing Concerns About Visibility and Revenue
While these updates offer clear benefits for users, they have sparked concerns within the creator community.
Some creators fear that by providing answers directly within search results, the new AI carousel could reduce click-through rates and watch time—metrics that drive both revenue and channel growth.
This echoes broader industry concerns raised after Google’s AI Overviews began diverting traffic away from traditional websites.
Recent reporting by The Wall Street Journal highlighted how AI-driven summaries have already impacted web publishers’ organic traffic. Now, some fear similar effects could ripple into the YouTube creator ecosystem.
Calls for Clearer AI Policies
Beyond traffic concerns, some creators are raising questions about how YouTube is using their content to train its AI models.
High-profile creators like Steven Bartlett (host of Diary of a CEO, with over 10 million subscribers) have voiced worries about lack of consent and compensation when their videos are used as AI training data.
In response, some talent agencies are reportedly adding AI-protection clauses to creator contracts, aiming to safeguard intellectual property and ensure fair use of creator-generated content.
YouTube’s AI Push Continues
The AI search carousel and conversational AI assistant are part of YouTube’s broader AI integration strategy, as the platform looks to stay competitive with services like TikTok and emerging AI-driven video discovery tools.
YouTube’s AI initiatives aim to,
- Improve content discovery speed for users
- Offer real-time video summaries and recommendations
- Introduce interactive AI tools within the viewing experience
These developments come at a time when trust between platforms and creators is under scrutiny, especially regarding how AI is trained and deployed across user-generated ecosystems.
While the AI-powered features have the potential to enhance video discovery and engagement for users, they also highlight ongoing tensions between platform innovation and creator rights.
