Key points
- YouTube's Culture & Trends report draws on an NRG survey of nearly 700 U.S. people, ages 14 to 44, who posted video in the past year.
- 61% of those respondents said they were interested in using AI to put themselves into video content.
- 72% of surveyed uploaders said they use AI on videos or images, and self-insertion was the most common use among those who posted AI videos.
- MarTech separately ran a piece on creator content shaping AI product recommendations; only its headline was available.
Why it matters for marketers: Creators are adopting AI to star in their own videos, so brands working with them should expect more synthetic self-portraits and set clear disclosure and approval terms.
YouTube released a report in its Culture & Trends series on how people who post video are using AI. The research was done by NRG for the platform, and it polled just under 700 respondents between 14 and 44 who had uploaded a video in the previous 12 months.
The headline figures: 72% of those uploaders said they use AI on their videos or images, and 61% said they were interested in using it to insert themselves into content. Among people who had already posted AI-assisted videos, appearing in them was the most common use, according to YouTube. The report points to examples such as digital costume changes, doubling oneself on screen, and turning sketches into realistic mock-ups.
For marketers and content teams, the takeaway is that creator output is likely to include more synthetic versions of the creators themselves. That affects influencer briefs, usage rights and disclosure language. Agencies may want to ask partners whether AI was used in a deliverable and how likeness is handled, especially when a brand's products or messaging appear in those scenes.
Social Media Today noted the downside: placing generated likenesses in clips can feed misleading depictions, and quality control remains a challenge as AI volume grows. Separately, MarTech published a piece on how creator content shapes AI product recommendations, though only its headline was available to us. Watch whether platforms add labeling and likeness rules as this behavior scales.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.