2025 was the year YouTube became the epicenter for culture, as it continued to be the place for brands to drive real business growth through video. CTV became bigger than ever, Shorts became a cultural force for discovery, AI reshaped how content is produced, and you gained more tools than ever to collaborate right inside the platform. But this is just the beginning of YouTube’s evolution.

We’ve seen brands shift from treating YouTube as just an ad channel to embracing it as a home for building organic, highly engaged communities. And, over the next twelve months, YouTube will continue expanding into a full ecosystem for brand discovery, entertainment, global scaling, and commerce. The brands that win will be the ones who rethink their content strategies - become more global, more collaborative, and more attuned to their audience’s full online journey.

In this article we’ll break down what the biggest things we predict will shape YouTube in 2026 are, and what this means for your brand.

CTV takes over: YouTube becomes the new television

Connected TV is now one of YouTube’s fastest-growing formats for consumption, with the rise of smart TVs more audiences watching from their living rooms than ever before - 20% of Gen Alpha now turn to YouTube as soon as they turn on the TV.

More households watch full series, documentaries, livestreams and premium content formats, and in 2026, we can expect to see even higher production expectations. YouTube will introduce tools that allow it to compete more closely with broadcast TV and streaming giants, with TV plan subscriptions, more immersive TV formats and shopping moments.

This trend will accelerate, and YouTube will lean even further into TV-first storytelling, cinematic production values and interactive, viewing experiences.

What this means for brands

It’s time to switch your mindset beyond ads and think about what TV would look like for your brand if you had your own channel. Think about what your audience would want to see featured and optimise storytelling, pacing, and visuals that work in a longer format in the living room, just as it would on a phone. Lean into TV-quality creative, and use YouTube’s features to give your audience a premier experience.

Creator partnerships become faster and more scalable

2026 will be the year creator–brand collaborations become faster, more systemised, and scalable as YouTube streamlines the pipeline between brands and creators. Several new features and workflows have already emerged to support brands and there's more to come.

Key things to watch:

Open Calls: Coming this year, your brand will be able to brief creators directly inside YouTube and receive content submissions quickly
In-app checkout will allow your audience to shop for your products without having to leave the app
Global Media Library (GML): Will allow you to centralise assets for creators to remix, use or adapt
Collaborations: Announced at the end of 2025 lets you partner with up to five channels on a single video

What this means for brands

Creator partnerships will no longer be one-off collaborations that take time for you to manually manage outside of the platform. They will support your brand growth all within the YouTube platform. The brands that win in 2026 will be the ones that build systems around collaborative storytelling with the right creators for their brand to increase visibility, as well as their own content.

Channel consolidation and the rise of the global brand

For years, brands multiplied their YouTube presence. You might have had a main channel, regional channels, product channels, and more. In 2026, for brands that no longer have the resources, time, or budget to manage these local channels, we’ll see the opposite - a consolidation into single, global hero channels powered by advanced localisation tools. Features we saw introduced in 2025 like automatic dubbing, and smart translations mean global audiences can all meet in one place.

What this means for brands:

Local channels still serve a great purpose of meeting your audience where they are, but a single, well-managed hero channel will outperform fragmented ones, especially when combined with built-in localisation tools. This is the year to simplify and scale if you need to. Take a look at your budget, resources, and time and start creating content that travels across markets.

Quality over quantity will be the new content standard

AI has made it easier than ever to produce videos quickly. But as low-effort content floods the platform, we predicted that in 2025 people will quickly get fed up with automated content - and they have, particularly from brands.

In 2026 AI will still play a role, but as a production assistant, not a content substitute. YouTube’s algorithm and audience will look for standout content that offers originality, perspective and stronger production value. Both creators and brands will discover that fewer, higher-quality uploads outperform high-volume publishing.

What this means for brands

Publishing frequently won’t drive business growth unless your content is genuine and what your audience wants. A refined, well-produced video will build more trust, more watch time and more conversions than five average ones. Shift your strategy from volume to value, and use AI to speed up production, not to replace creativity.

AI supercharges discovery & brings hyper-personalisation

YouTube’s recommendation system was already strong, but in 2026 it becomes even more personalised and intent-driven. Discovery will increasingly favour videos that can target specific viewers without the need to create additional assets. Instead of chasing broad popularity, YouTube will focus on matching each viewer with precisely the content they need in that moment.

What this means for brands:

The rise of YouTube's evolving A/B testing and personalisation tools to design the content your customers are looking for presents an opportunity for understanding your audience even deeper - use them to get even more focussed. The more your videos align with genuine viewer intent, the more often YouTube will put them in front of the right people. This is how brands build long-term, compounding visibility.

Shorts will link more effectively to other formats

Shorts won the attention game in 2025 but in 2026, they will evolve to connect multiple formats on YouTube. Instead of Shorts, long-form and community content acting independently, YouTube is already building stronger pathways between formats, and this will accelerate throughout the year.

Shorts will continue to dominate discovery, helping you reach new audiences quickly and cost-effectively. But long-form is where relationships and loyalty are built - the type of content people binge, share and return to.

This year, we’ll see Shorts and Posts act as trailers for long-form content and an opportunity to spark conversation, with YouTube more intentionally linking formats inside the algorithm.

What this means for brands:

Think of Shorts and Posts as the spark for discovery, not the whole story. Use them to tease longer videos, highlight moments from campaigns and direct people to keep the conversation going. When Shorts, long-form and Posts work together, your brand will build both reach and loyalty.

Conclusion

2026 will be a huge year for YouTube. Audiences will watch more content on TV screens than ever. Discovery will be more personalised. Brand partnerships will get faster, smarter and more scalable. And content strategies will shift from quantity to quality.

For brands, the opportunity is enormous. To win this year you need to build authentic communities on the platform, tell meaningful stories, and use YouTube’s evolving toolkit with intention.

Ready to elevate your YouTube strategy in 2026?

We’re hosting a YouTube in 2026 Webinar on 20 January 2026 where we’ll dive deeper into what these prediction mean for marketers, and how your brand can stay ahead of the curve.

Save your spot at the webinar

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