YouTube has unveiled a slate of new features at its Made on YouTube event, with significant emphasis on artificial intelligence and livestreaming capabilities. The platform will give users greater control over their viewing experience through customizable feeds, whilst introducing expanded AI features to help both viewers and creators. These announcements signal YouTube's continued shift towards AI-powered interactions across its ecosystem.

Key features rolling out include Custom Feeds, which allow users to create personalised tabs by describing their content preferences; GIF support in comments; and group direct messaging in select regions. For viewers, the AI-powered Ask YouTube feature will expand with conversational assistance in product reviews, video recommendations, and comparison tools, whilst Ask Music gains prominent placement in the YouTube Music app with playlist creation and artist information capabilities. Creators will access Gemini-based conversational editing in the YouTube Create app, A/B testing for up to three video versions, and Ask Studio for recommendations on pacing, framing, and AI-generated thumbnails. A competitive livestreaming feature called Live Showdown will enable streams from unconnected creators to merge, with streamers competing via leaderboards based on audience engagement spending.