YouTube CEO Neal Mohan has outlined priorities for 2026 in his annual letter, a tradition that has been followed by the company for about 8-9 years now. According to Mohan, the platform will evolve this
year, with changes affecting creators, viewers and advertisers across entertainment formats, parental controls, monetisation tools and of course, more AI features.
1. Creators take centre stage as entertainment shifts
YouTube continues positioning creators as the new entertainment powerhouses, with Mohan noting that viewers seek front-row access to major cultural moments through creator perspectives. He points to creators purchasing studio-sized production facilities as evidence of shifting industry dynamics.
2. Images coming to YouTube Shorts
Image posts will be integrated directly into the Shorts feed this year, expanding beyond video content. Shorts currently averages 200 billion daily views, according to Mohan's letter.
3. New specialised subscription plans, customisable multi--view coming soon
For television viewing, YouTube plans to launch fully customisable multiview and over 10 specialised subscription plans spanning sports, entertainment and news content.
4. More stricter parental controls for young users
Parents will soon gain the ability to set time limits on how long children spend watching Shorts, including an option to disable the feature entirely. Mohan described setting the timer to zero as an industry first.
The platform will also simplify switching between family accounts and make it easier to establish supervised accounts for children, responding to concerns about age-appropriate content access.
5. Expanded revenue options coming for content creators
YouTube will enable in-app purchasing when creators recommend products, eliminating the need to leave the platform to complete transactions. Over 500,000 creators already participate in YouTube Shopping, the letter states.
New tools will allow creators to add brand links to Shorts and swap out sponsored segments from older videos once partnerships conclude. A creator partnerships hub will connect influencer marketing agencies and brands with content makers for campaign collaborations.
6. Expansion of AI tools alongside safety measures
More than 1 million channels used YouTube's AI creation tools daily in December, according to Mohan. Upcoming features will let users create Shorts using their own likeness, generate games through text prompts and experiment with music production.
To address concerns about synthetic content, YouTube will continue requiring creators to disclose AI-generated material and will label content produced by the platform's own AI tools. New protections based on Content ID will help creators manage unauthorised use of their likeness in AI-generated videos.
Mohan revealed that over 20 million users engaged with YouTube's Ask tool in December, seeking information about video content through AI-powered queries. The autodubbing feature attracted more than 6 million daily viewers watching at least 10 minutes of translated content during the same period.
The platform says it's developing systems to reduce low-quality AI content, while maintaining openness to emerging creative formats.
