YouTube is putting India at the centre of its latest creator-commerce push, with Amazon product tagging set to expand to the country in the coming weeks as the platform rolls out a broad slate of new tools for creators and viewers.
The announcements, made at Made on YouTube 2026, span the creator journey from ideation and editing to brand partnerships, commerce, audience discovery and content protection. YouTube is also expanding its Shopping affiliate programme to 35 countries by the end of the year, while giving creators more AI-powered tools to produce and optimise content.
1. Amazon Shopping is coming to India
YouTube is expanding Amazon product tagging, already available to eligible creators in the US, to India and Brazil in the coming weeks.
The integration will allow creators to tag Amazon products in their content, extending YouTube’s affiliate-commerce model into more markets. The company is also introducing affiliate campaigns through which brands and retailers can offer creators incentives such as higher commission rates or bonuses for content featuring specific products.
For creators with international audiences, YouTube will also localise product links based on where viewers are watching, while allowing creators to earn commissions on qualifying global sales.
Read: YouTube rolls out AI tools for creators, from video editing to thumbnail testing
2. YouTube is expanding Shopping to 35 countries
The YouTube Shopping affiliate programme will expand to 35 countries by the end of 2026.
More than 1.3 million creators are already part of the programme, with YouTube saying gross merchandise volume generated through it has grown 13-fold over the past two years.
The company also said Shopping tags generate more than twice as many clicks as links placed in video descriptions, underlining the growing role of creators in product discovery and commerce.
3. AI moves deeper into YouTube Studio
YouTube Studio is being positioned as an end-to-end creative partner rather than simply a publishing and analytics dashboard.
New Insights and Research destinations will help creators identify patterns in past performance and find outlier videos that could inspire future content. A new feedback tool can assess drafts and offer suggestions around pacing, structure and storytelling.
Creators can also generate thumbnails designed to match their channel’s visual style, while dynamic thumbnails can test three options across different audience segments. YouTube is extending A/B testing to video cuts, allowing creators to test up to three versions to determine which hook performs best.
4. Gemini becomes a video editing partner
YouTube is integrating Gemini into a conversational editing assistant across Shorts and the YouTube Create app.
Creators can start with a prompt to generate a first draft and then continue the conversation to reorder frames, trim footage, adjust pacing and sync music to the beat.
The AI assistant does not replace manual editing. Creators can move between conversational suggestions and the traditional editing timeline as they refine their videos. YouTube said hundreds of thousands of channels were already using its Gemini-powered tools each day in August.
More here: YouTube brings AI-powered discovery and shopping tools to viewers
5. Ask YouTube becomes a shopping assistant
YouTube is expanding Ask YouTube into an interactive product research tool.
When viewers search for a product, they may receive organised recommendations, including comparison tables based on product attributes and preferences. Once they open a video, they can continue asking questions about the product directly from the watch page.
The experience is designed to work across devices, including through voice commands while watching on TV.
6. Viewers can build their own YouTube feeds
YouTube is introducing Custom Feeds, allowing users to create dedicated feeds around specific interests, moods or routines.
A viewer could create a feed for long documentaries, DIY creators or a particular viewing habit and save multiple feeds to the homepage. The feeds will automatically update with new recommendations.
The feature is initially coming to users in the US across web, mobile and TVs.
7. YouTube is turning Shorts into episodic entertainment
Shorts can now be organised into dedicated seasons and episodes, making it easier for viewers to follow episodic storytelling.
The move could be particularly relevant to microdramas and other short-form series, giving creators a more structured way to package recurring content rather than treating every Short as a standalone video.
8. YouTube is making brand deals more direct
YouTube Creator Partnerships is now available in 20 countries, helping creators become more discoverable to brands.
Ask Studio will also help creators respond to brand briefs, build proactive pitches and customise Media Kits around a brand’s objectives.
Once a partnership is established, creators can share brand-partner access through a one-click code, allowing advertisers to view performance and put paid media behind creator content through Creator Partnerships Boost.
YouTube is also testing dynamic brand segments that can be inserted across up to 20 long-form videos, targeted by region and paired with direct calls to action.
9. Live video gets more global — and more competitive
YouTube is adding new tools designed to help creators collaborate and reach audiences beyond their home markets.
Watch With is being expanded to eligible long-form videos, allowing creators to react live alongside their audiences. YouTube is also developing Live Showdowns, where creators can compete while viewers contribute through chats, gifts and Super Chats.
Live auto-dubbing is also being piloted to translate a creator’s speech in real time for viewers in other languages.
10. AI is also taking on community management
YouTube is testing opt-in AI-powered comment moderation that learns an individual creator’s moderation preferences and applies them to their community.
The platform is also expanding protection against deepfakes and misuse of creator likenesses. Likeness detection will come to the YouTube mobile app, while facial and speaking-voice detection will increasingly be combined to improve the accuracy of identifying a creator’s likeness.
A bigger bet on the creator as a business
YouTube is moving beyond the traditional creator toolkit of cameras, editing software and analytics.
The platform is building an increasingly integrated system around the creator business: AI to make content, tools to help it perform, partnerships to connect creators with advertisers, commerce to monetise recommendations and new protections around their identity and work.
For India, the expansion of Amazon Shopping adds another piece to that ecosystem, bringing creator-led affiliate commerce closer to the country’s rapidly expanding digital advertising and influencer economy.
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First Published on September 24, 2026, 09:17:12 IST
