On Tuesday, YouTube introduced new tools for podcasters at its Made on YouTube live event in New York. The announcement includes innovative ways to turn video podcasts into clips and YouTube Shorts, along with a new feature that helps audio-only podcasters create videos. Both tools will be powered by AI and are scheduled to roll out in the coming months.
Using AI technology, video podcast creators in the U.S. will soon be able to create clips more easily with AI suggestions. This feature will become available in the coming months. Another tool that transforms those clips into YouTube Shorts is expected to arrive early next year. This addition could help YouTube compete more effectively with rival short-form video apps like TikTok and Instagram Reels. It may also direct users to podcasters they find interesting on YouTube’s larger platform, thereby driving subscriptions and engagement.
Meanwhile, another new feature available early next year will assist audio podcasters in turning their content into video. Using AI, these creators will be able to generate a customizable video for their podcast. However, this feature will only be available to select podcasters at launch, with a broader expansion planned for later in 2026.
YouTube has increased its focus on building tools for podcasters over the past several years, making podcasts a more prominent feature on YouTube’s home page and its YouTube Music service. At the same time, Spotify has been expanding into YouTube’s market by adding support for video podcasts and other engagement features for podcasters, such as comments, polls, Q&As, and monetization tools.
In February, the company announced that YouTube had surpassed one billion monthly podcast viewers. As of July 2025, users now consume over one hundred million hours of podcasts daily on the platform, with more than thirty percent of those hours starting as a livestream or premiere.