YouTube introduced a series of new advertising, shopping and AI-powered tools at its Brandcast 2026 event, as the platform expanded efforts to integrate creator-led content with commerce and brand marketing. The announcements included features aimed at helping advertisers connect campaigns with trending content, creator partnerships and direct purchasing options across connected televisions and digital video environments.
Among the new tools unveiled was “Buy with Google Pay,” which allows viewers to complete purchases directly through connected TVs using a two-click checkout process. The company also introduced “Custom Sponsorships,” an AI-powered feature designed to surface videos aligned with a brand’s preferred themes or cultural moments, and “Masthead with Custom Content Shelf,” which expands YouTube’s homepage advertising placement by allowing brands to curate related content alongside primary advertisements.
YouTube also announced “Affiliate Partnerships Boost,” enabling brands to amplify creator content where products are already tagged through YouTube Shopping affiliate links. Another feature, “Multimodal Video Creation,” uses Google AI models including Gemini, Nano Banana and Veo to generate video assets from written prompts and creative briefs. During the event, the company highlighted the growing role of creator-led marketing, citing internal data that said viewers are 13 times more likely to search for a brand and five times more likely to purchase when creators discuss products on the platform.ng here...