YouTube is currently experimenting with an AI Overviews carousel in its search results for specific queries. This feature leverages artificial intelligence to pinpoint and highlight the most pertinent clips from videos that match a user’s search criteria.
Why this matters: Google’s AI Overviews have previously impacted website visibility and traffic. With YouTube’s iteration of AI Overviews, there’s a potential risk that it might similarly reduce visibility and views for content creators and brands on the platform.
Functionality: When users input certain types of queries, YouTube’s AI scans relevant videos and selects highlight clips that it considers most informative or useful. These clips are then displayed in a carousel within the search results, providing users with a quick preview of the content they might be interested in watching.
YouTube has indicated that AI Overviews are particularly beneficial for:
- Product research (e.g., “best noise-cancelling headphones”)
- Travel and local discovery (e.g., “museums to visit in San Francisco”)
Availability: Currently, this feature is being tested on a limited basis.
- Only a select group of U.S. YouTube Premium members will have access to the feature.
- It is applicable only to a subset of English-language search queries.
Future plans: YouTube will gather user feedback through a thumbs-up or thumbs-down system. The insights gained from this testing phase will help determine whether AI Overviews will be expanded to a broader audience or adjusted further.
Official announcement: For detailed information, refer to the official YouTube support post.
(Source: Search Engine Land)
