‘YouTube is the epicenter of culture’: Neal Mohan on YouTube’s big bets for 2026

The executive said Shorts now averages 200 billion daily views, and the company plans to integrate additional formats, including image posts, directly into the Shorts feed to increase engagement. Music discovery and storytelling around artists and releases will also remain a focus in 2026, Mohan said.

On the other hand, the platform reiterated its push to position itself as a television replacement. Citing Nielsen data, the company said YouTube has been the number one platform in US streaming watch time for nearly three years. Mohan said the company will soon introduce fully customisable multiview features and more than 10 specialised YouTube TV subscription plans covering sports, entertainment and news. “Creators are the new prime time,” he wrote .

The company also outlined new safeguards for younger users, as parents will soon be able to control how much time children and teens spend scrolling Shorts, including the ability to set the limit to zero, which YouTube described as an industry first. “This is all in service of empowering parents to protect their kids in the digital world, not from the digital world,” Mohan said .

On monetisation, YouTube said it has paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies over the past four years. In 2024 alone, the YouTube ecosystem contributed $55 billion to US GDP and supported over 490,000 full-time jobs. The company plans to expand shopping, fan funding and brand-deal tools, including in-app purchasing from creator recommendations and new features for influencer marketing campaigns.

AI will play a key role in 2026, both as a creative tool and a moderation challenge. Mohan said more than one million channels used YouTube’s AI creation tools daily in December, and new features will allow creators to generate Shorts, games and music using AI. “AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement,” he said. At the same time, YouTube said it will augment labelling, removal and likeness-protection systems to address deepfakes and low-quality AI slop.

Looking ahead, Mohan said YouTube’s long-term bet remains on undiscovered talent. “The most important creator on YouTube in five or ten years is someone you’ve never heard of and that person is starting their channel today,” he wrote .