YouTube is testing an AI-powered search feature that shows guided answers - TechCrunch

Users often search for recipes and travel plans on YouTube to find videos related to their queries. Now, the video platform will offer a new tool to cater to those users’ needs with its introduction of an AI-powered interactive search feature that presents step-by-step results along with a mix of both text and video.

Through this new “Ask YouTube” feature, users can ask questions like “plan a 3-day road trip from San Francisco to Santa Barbara” and get step-by-step results, which would be a mix of text, short videos, and longer videos instead of just video results. The company says it will show videos and relevant video segments with titles and channel details to help users discover new creators.

What’s more, users can ask follow-up questions like “Where can I get good coffee?” and get suggestions in a similar style.

Google has been pushing its AI mode-styled search on multiple surfaces beyond YouTube. The company introduced AI mode last year, letting users ask multi-part questions and follow-ups. This year, it introduced side-by-side web browsing and product price exploration features for AI mode. The company also introduced Gemini’s Canvas feature to maintain projects within AI mode last month.

With this new feature test on YouTube, Google could later explore surfacing different kinds of videos along with sponsored placements.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web.

You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing im@ivanmehta.com or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal.

StrictlyVC kicks off the year in SF. Register now for unfiltered fireside chats and VC insights with leaders from Uber, Replit, Eclipse, and more. Plus, high-value connections that actually move the needle. Tickets are limited.

On the stand, Elon Musk can’t escape his own tweets

- Tim Fernholz

OpenAI ends Microsoft legal peril over its $50B Amazon deal

- Julie Bort

DeepMind’s David Silver just raised $1.1B to build an AI that learns without human data

- Anna Heim

The Stanford freshmen who want to rule the world … will probably read this book and try even harder

- Connie Loizos

Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre-seed to build an AI social network in iMessage

- Dominic-Madori Davis

Meta’s loss is Thinking Machines’ gain

Google to invest up to $40B in Anthropic in cash and compute

- Rebecca Bellan