YouTube doubles down on video shopping with AI-powered ‘Ask YouTube’ feature

7:30 AM PDT · September 23, 2026

“Ask YouTube,” the video site’s newer AI-powered conversational search feature, will become a shopping companion, the company announced on Wednesday at its Made on YouTube event.

Ask YouTube began as an experiment in conversational search, before becoming a larger part of the YouTube experience. The feature allows anyone to search YouTube using natural language requests, including with queries that are more complex and detailed than in traditional search. YouTube will then compile a set of results that may include both Shorts and long-form videos, guiding you through topics like step-by-step travel plans, guides to learning a new skill, or a series of recommedations around a particualr topics.

Now, the company says Ask YouTube will gain more features that will help users as they make shopping decisions. For instance, if you search for a particular product, you might receive organized recommendations that...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to techcrunch.com. To see the full text click HERE